HYDE PARK — One of the unnerving things about singing the “Star-Spangled Banner" at Soldier Field is you can’t really hear yourself doing it, according to Hyde Parker Wilbur Pauley.
Pauley, a bass with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, will sing the national anthem for the third time at Soldier Field on Sunday for the Bears game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Pauley's voice will bounce around the stadium, mixing with the voices of 50,000 people and another 11,500 still finding their seats, a larger audience than most opera singers will ever see in their life, according to Pauley.
“In a way it’s the ultimate buzz, but you’re so inside yourself that you need a certain disconnect,” Pauley said. “You just get into this Zen moment.”
He said he drops nearly all the frills of diva singers when he’s out on the turf. The whole idea is to get the crowd singing along, he said.
“I dig in — it’s not showboating, I try to give it gravitas,” Pauley said. “It’s this emotional thing that if it’s done right, should be moving.”
Sunday’s Bears game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will mark the third time Pauley has sung at Soldier Field, and he said he thinks it’s close to his 30th time singing the anthem at a sports game since getting his break with New York Mets in 1985.
In Chicago, he said Bulls fans are the best audience.
“When you play a Bulls game, they don’t scream, they sit there and listen,” Pauley said.
He said there are nice perks for singing at a Bears game, though. His three kids get to come to the game for free — but they have to wait around at the stadium for three hours after the 9 a.m. sound check before the game starts. Sometimes they get a quick hello from the coaches and players.
“They treat you right; you’re sort of a celebrity,” Pauley said.
And football has been Pauley’s game since growing up in Pennsylvania watching “Mean Joe” Greene win two defensive player of the year awards with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s.
“I never missed a high school football game,” Pauley said. “In Western Pennsylvania, they were serious about it — it was fun, but brutal in a certain way.”
He said he’s sung the anthem everywhere from his Beaver High School football games to Bears games to the Santa Fe rodeo, and he has his nerves pretty well under control before striding onto the field.
“A friend of mine used to throw up before shows. Some people just get so nervous,” Pauley said.
He said he’s ready for Sunday.
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