Imagine recording a song only to discover that Rihanna wants to sample it. Well, if you’re actor Greg Kinnear, that’s exactly what happened!
While chatting with Kelly Clarkson on her talk show on Friday, March 4, the Little Miss Sunshine star recounted the incredible way that his cover of Billy Stewarts’ “Summertime” ended up getting sampled by Rihanna for her 2011 song “Cockiness.”
“I did a movie with Matt Damon about these conjoined twins back when everyone in Hollywood was making movies about conjoined twins,” Greg shared, referencing the 2003 film Stuck On You. “It was this comedy. The Farrelly brothers did it.”
The actor explained that, after his and Matt’s characters are separated in the film, his character gets to accomplish his musical theater dreams by performing a rendition of “Summertime” with Meryl Streep that Greg actually recorded himself.
Then, “years later,” the actor shared that he randomly received a strange phone call from his lawyer, who said, “Rihanna wants to use part of your song in her album.”
Sharing her amazement, Kelly interjected to reply, “Rihanna sampled you? That is amazing! I’ve never been sampled!”
“I’m sampled!” Greg agreed, before adding that the feat wasn’t as glamorous as he thought it would be. “I thought we were going to like, be on the road together. I thought we had a whole thing!”
He continued, “I never talked to her again. She just used it in this song in one of the albums, so it was cool.”
Now, he adds that to his list of accomplishments, along with starring in movies and shows including Shining Vale, House of Cards, You’ve Got Mail, As Good as It Gets, Sabrina, Anchorman 2 and more.
When Kelly asked how Greg’s three daughters—Lily, 18, Audrey, 15, and Kate, 12—reacted upon learning that their dad was featured in a Rihanna song, he revealed that he didn’t let them listen to it for a while due to the track’s suggestive lyrics.
“It was mature audiences only, so they didn’t hear it for years,” he said. “They’re just discovering it now.”
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