Vin Diesel, a man whose greatest strength and weakness is his immunity to irony, hasn’t spent quarantine resting on his laurels. He’s teamed up with Norweigian DJKygoto write some dance tracks, and he debuted his first single “Feel Like I Do” onThe Kelly Clarkson Show. Folks, it was an experience in the truest definition of the word.
Let me say right off the bat that I don’t think “Feel Like I Do” is a bad song. It’s perfectly fine! And it’s hard to be cynical in the face of Vin’s pure earnestness and enthusiasm. But it’s… not quite what I expected from a man whose voice is so deep it sounds like tectonic plates in a knife fight. You’d expect Vin Diesel to put out a devastatingly pants-dropping R&B album with a voice like his. But no, it’s a fairly straightforward techno dance song with some surprisingly gentle vocals from the Last Witch Hunter himself. But the song is actually the least interesting thing about this clip fromThe Kelly Clarkson Show. What happensaroundthe song is one of the most fascinating things I’ve ever seen.
First, Vin introduces the song with a rambling message with a noticeable cut in the middle, presumably because he had drifted so far off topic that he was now just naming things he could see out of his window. He delivers this introduction while awkwardly posed in front of a microphone, as if to give the impression that he just finished laying down the vocals for “Feel Like I Do” before sending the track over to Kelly. He’s also wearing sunglasses indoors, but he’s Vin Diesel, so that’s not anything out of the ordinary. (To be honest, the entire recorded message is one of the most Vin Diesel things Vin Diesel has ever done.) The camera then cuts to Kelly’s virtual audience as the first minute or so of Vin’s song place, and the maladroit, rhythm-less dancing that ensues ejected my soul from my body. If you’ve ever wanted to see middle-aged people shuffle in their seats to the sounds of a celebrity vanity project, this segment ofThe Kelly Clarkson Showwill complete your bucket list. I cannot believe this video isn’t a prank.
Check out the clip below. For more Vin, read myunabashed defenseof theRiddicktrilogy and why it deserves another look.
