Among the numerous surprising details in Neil A. Lewis’s report about John Edwards, who is reportedly considering admitting to fathering the baby of his mistress, Rielle Hunter, we found one particularly striking element. Citing a book proposal for a tell-all written by a former aide, Andrew Young, Mr. Lewis reports: “He wrote that Mr. Edwards once calmed an anxious Ms. Hunter by promising her that after his wife died, he would marry her in a rooftop ceremony in New York with an appearance by the Dave Matthews Band.”
So, is this one of those read-my-lips campaign promises that no one really expects to be kept? Or was there a real possibility that the newlyweds would stare down from the top of a Manhattan high rise at the people on the street to the tune of “Ants Marching?”
While the Charlottesville, Va., jam-pop collective’s namesake and lead singer has never backed Mr. Edwards directly (Mr. Matthews did a fund-raiser for Howard Dean during the 2004 Democratic primary and Barack Obama on Feb. 4, 2008), the whole band did play a benefit concert for Senator John Kerry during the 2004 general election, when Mr. Edwards was the vice-presidential candidate. Mr. Edwards got to know the band that year. Our colleague Julie Bosman, who covered Mr. Edwards’s most recent presidential bid for The Times, tells us that Boyd Tinsley, the band’s violinist, played at two fund-raising events for Mr. Edwards in North Carolina in 2007.
Indeed, Mr. Tinsley holds a key place in the narrative arc of the John Edwards-Rielle Hunter love story. As a candidate, Mr. Edwards paid Ms. Hunter $114,000 to follow him around with a camera and produce a four-part series of intimate “webisdodes.” Each installment features the song “True Reflections,” written and performed by Boyd Tinsley.
But if for some reason the Dave Matthews Band booking falls through (the band’s manager, agent and publicist have yet to return our e-mail messages), there’s always Kevin Bacon’s band.
Amy Bender Webb
via nytimes.com
