Leon Russell Tours with Heil Mics

	Credit: Ryan Musick

Leon Russell has embarked on a tour with Elton John this fall in support of their album, The Union. A full complement of Heil Sound microphones will accompany Russell and his band; Jackie Wessel, bass, Chris Simmons, guitar, Brandon Holder, drums; and Beau Charron, guitar and steel. Guitar cabinets are miked with PR 30s; the drum kit uses an assortment from the Heil Sound HDK drum microphone kit. All of the band members sing and PR 35s are used on vocals except for the drummer who uses the new Heil Sound PR 31BW. The tour kicked off November 3 with an intimate show at the Palladium in Hollywood and ran through December.

Ben Easley is Leon Russell's front-of-house mixer and tour manager. Based in Nashville, where Russell now resides, he attended the summer NAMM show with the star, which resulted in him taking a Heil PR 35 out on tour for his vocal. Greg McVeigh, who handles artist relations for Heil, states, "At that time, the album was still a work in progress and thoughts of Leon and Elton touring together in this big way fell into the 'Wouldn't that be cool?' realm. Little did I know that by late October Ben and I would be in serious discussions about supplying Heil mics for the entire band and in November they'd be on the road playing arenas. The timing of this new album, the tour, and their use of Heil Sound mics couldn't have been better."