L to R: VersoFest 2025 guests Paul Shaffer, Patti Smith, and Henry Rollins
VersoFest 2025 is kicking off with a legend of music and letters. And she’ll be followed by two men who have been making waves for decades.
Patti Smith, the acclaimed singer/songwriter and National Book Award winner, will open The Westport Library’s fourth annual music and media festival on Thursday evening, April 3.
Henry Rollins, frontman of the seminal hardcore punk band Black Flag and noted writer and spoken word artist, will be in conversation on Saturday, April 5. And legendary Saturday Night Live performer and David Letterman musical director Paul Shaffer is on tap for Sunday, April 6, appearing alongside SNL Beehive Queen Christine Ohlman.
Tickets for all three programs will go on sale later this month. More guests, including the VersoFest Friday evening concert performers, will be announced soon. Please visit westportlibrary.org/versofest for more.
VersoFest is four days of music, media, and creativity, running this year from April 3 to April 6 — a forum for media creators, artists, and fans to converge.
Past VersoFest guests include hip hop legend Chuck D, established hit-makers Spin Doctors and the Smithereens, up-and-coming bands Sunflower Bean and the Lemon Twigs, rockers Lez Zeppelin, famed producers Steve Lillywhite (U2, Dave Matthews Band) and Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T. Rex), Psychedelic Furs frontman Richard Butler, the Doors drummer John Densmore, Cramps drummer Miriam Linna, Alice Cooper Group bassist Dennis Dunaway, hip hop originators Tony Crush and Grand Wizzard Theodore, Manic Panic’s Tish and Snooky, and a wide array of authors, photographers, artists, and thought leaders.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled and honored to welcome Patti Smith to Westport to kick off VersoFest 2025,” said Bill Harmer, executive director of The Westport Library. “As a musician, painter, author, and an iconic original, she represents the very spirit of VersoFest, and it is an incredible opportunity for tri-state area fans get to see a true living legend in our intimate, accessible venue.”
Smith burst onto the national stage in 1975 behind her acclaimed album Horses and is widely known for her songs “Gloria” and “Because the Night.” She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007 and received the Polar Music Prize in 2011, just a few of her many honors.
Smith won the National Book Award in 2010 for Just Kids, which chronicled her time as a budding artist in New York City and her relationship with the artist Robert Mapplethorpe. She has also penned M Train and Year of the Monkey as well as numerous collections of poetry and essays. Her latest project is A Book of Days, The New York Times best-selling photo book with 365 images taking the reader through a single year of Smith’s life, inspired by her wildly popular Instagram account.
This marks a return trip to the Library for Smith. The music legend was the BOOKED for the evening honoree in 2011.
A magnetic performer, Rollins was the frontman for Black Flag and also the Rollins Band, achieving international renown with Black Flag in the early 1980s as one of the forerunners of the hardcore punk scene. He later established his own record label and publishing company, 2.13.61, on which he released an array of books and his acclaimed spoken word albums. In his career, Rollins has hosted a number of radio shows, appeared as an actor in TV and movies, including a recurring role in Sons of Anarchy, and has been a columnist and essayist for Stereophile, Rolling Stone Australia, and LA Weekly.
Shaffer got his start in musical theater before earning a gig as a keyboardist and featured performer on Saturday Night Live in the 1970s and 80s. He has recorded a number of albums of his own, including Coast to Coast (1989), The World’s Most Dangerous Party (1993), and Paul Shaffer and the World’s Most Dangerous Band (2017); wrote the famed 1980s dance hit “It’s Raining Men”; has performed with Diana Ross and Yoko Ono among many others; and has served as the musical director for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony since 1986. He has also appeared in the movies This Is Spinal Tap, Scrooged, and Blues Brothers 2000. Shaffer is best known for his 30-plus years as the musical director for David Letterman, both on Late Night with David Letterman and the Late Show with David Letterman.
Ohlman is a VersoFest veteran, having served as a featured guest and moderator at the past two festivals. She also will be appearing at the Library on Friday, January 24, for her annual Winter Dance Party with her band, Rebel Montez.
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Photo credits: Shaffer via Paul Shaffer and the World's Most Dangerous Band press kit; Smith from the cover of her latest book, A Book of Days; Rollins via HenryRollins.com.
