- - Yankees-Star-Turned-Musician Bernie Williams Recalls Secret ‘Jam Sessions’ in Clubhouse, Meeting Bruce Springsteen (Exclusive)

Meredith WilshereDecember 15, 2025 at 6:30 AM

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Jim McIsaac/Getty; Adam Unger

Bernie Williams -

Former New York Yankees star Bernie Williams has always loved music

The baseball player retired in 2006 after a 16-year career in the MLB and has pursued music as a second act ever since

Williams, 57, is set to perform at Carnegie Hall in January 2026

Bernie Williams played with the New York Yankees for all 16 years of his Major League Baseball career. At the same time he was cementing himself as an All-Star centerfielder, he was also honing another set of skills in the arts.

The former athlete, 57, talks with PEOPLE about his lifelong love for music and how it’s taken him from Yankee Stadium to Carnegie Hall.

“I started playing guitar around the same time I started playing baseball. I was around 8 years old," he says, noting that his mom was "an educator in the public education system in Puerto Rico," while his father was a retired merchant mariner.

"They all established some roots in Puerto Rico, where I grew up, and started taking guitar lessons, informally, when I was 7 or 8 years old. And took that for a year. That sparked my love for music,” he adds.

Williams attended a performing arts high school in San Juan, learning how to play classical music while also putting in work on the baseball diamond. By the time he was 16 years old, he was already getting noticed by scouts, and shortly after high school, he signed with the Yankees.

Adam Unger

Bernie Williams

But Williams didn’t have to choose between his major league career and his love for music.

“I always kept my guitar with me, and I used to take it to the clubhouse and to the bus rides, and to the plane rides. It was something that I always cherished and always had a great time performing in front of my teammates," he says. "I could use it for everything — when I was sad, when I was happy, when I was pumped up, when I was angry. Music served me for everything."

The five-time All-Star played with the Yankees from 1991 to 2006, picking up multiple accolades, including four Golden Glove awards, a Silver Slugger Award, the American League batting title in 1998, and the 1996 AL Championship Series Most Valuable Player Award, all in addition to winning four World Series.

While he was racking up professional accomplishments, Williams was having just as much fun off the baseball field. In 1993, Paul O'Neill joined the Yankees, and according to Williams “happened to be a good drummer.”

“We ended up having these great jam sessions, before and after batting practice and rain delays," he shares. "We smuggled people in from the outside to have these great jam sessions that nobody ever knew about."

In addition to playing with his teammates, a chance encounter got him face-to-face with "The Boss," one of New Jersey's most famous residents and a longtime Yankees fan.

“I have my guitar in the locker room, and Bruce Springsteen showed up, and I said, 'Well, I'm not gonna make him sign a ball or bat,'" he recalls. "I took my guitar, and he signed it for me. He put ‘Bernie, if you ever get tired of baseball ... Bruce Springsteen.’ "

[J. Melic -- Getty Images Sport] Bernie Williams

"Twenty years later, I am playing with him on the same stage at one of the Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation dinners. I'm playing an acoustic version of Glory Days with him and his wife," he says. "It was like a quantum leap moment. Like, ‘What am I doing here?' It was amazing."

During the opening of the new Yankee Stadium in 2009, Williams was able to combine his passions as he played a rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

“I had this opportunity and a song that is so recognizable, but I had this melancholic version of it, which I came up with after I retired, and I was feeling a little melancholic about missing the game and not being able to play it anymore," Williams shares. "The chord that I put in the tune reflected my emotions at the time of gratitude, a tribute, but still sadness, and a little melancholic."

Despite Williams' love for music, during the last five or six years of his career, he didn’t have a walk-up song.

“I walked up to the plate with no music. Music was such a great presence in my life that it was so distracting ... maybe I'm facing Pedro Martinez and a tough situation, and I need to be completely focused on the plan of action that I need to execute to make sure that I'm successful against him," he explains. "I don't want my mind being flooded with some blues song from Stevie Ray Vaughan. It was just so distracting that I chose not to have it."

After he retired, Williams received his Bachelor of Music from the Manhattan School of Music in 2016. Since then, he's continued to hone his musical skills and perform around the country.

Williams, who was nominated for a Latin Grammy in 2009 for his jazz album, Moving Forward, will be performing at Carnegie Hall on Jan. 13, 2026, alongside famed tenor Jonathan Tetelman. The night will also feature Katia Reguero Lindor on the violin. Some special guests include former basketball player Stephon Marbury, journalist Darren Rovell, and former New York Met Jose Reyes.

Adam Unger

Jonathan Tetelman, Bernie Williams

According to Williams, at the performance, fans can expect to hear “a mix of very eclectic performances.”

“I am so grateful to be able to collaborate with Jonathan Tetelman. He's a world-renowned tenor, and he's global. I'm gonna do my little thing with jazz, blues and rock. We're gonna have instrumental tunes, my compositions and covers of tunes that we made arrangements for," he adds. "It's gonna be this great mix of operatic classical music, clashing with pop, Latin, jazz and Broadway American Songbook."

To Williams, preparing for a big performance is like preparing for a World Series Game, both of which are the result of consistent practice.

“You need to practice and really spend time with the instrument and respect the music that you're playing and not cheat yourself out of the time that you need to spend. So when the light is on you, you're like, ‘Okay, I've done this a million times, I'm ready,'" he says.

"It's the same thing I drew from my baseball preparation. You go into this routine of practicing every facet of your skill. So when you are presented with the opportunity to produce, with the game on the line in the last inning, facing a tough opponent, you can rely on your preparation, and that gets you through.”

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”