ESPN’s New Monday Night Football Anthem: An “In The Air Tonight” Cover By Chris Stapleton, Snoop Dogg, & Cindy Blackman
From 1989 to 2011, the intro music to Monday Night Football was a reworked version of Hank Williams Jr.’s “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight” — the “Are you ready for some football?” song. That ended after Hank Jr. compared Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler. A new version of “All My Rowdy Friends” by Florida Georgia Line was reinstated in 2017, but ESPN discontinued the song again in the early days of COVID-19 because the prospect of all your rowdy friends coming over didn’t jibe with social distancing. They replaced it with a new version of the late Little Richard’s “Rip It Up.”
Now a new anthem is coming to MNF. ESPN recruited Super Bowl “Star Spangled Banner” singer Chris Stapleton to cover Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight” with a verse from Snoop Dogg plus Cindy Blackman delivering the iconic drum fill. It’s the second time this week “In The Air Tonight” has popped up in pop culture; the track was sampled on Diddy’s new song “Another One Of Me” with the Weeknd, 21 Savage, and French Montana.
Preview the Stapleton/Snoop/Blackman version below.
