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

By Brock Radke (contact)

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.

But wait, there’s more: guest artists for the Vegas show include country superstar Vince Gill, ZZ Top legend Billy Gibbons and Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills & Nash. The concert is free and open to the public, but tickets are required and available at Eventbrite.

The Jim Irsay Band was built around the traveling exhibition of the Jim Irsay Collection, a sort of touring museum made up of the many music and historical artifacts he has accumulated over years of intense collecting. The Downtown Las Vegas visit marks the fifth stop for the free exhibition, with past stops including Nashville, Austin, and Chicago.

“It’s kind of cool how it happened. It started out with me and an amp doing a couple songs with a couple friends, and then we did a show in Washington and really rehearsed and started having more special guests,” Irsay said. “Now I just try to put together the greatest show I can, and this show is going to be tremendous. We just try to give the people what they want.”

His approach to designing a rock concert mirrors his strategy as a collector. “If I brought someone to my house and said, I have all these things to show you, from John Lennon’s piano that he wrote ‘Sgt. Pepper’ on to works of art by Picasso and all this stuff, most people would tug on my shirt and say, ‘I want to see the piano first,’” Irsay explained. “I look for things people want, and want to see, like Wilson the volleyball from the movie ‘Cast Away.’ I have a golden ticket from the original Gene Wilder ‘Willy Wonka’ movie.”

One of his latest acquisitions is the saddle worn in 1973 by the legendary Triple Crown-winning racehorse Secretariat. It will make its collection debut at the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center display, which is also free to the public, alongside guitars and musical instruments used by the Beatles, Prince and Kurt Cobain; an 1823 printing of the Declaration of Independence; and Jack Kerouac’s 119-foot scroll manuscript of “On the Road.”

Also during the event, Irsay will present two $25,000 donations to local organizations HELP of Southern Nevada and The Voices Project.

Irsay said he’s excited to bring his music and the collection to Las Vegas for the first time, and he’s equally enthusiastic about the NFL’s recent entry into the city via the Raiders’ move to Allegiant Stadium.

“Al Davis was a mentor of mine, Mark Davis is a friend and colleague, and we won our game there this season [in November] so I already have a great memory at that stadium,” Irsay said. “It’s remarkable, and it’s going to be incredible having the Super Bowl there [in 2024]. They built it Super Bowl-ready, which was smart.

“And the great thing about Vegas is everyone is around each other. You have this point of energy down there [on the Strip] and you never have to drive 25 minutes to get to something. That’s such a big attribute. It’s going to be incredible.”