Leading the Red, White and Blue crew

Lockhart on making sure the Fourth of July really Pops

INTERVIEW. 2008 marks the 35th anniversary of the annual Boston Pops Fourth of July concert. This year’s guests include pop country troupe Rascal Flatts, MC Craig Ferguson, hosting for the first time as a U.S. citizen, and the Air National Guard and Air Force flyover, which kicks off the celebration around 8:30 p.m. The event is broadcast locally on WBZ-TV and nationally by CBS. We caught up with unflappable Pops conductor Keith Lockhart, just days before the Big One.

The run-up to this concert must be quite overwhelming.
It’s a little intense. But it’s funny, people focus so much on the Fourth and forget we do concerts almost every night of the week for eight weeks before. In April, people see me and say, ‘Ya getting ready for the Fourth?’ Yup, May fourth … This is a tough one because it’s live television. And it’s a very big audience we want to leave feeling very happy. It’s probably the largest audience that sees a concert on any one night of the year.

Bostonians are so passionate about it.
It’s not just Bostonians either. People travel from all over. There are people who have been down there in the front rows for 15 years or so. They call themselves the Red, White, and Blue Crew. Boston may think of itself as the Hub too often, but in terms of people’s understanding of the Fourth of July, I think we really are.

How are guest performers chosen?
Our producing partners, CBS, suggest a list and we say thumbs-up, thumbs-down. We’ve been thinking about Rascal Flatts for several years. This year it fell into place. It’s definitely going to be a high-octane Pops moment.

Any particular Fourth concert that really stands out in your memory?
My very first one in 1995, with The Pointer Sisters and Mel Torme. That was the first time I had any idea of what a huge phenomenon this is. Walking onto that stage and being greeted by a roar that seemed to go on forever, that was one of the first times I was hit full force with how loved this institution is. And maybe how I should be scared of taking it over. I’m a slow learner though.

Boston Pops Orchestra
With Rascal Flatts
Friday, 8 p.m.
The Hatch Shell
Storrow Drive, Boston
MBTA: Red Line to Charles/MGH or Green Line to Arlington
Free, www.hatchshell.com
www.july4th.org