How Silk Sonic is bringing a ‘set list of doom’ to joyous life in Las Vegas

“What song you wanna hear?” Bruno Mars asks, his question doubling as both a flex — any song I name, he most definitely can play — and a friendly challenge. Mars, the smooth and versatile pop superstar, is hanging out in a Burbank rehearsal studio, smoking American Spirit cigarettes and sipping an iced brown-sugar, oat-milk shaken espresso — “It’s a fancy milkshake,” he says — before starting up a recent practice with the 10-man live edition of Silk Sonic, the 1970s-style soul duo he shares with Oxnard-born singer and rapper Anderson.Paak. With.Paak, who’s also 36 and turned up during this month’s halftime, playing drums for Eminem and Dr. Dre, he’s up for another four Grammys, including record of the year and song of the year, for Silk Sonic’s sumptuous “Leave the Door Open,” the lead single from the duo’s debut LP “An Evening With Silk Sonic.” Should Mars and.Paak take the record prize at April’s 64th Grammys, Mars will tie Paul Simon’s three wins in that category, following earlier awards for “24K Magic” and “Uptown Funk.” Music We’ve been thinking about Lionel Richie all wrong Don’t let the easy-listening ballads and pastel sweaters fool you: Lionel Richie, starting his fifth season on ‘American Idol,’ is a true Black music pioneer. “Coming in cold.” Eager to keep the rest of his show under wraps, he smiles again, then adds, “Now scram.” For Mars, Silk Sonic’s Las Vegas engagement represents something of a return to his childhood. The idea, Mars says after he recovers, is to put the audience “inside a world that we created and that we want you to be a part of.” To that end, they’re requiring audience members to put their phones in locked pouches for the duration of the concert — a means of getting folks to live in the moment and of allowing Silk Sonic to feel free to try things, Mars says.