At age 65, more than three decades after his retirement, John McEnroe is still living his dream as he was recently the star of a concert at the Indian Wells 2024 venue, the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Although he isn’t commentating at the BNP Paribas Open, he provided entertainment in the tournament with his musical talent.
The Indian Wells 2024 has reached its midway stage, and the competition is getting exciting by the day. Amid the competition, John McEnroe took to the stage with his guitar and started riffing off Tom Petty’s ‘Runnin’ Down a Dream’. It’s a Garage Rock, Heartbeat Rock genre song that was originally released in 1989. In a video shared on Instagram by the BNP Paribas Open’s official page, McEnroe was in full swing and was having the time of his life singing the song.
In between, just for a brief moment, the video also showed Rod Laver curiously listening to the song. An 11-time Grand Slam winner enjoying the music of a 7-time winner was priceless. And that’s why the BNP Paribas Open came up with the perfect caption.
“Legend watching Legend,” read the caption.
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The comments underneath the post were pretty iconic too. One comment in particular was very interesting.
“You can’t deny Johny Mac is a true rockstar,” read the comment by Gisele Segala, who followed it up with a punching emoji.
John McEnroe retired in 1992, the year he also reached the quarter-finals of the French Open for the first time. He is friends with famous musicians Eddie Van Halen and Eric Clapton, and always wanted to learn music like them. McEnroe divorced his celebrity wife Tatum O’Neal, daughter of Ryan O’Neil, in 1994.
Post his divorce, he formed the music group ‘The Johnny Smyth Band’, where he was the lead singer and the lead guitarist. Famous Danish musician Lars Ulrich even complemented McEnroe’s natural flair for music.
McEnroe married famous singer-songwriter Patty Smyth in 1997 and had to give up on his musical dreams since only one of them could be touring, and it was going to be his wife. The band Johnny Smith was dissolved in 1997, after touring for two years. However, McEnroe kept his musical inclinations and hopes alive. And perhaps that is the reason he is still rocking the concert at Indian Wells, and earning plaudits from fans.
John McEnroe: A man of many talents
Tennis has rarely ever produced a ‘rockstar’ like John McEnroe. The American tennis star, who dominated the scenes in the late 1970s and early 1980s, wasn’t just a fiery personality on the court, but off the court too. Who can forget his famous outburst, ‘You Cannot be Serious’ during his match against Tom Gullikson at the 1981 Wimbledon? The 7-time Grand Slam winner was also one of the best tennis players of his generation. But his proclivities didn’t just end with his tennis career.
In 1992, after McEnroe retired from professional tennis, he slowly but steadily started displaying his many talents to the world. From commentating to providing expert analysis, he has always remained closely associated with the game. He has also written autobiographies like ‘You Cannot Be Serious’ and ‘But Seriously’, acted in movies like ‘You Don’t Mess With The Zohan’, ‘Mr. Deeds’, ‘Wimbledon’, and TV series like ‘Never Have I Ever’ and ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’. He has also been a narrator for Netflix series and various other tennis-related shows.
