{"id":18793,"date":"2025-06-13T23:15:46","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T23:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new50.info\/?p=18793"},"modified":"2025-06-13T23:15:46","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T23:15:46","slug":"i-was-in-over-my-head-vince-gill-nearly-turned-down-singing-surfs-up-but-what-happened-next-stunned-even-brian-wilson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new50.info\/?p=18793","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI Was in Over My Head\u201d: Vince Gill Nearly Turned Down Singing \u201cSurf\u2019s Up\u201d \u2014 But What Happened Next Stunned Even Brian Wilson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Vince Gill\u00a0has one of the best singing voices in country music today. He has proven himself to be comfortable covering songs from a wide range of artists. However, when called on to sing the\u00a0Beach Boys\u2019 \u201cSurf\u2019s Up\u201d during a tribute concert for Brian Wilson, he believed he\u2019d met his match. After hearing the song, he didn\u2019t think he would be able to nail the complicated vocal arrangement live.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"video-header\" class=\"g1-delta g1-delta-2nd g1-collection-title\">Videos<\/h2>\n<p>Twenty years after performing during the All-Star Tribute to Brian Wilson in 2001, Gill\u00a0appeared on\u00a0<em>Tom Scott\u2019s Podcast Express<\/em>. During his conversation with host Tom Scott, the \u201cGo Rest High on That Mountain\u201d singer revealed how he came to sing \u201cSurf\u2019s Up\u201d and his initial impression of the song.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-4\"><ins id=\"982a9496-c47953716ae2e75085cef8e8cf1dbdb6-3-4600\" class=\"982a9496\" data-key=\"c47953716ae2e75085cef8e8cf1dbdb6\"><ins id=\"982a9496-c47953716ae2e75085cef8e8cf1dbdb6-3-4600-1\"><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1734579518157-0\" data-google-query-id=\"CJjnxMDD740DFZtD9ggdpJAw6g\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/21715635079\/zmedia_MB_Inread_litaupdate.com_0__container__\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/ins><\/ins><\/div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio  is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper video-seo-youtube-embed-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"video-seo-youtube-player\" data-id=\"uU-4AkDimt8\"><iframe id=\"799625780\" title=\"Vince Gill, David Crosby, Jimmy Web - Surf's Up live at Radio City Music Hall, March 29, 2001\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uU-4AkDimt8?autoplay=1&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Famericansongwriter.com\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-8=\"true\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"h-vince-gill-on-singing-surf-s-up-for-the-brian-wilson-tribute-show\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Vince Gill on Singing \u201cSurf\u2019s Up\u201d for the Brian Wilson Tribute Show<\/h3>\n<p>Penned by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, \u201cSurf\u2019s Up\u201d was the title track from the Beach Boys\u2019 1971 album. While it didn\u2019t see chart success when released as a single, it went on to be hailed as one of the group\u2019s best songs. However, Vince Gill hadn\u2019t heard the song when he was called upon to sing it in 2001.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen they called and asked me to be part of that show, I said, \u2018Great,\u2019\u201d Gill recalled. The show organizers told him they wanted him to perform two songs with David Crosby and Jimmy Webb. He was to sing \u201cWarmth of the Sun\u201d and \u201cSurf\u2019s Up.\u201d At the time, Gill was only familiar with \u201cWarmth of the Sun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201dI didn\u2019t know the song \u2018Surf\u2019s Up.\u2019 So, I said okay, not knowing this was the hardest thing I ever had to learn in my whole life,\u201d he added. Gill expected the song to be an uptempo surf rock tune. \u201cThen, I got the record and put it on. And I called my manager and said, \u2018I can\u2019t do this. There\u2019s no way in hell I can pull this off.\u2019\u201d Then, he called Phil Ramone, the show\u2019s organizer, and delivered the same message. Both Ramone and Gill\u2019s manager had faith in him and told him to \u201clive with\u201d the song for a while and continue to work on it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI worked harder learning some how, some way, to pull that off than anything I\u2019ve ever learned in my life,\u201d Gill recalled. \u201cI remember the first rehearsal, with David and Jimmy, and I killed it on the first rehearsal. David Crosby just looked at me, gave me the finger, and said, \u2018F you!\u2019 I took that as a compliment,\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n<p>Brian Wilson approached Gill as he was walking off the stage and complimented his performance. Then, he said, \u201cWe never did that song live. It was too hard.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"h-brian-wilson-s-reaction-to-gill-s-performance\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Brian Wilson\u2019s Reaction to Gill\u2019s Performance<\/h3>\n<p>Before Vince Gill told the story of his rendition of \u201cSurf\u2019s Up,\u201d Tom Scott shared a quote from Brian Wilson about Gill\u2019s performance at the tribute concert. \u201cI never heard Vince Gill sing before. After he sang, I was blown out. I was totally blown out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vince Gill\u00a0has one of the best singing voices in country music today. He has proven himself to be comfortable covering songs from a wide range of artists&#8230;. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u201cI Was in Over My Head\u201d: Vince Gill Nearly Turned Down Singing \u201cSurf\u2019s Up\u201d \u2014 But What Happened Next Stunned Even Brian Wilson -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/new50.info\/?p=18793\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cI Was in Over My Head\u201d: Vince Gill Nearly Turned Down Singing \u201cSurf\u2019s Up\u201d \u2014 But What Happened Next Stunned Even Brian Wilson -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Vince Gill\u00a0has one of the best singing voices in country music today. 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