A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Rick Hubbard has been chasing a musical dream for 20 years. That's how long he's been trying to put together the world's largest kazoo ensemble, as certified by the Guinness Book of World Records. Hubbard will try again today during the Cherry Blossom Festival in Macon, Georgia. And as Grant Blankenship of Georgia Public Broadcasting reports, he is actively recruiting.
RICK HUBBARD: Ready? Here we go.
(SOUNDBITE OF KAZOOS PLAYING "ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR BOAT")
GRANT BLANKENSHIP, BYLINE: Rick Hubbard is in a room full of kids - third-graders - with kazoos. He has no fear.
HUBBARD: I am the king of kazoo.
All right. Everybody stop.
BLANKENSHIP: He got on this path in 1987. Hubbard was a musician in a beach resort town - guitar, mostly. Someone told him to make his act appeal to kids. The kazoo did the trick.
HUBBARD: I'm the only professional kazoo player to ever play at the Kennedy Center.
BLANKENSHIP: So king of kazoo. And the record for the most people playing kazoo for five minutes straight is 5,190 set in London in 2011.
HUBBARD: And ever since the record in London came, we were like, no, we have to get this record back.
It's called Beethoven's "5th Symphony."
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: What?
(SOUNDBITE OF KAZOOS PLAYING "SYMPHONY NO. 5")
BLANKENSHIP: All Hubbard needs is 5,200 - just 10 more kazooists - to set the record in Macon.
HUBBARD: All right. We're not going to do the whole thing. It's 45 minutes.
BLANKENSHIP: And so he's trying to get these kids - maybe their whole families - to come out and help.
This is your white whale.
HUBBARD: This is. It's my Moby Dick.
BLANKENSHIP: ...And, Rick Hubbard hopes...
HUBBARD: For our grand finale...
BLANKENSHIP: ...His legacy.
HUBBARD: ...We're going to play a marching song. So I want everybody to stand up.
Someday in the future, when they write my obituary, they'll be able to say, Rick Hubbard, leader of the world's largest kazoo band, passed away today. At least there'll be something.
(SOUNDBITE OF KAZOOS PLAYING "WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN")
BLANKENSHIP: As for his chances of breaking the London record...
HUBBARD: It'll be my claim to fame if we can do it. If not...
Let me hear you guys play it. All together now.
...At least we tried.
BLANKENSHIP: Rick Hubbard hopes lots of people will try with him on Friday afternoon. And you don't even need to bring your own kazoo. Hubbard brought about 10,000.
(SOUNDBITE OF KAZOOS PLAYING "WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN")
BLANKENSHIP: For NPR News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Macon, Georgia.
HUBBARD: All right. Kick it up a notch. Play it loud now.
(SOUNDBITE OF KAZOOS PLAYING "WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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