Sam Fender, a fellow North East local hero, has received a lot of praise from former Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler, who spoke exclusively to Far Out and called him “the real thing”.
Even though Fender has only released two albums, he has already established himself as a festival mainstay and performed two sold-out shows at St. James’ Park, the home stadium of Newcastle United, in 2023. Notably, AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson, with whom Knopfler has teamed up for a new series on Sky Arts called Johnson and Knopfler’s Music Legends, joined him during the latter of the homecoming concerts.
Starting on April 25th, the six-part series will feature interviews with icons such as Carlos Santana, Tom Jones, and Cyndi Lauper. Fender, who hasn’t quite reached legendary status, is also discussed in the show; Knopfler thinks he’s headed toward becoming a historical figure.
With two number one albums under his belt, Fender is currently working on his third album. If he keeps up his current pace, the singer-songwriter will soon be a headliner at Glastonbury. In addition to making him a celebrity, his heartfelt hits have won him two well-known admirers who have been in his shoes before.
Thus, in an exclusive interview with Far Out, Knopfler and Johnson said, “If you’re talking about seeing someone early like Sam Fender, something tells you that you’re obviously dealing with the real thing.”
Knopfler went on to elaborate, saying, “Sam [Fender] is just going to be huge.” Sam is amazing. He’s great, and if he takes care of himself, Brian and I think he’s going to go far.
Knopfler, a seasoned music industry veteran who has witnessed innumerable gifted musicians fall short of their potential, cautionarily observed, “And if the gods of music take care of him, or the gods of the music business, take care of him.”
It’s not a done deal, really. It’s still a long way to go until we’re fully alive. I really do mean that. Knopfler continued with a stern sense of sincerity, “I think Brian and I would both agree that if wed been 18 years old when we cracked it, neither of us would be alive right now.” “This is a serious enterprise.”
On Shaun Keaveny’s Daily Grind podcast, Knopfler recently talked about how much he loved Elvis Presley as a child and referred to him as the “total rockstar.”
“In many ways, thinking about it, the movies were a bigger draw to American rockers weren’t they, when they were on the charts when they were kids because Elvis wanted to be James Dean and Marlon Brando,” he said to the former host of BBC 6 Music.
“I remember being surprised when I heard that Elvis wanted to be a movie star. I was kind of disappointed because, to me, he was the total rockstar,” the singer-songwriter went on.
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