“My name is Jack Kays and I’m here to steal your fucking money,” Kays teased the Innings Festival crowd on the opening day of the Tempe, Arizona music festival.
The Cincinnati, Ohio singer-songwriter brought 90’s-era rock energy to the Home Plate stage during his performance, on Friday, February 21, giving us early Silverchair vibes.
“I’ll tell you something about being an artist at a festival, it’s a little tough,” he told the crowd.
“Obviously there are some of you guys out there that might know me, you might know my music. Thank you for coming, it really means a lot. But obviously, there is also a lot of people who might not know who I am, maybe they’re here for later in the day, maybe they’re here for Fall Out Boy or something, because Fall Out Boy is fuckin’ awesome.”
Kays added: “Maybe you’re here for that and you’re like ‘who is this guy, I don’t really know if I like him yet or not.’ You’re standing there and you’re trying to figure out if you like me and I get it. So, I was trying to think, how can I capture those people? So, I’ll play a song that I think everybody knows and maybe then we can get along.”
He then launched into an energetic punk rock version of Katy Perry’s “Hot n Cold.”
Sporting a t-shirt, which read ‘Drug Free Person’, Kays took a moment to talk about his merch and sobriety.
“If you like this shirt, it’s available at the merch stand,” Kays told the audience.
“This is my merch, but it’s also my clothing brand that’s called Drug Free Apparel. So, if you’re sober and you want to wear a shirt that says that, go ahead, or, if you do drugs and you just want to be ironic, you can wear it too.”
Follow Jack Kays at https://www.jackkays.com/.