Philly’s Adam Blackstone will be leading an all-star band at the Oscars

In addition to a few local nominees, this year’s Oscars ceremony will also feature the musical stylings of a Philadelphian.

Multi-instrumentalist Adam Blackstone, best known as musical director for big names like Justin Timberlake and Nicki Minaj, will take the stage Sunday as part of an all-star band that includes blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, singer and percussionist Sheila E., and pianist Robert Glasper. Blackstone also serves as the Oscars’ music director, and is set to be featured throughout the broadcast.

A native of Trenton, NJ, Blackstone got started in music as a drummer at the city’s Old Bethel Baptist Church. Raised in Willingboro, he moved to Philadelphia in 2000 to attend the University of the Arts, where he studied music. It was there that he began hanging out at Black Lily, a Tuesday night jam session hosted by Old City’s Five Spot that also played a role in the development of musicians like Jill Scott and John Legend.

Blackstone ended up meeting the late Roots manager Richard Nichols there, and then, through Roots drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (who himself was nominated for an Oscar this year for his film Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)) , he began working in Jay-Z’s touring band. He would eventually drop out of UArts in 2003, but went on to graduate in 2013.

He’d go on to become bassist and music director for Rihanna in 2012, and worked with Eminem on his comeback show at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in 2014. He’s worked with artists ranging from the Jonas Brothers and Adam Levine to Kanye West and Janet Jackson.

But Philadelphians will probably care most about his role at Super Bowl LII in 2018, where the Eagles scored their lone Lombardi trophy. There, he lead a 15-piece band during Timberlake’s halftime show.

“God could not have written this any better for my life,” Blackstone told the Inquirer that year. “I couldn’t have scripted it any better.”