Lexington’s biggest concerts in the last 45 years, all covered by one reporter
It can be argued no one in Central Kentucky knows music like Walter Tunis.
Tunis has been the music columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader since November 1980, when his first review, a Don McLean concert at the University of Kentucky Center for the Arts, was published.
In the 45-and-a-half years that have passed, Tunis has logged just under 10,000 bylines for the Herald-Leader and its online website, Kentucky.com. His musical expertise is so well-known, musicians would often ask to speak to Tunis before they performed in Lexington at venues like Rupp Arena or the Opera House.
His weekly music column carried heavy weight around Lexington for its broad range of coverage — smaller local acts, new albums and more would carry equal coverage to the big names he would write about.
Tunis says some of his memorable concert reviews include Bruce Springsteen at Rupp Arena in 1984, Emmylou Harris at the Kentucky Theatre in 1996 and Al Green at the Norton Center for the Arts in Danville in 2008.
And talking to some of the music’s biggest acts showed how humble many can be in their big roles, as was the case in a 1991 interview with John Prine.
You can read more about that and some of Tunis’ other memories in his final music column for the Herald-Leader, which is published online and in the Friday, June 5 edition.
For 45-plus years, Tunis has been a witness to music history at the biggest shows Lexington has ever seen. In the video above, relive the concerts from what Tunis says is the good (Elton John), the weird (R.E.M.) and the bad, but in a good way (Kid Rock).
