Anderson .Paak says his 2022 Super Bowl LVI moment wouldn’t have happened without some bold moves—and a homemade flyer.
The nine-time Grammy winner ended up on drums for the Dr. Dre–headlined halftime show, which also featured Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar, and 50 Cent.
Reflecting on the experience during the Aug. 9 episode of Drink Champs, .Paak revealed that he wasn’t about to miss out. “They had already dropped a flyer for the Super Bowl. I was not on that shit,” he said around the 13-minute mark.
“I hit Dre direct. ‘Dre, what the fuck? Let me get on that joint. Let me play drums, something. I gotta get in there some way.’ … He said, ‘Hey, it’s all good,’” .Paak recalled.
.Paak shared that he even made a fake flyer, Photoshopping himself into it.
“I’m going to just take a few liberties, throw myself on there,” he laughed. “And I showed it to [Dre]. He started cracking up. He was like, ‘Make sure they know it’s a joke.'”
The joke paid off—.Paak ended up as a special guest, playing drums during Eminem’s performance of “Lose Yourself.” When the Drink Champs hosts suggested he manifested the moment, he joked it was more of a “forced manifestation.”
The Why Lawd? singer explained that while rehearsing for Silk Sonic’s Las Vegas residency with Bruno Mars, he was also supposed to be at Super Bowl rehearsals, though he only made “two or three.” Despite the limited prep, he kept one thing in mind—don’t drop the drumsticks.
Calling the whole experience “incredible,” he said, “The way they orchestrated it, it went off without a hitch. That was a big moment for sure. I was like, ‘Should I smile?’ I couldn’t help it… I had the biggest fucking smile the whole time. I tried [to stay straight-faced]. I was hyped.”
That year’s halftime show drew over 100 million viewers and went on to win two Creative Emmy Awards—Outstanding Variety Special (Live) and Outstanding Production Design for a Variety Special—as well as a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Music Direction.
