\n<\/p>\n
It\u2019s usually not a good sign when video of a senior government official singing goes viral on social media, where the crowds are as tough as they come.<\/p>\n
But when Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken picked up a black Fender guitar at a State Department event on Wednesday night and joined a band for Muddy Waters\u2019s \u201cHoochie Coochie Man,\u201d the response on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, where the video has been watched more than eight million times, drew positive reviews \u2014 and more than a little shock.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had. NO. Idea,\u201d said<\/a> one X user, who used an expletive to express her amazement, in the video\u2019s most-viewed reply.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Perhaps more interesting was the understandable surprise that America\u2019s top diplomat has a rock \u2019n\u2019 roll bone in his body. Mr. Blinken, 61, is unfailingly soft-spoken and so formal that he wore his suit jacket \u2014 buttoned, no less \u2014 for the jam.<\/p>\n Music is Mr. Blinken\u2019s greatest nonpolitical passion. He once told Rolling Stone magazine<\/a> that \u201cthe thread that runs throughout my life is probably music,\u201d and said that hearing his parents play \u201cA Hard Day\u2019s Night\u201d by the Beatles as a child was a thunderbolt that has defined him ever since. \u201cI remember being absolutely hooked,\u201d Mr. Blinken said in an interview last week.<\/p>\n His great guitar love is Eric Clapton, whom Mr. Blinken reports having seen live about 75 times.<\/p>\n Mr. Clapton\u2019s bluesy style and frequent covers led Mr. Blinken to discover the electric blues greats like B.B. King, Otis Rush and Luther Allison. One of them discovered him back: While living in Paris with his family at the age of 16, Mr. Blinken worked his way to the front of the stage during a performance by Mr. King, singing along with the lyrics he had memorized completely.<\/p>\n \u201cHe sees me, I guess, and at the end he comes to the edge of the stage and bends down, and gives me his guitar pick,\u201d Mr. Blinken said, sounding as though his mind remains slightly blown.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n As a young man, well before people called him \u201cMr. Secretary\u201d and bodyguards followed him everywhere, Mr. Blinken played in bands and collected at least a half dozen guitars, including a high-end Martin acoustic \u201cthat I don\u2019t deserve,\u201d he said. Years of noodling at home with a four-track culminated in his release of three singles on Spotify<\/a>, under the moniker Ablinken. (Say that out loud slowly for dad-joke effect.)<\/p>\n The Spotify songs, which have collectively been streamed about 150,000 times \u2014 watch out, Harry Styles \u2014 show off a blues-rock sound with Everyman lyrics that bear no relation to the government official who talks about multilateral engagement and \u201cdiplomatic variable geometry.\u201d (\u201cAnd then I came home to you\/But you said, \u2018Let\u2019s just be friends, yeah\u2019\u201d he sings over staccato electric chords in \u201cLip Service<\/a>.\u201d)<\/p>\n Mr. Blinken noted that he had recorded and uploaded the songs between 2018 and 2020, during the Trump era, when he was out of government and unsure whether he would return. \u201cI had little idea that there would be another run at government, or a public career of any kind,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so when the president put me forward for this job, there they were.\u201d<\/p>\n The songs, which he has labeled<\/a> \u201cwonk rock,\u201d occasionally pop up in his official life. They have been blared from speakers at overseas events, including before he addressed embassy employees in San Jos\u00e9, the capital of Costa Rica, in June 2021. A Finnish radio station broadcast one when Mr. Blinken visited Helsinki in June to deliver a speech about the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n Mr. Blinken\u2019s former band, which has played under the name of Cash Bar Wedding, was pretty cool, at least by the standards of Washington. His bandmates included Eli Attie, a former speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore who went on to be a writer for \u201cThe West Wing,\u201d and Jay Carney, a onetime spokesman for President Biden when Mr. Biden was vice president.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Carney called the band mostly \u201can excuse to hang out and talk about music.\u201d But the group was serious enough to take semiregular trips to music meccas like New Orleans, booking studios for a day of writing and recording songs.<\/p>\n \u201cAs to the quality of the songs we created, let\u2019s just say, mistakes were made!\u201d said Mr. Carney, now head of policy and communications for Airbnb. They have jammed with indie-rock legends like Alex Chilton of Big Star, Grant Hart of H\u00fcsker D\u00fc and Aimee Mann.<\/p>\n \u201cTony is actually a fine guitarist and songwriter,\u201d Mr. Carney said. \u201cWe\u2019re worried his State Department gig is a sign that he\u2019s ditching us to launch a solo career.\u201d<\/p>\n Many foreign diplomats and leaders have clearly done their homework: No fewer than eight have given Mr. Blinken guitars or accessories like guitar straps as customary gifts (which he must purchase if he wants to keep). From Israel\u2019s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, came a blue acoustic guitar with an engraving of U.S. and Israeli flags. Another guitar was offered by Qin Gang, the Chinese foreign minister who mysteriously disappeared<\/a> this summer.<\/p>\n In an interview, Mr. Blinken recalled a special rapport with Japan\u2019s former foreign minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi, a skilled pianist, guitar player and Beatles nut. \u201cWe totally bonded over music,\u201d Mr. Blinken said, calling it \u201ca constant refrain in our diplomatic discourse.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n That discourse could get nerdy. Invoking a famous Beatles track, Mr. Blinken recalled \u201cbad pun references like, \u2018This policy\u2019s going to be a long and winding road.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n In April, Mr. Hayashi hosted a meeting of the Group of 7 foreign ministers in Hiroshima, Japan. When the ministers convened one evening after official business was concluded, Mr. Blinken produced a small travel guitar he sometimes takes on foreign trips. Mr. Hayashi brought his own. With the help of a karaoke machine, they strummed chords as the other ministers, briefly forgetting matters like Ukraine and climate change, joyously sang along.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a wonderfully bonding thing to forget about the weight of the world for a couple of hours and come together just as friends with a common passion for music,\u201d Mr. Blinken said.<\/p>\n He noted that the United States has used music as a diplomatic tool for decades. Amid competition with the Soviet Union for global influence in the 1950s, the State Department sponsored foreign tours<\/a> for jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Today\u2019s version lacks that star power: Mr. Blinken\u2019s new initiative includes a mentorship program for foreign music professionals that works in partnership with the Recording Academy, the organization that stages the Grammy Awards. English classes taught abroad by the State Department, which are hugely popular overseas, will now incorporate popular music lyrics.<\/p>\n \u201cMusic is the most powerful connecter,\u201d Mr. Blinken said. \u201cIt transcends virtually any kind of barrier you can think of.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n