Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay brings his concert and collection to Las Vegas

Monday, Feb. 27, 2023 | 2 a.m.

Before sports became his life’s work, Jim Irsay was a musician. Born in Chicago’s North Shore suburb of Lincolnwood, he was an eight-year-old concert violinist at the music academy at Northwestern University in nearby Evanston, Illinois.

“But I gave it up for sports at the age of 12, much to my mom’s chagrin,” says the 63-year-old businessman, philanthropist and principal owner of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts. “I still got involved with guitar, studied classical guitar and of course rock ‘n’ roll, but I was never in a band. The NFL was always the thing I chased and still is my main job, so to speak, but through it all, there was music.”

Now he is in a band, so to speak, and it will perform a free concert at the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center on March 4. Irsay sings and plays guitar, fronting a group of performers including drummer Kenny Aronoff (who has played with Paul McCartney, John Mellencamp and Bob Dylan), bassist Mike Mills (of R.E.M.) and blues guitarist and singer Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

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