(Lead Vocalist/Guitarist – “Neil Forever” – Neil Diamond Tribute Act)
It’s a celebration of the music of Neil Diamond. That’s what Neil Diamond Tribute Artist David Jacobson and his band bring to the concert stage.
Hot off an appearance at the New York State Fair in Syracuse, New York, we spoke with David Jacobson about his tribute “Neil Forever”.
Q – David, Did you enjoy your time this year (2026) at the New York State Fair?
A – Yes. We had a nice time there, thank-you. I was actually sick unfortunately. I was onstage sick. We had a 6 hour ride home and when I woke up I was in bed for two and a half days. It was really rough going.
Q – That brings up an interesting point on how you’re traveling. You were in Syracuse for that Fair gig and 3-4 days later you’re in Arizona. That’s gotta be tough.
A – We don’t usually travel crazy like that. We have a few weeks now before we go to Florida. I love being busy. It’s the first time it ever happened to me. Before the show I was feeling sick and I couldn’t hit the notes. I was a little bit panicked because I didn’t think I’d be able to go through with the show but I did. I fought through it but unfortunately I paid the price the next few days which is fine. It’s all good.
Q – You’re not driving across country are you?
A – No. We’re flying.
Q – That’s what I thought. How much work is there for a Neil Diamond Tribute show like yours these days?
A – The biggest challenge is everybody and their mother is a tribute artist today. So, there’s a ton of Neil Diamond acts out there. There’s a couple of guys that have been around for a long time and they’re very busy. So, we came late in the game. We’ve only been doing this I think we’re in our 4th year. But, we spent a lot of time putting together an extremely exciting show where it’s very authentic. It’s a lot of energy. It’s very memorable and when people don’t know who we are they don’t come. But, when people do, we sell out some places that people know who we are. Other places it’s more difficult. When they leave the reaction is just off the charts. So, we do well.
We turn down a lot of stuff because some of the venues don’t want to pay what it takes to move 14 pieces around the country. It’s not a small task. We want to do the right theatres but we have enough business to keep us busy but in the price category we’re at being a high level production we’re not busy every weekend because we’re a little pickier than just saying yes to everything price wise and venue wise.
Q – When you have 14 guys in the group you can’t just play the bar down the street. You almost have to gravitate towards state fairs, theatres, and casinos.
A – Yeah. It’s a production where we really put a lot into it with the outfits, and the actual song production. We need a certain size stage. We need certain lighting.
We took a risk because a lot of bands that do what we do in a short amount of time would play small venues. I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want to do this in a small way. I thought we had the talent as far as my band. They’re great. I have great musicians. They’re so dedicated and talented. I actually said we’re gonna go bigger than we actually should. It was a little risky because going to a theatre that has 1,500 seats and you only sell 200 ticket makes you look bad but we actually did really well and went into some theatres that had 1,500 seats and sold it out and we went into places that had 1,800 seats and sold 1,400.
So far we’ve been going to bigger venues than we deserve to but I always felt that when we left there no matter who was in the room they would be blown away and definitely want to see us again.
Also, I spent a lot of time with production. When we started 4 years ago, before AI, I had every show taped. We put up very high quality videos. My agent said ‘Your content on Facebook and your Instagram page is almost like a national act.’ That was by design because we wanted people to see on Social Media what we were really all about and that served us well because we were able to book bigger theatres, more prestigious theatres because the presentation was obvious through Social Media.
Q – Did someone put money behind this group? When you say you wanted to go Big, you have to have everything that entails like equipment and custom made costumes for example.
A – It does cost money. We’ve always found reasonably priced photographers when we traveled. We found somebody locally here (New York City) who’s very good to us. And then we did our own in-house production. I didn’t have to farm it out so we save lots of money doing our videos and our pictures. So, there was no money invested. It was just our time.
As far as the outfits are concerned I had to really be creative and find some people that sold very special things because I didn’t want to go off the shelf.
It was off the shelf but it was more custom off the shelf than going to Amazon and buying a shirt which I could do for my keyboard player. Just a nice, beautiful sparkly black shirt was good enough.
For me, being up front it needed to be a little more special so there was money invested there but it was reasonable. So, we saved a lot of money doing it ourselves and we bought stuff that was reasonably priced.
Equipment wise, everybody came with their own instruments.
We have a recording studio, a rehearsal studio in Oyster Bay, New York. We did step up and buy a nice board. We did invest in backline stuff so when we travel locally we bring our own high level backline.
We are getting offers to play all over the country but it just doesn’t offer us enough money to make it work. It is very frustrating so we need people to step up. We’re doing the Wind Creek in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. So, they’re paying us the right amount to get there. We’ll be at The Paramount for our 4th year. We’ve sold out. It’s not easy to navigate this but I’m staying strong to our mantra which is we want to be the best. We want to give the best product but we also want to go to the right venues.
Q – Before putting “Neil Forever” together you had been in bands for 30 years. What type of bands were you in?
A – I started when I was in high school. My first band was called ‘Black Diamond’. Then over the years I messed around, nothing serious but I did write music.
I don’t know if you know the song ‘The Hero Bells Ring’ which is now on Spotify. It’s all about the 9-11 tragedy and it actually went big this year (2026). I wrote it 25 years ago. I was going to do it in Syracuse but I got sick. I couldn’t hit the notes so I didn’t do it. We cancelled that song. I did do it in Arizona. It was a huge success. It was very heartfelt. Did it right before ‘Coming To America’ so it was a real special moment.
So, I did some fundraising. I did my song with a 52 piece orchestra. I did stuff over the years.
I had other businesses that I was running and music was always like a secondary love but four years ago with the Neil Diamond Tribute I decided to put something together with a band and take it seriously and now here we are.
Q – And that’s because someone said to you, “David you should put together a Neil Diamond Tribute.” You thought about it and said “Maybe he’s right”. Is that how it happened?
A – Yeah, it really did. There was a pastor at a church who said to me, ‘You sound like Neil Diamond.’ This was 25 years ago. I’m a tenor and he’s (Neil Diamond) a tenor. I do sound like him. He’s from New York so we don’t have a Southern accent. We kind of sing similar.
I’ll tell you something that’s important to me: When a singer sings out of his range or sings other people’s music you can usually do two or three songs. But I can sing Neil Diamond all night long because it’s right in my range. I could do 20 songs and I’d be O.K. So, that also worked.
If I sang another artist I’d maybe do 3 or 4 songs and that would be the end of it.
The Neil Diamond tone is in my wheel house. I love the music. It just felt right and I do sound like him. That’s why it happened. All the pieces came together to make this work.
Q – I see you have as your Music Director Dylan Jacobson. Is that your son?
A – That’s my son. Yes.
Q – Does that mean he chooses the songs the band will perform?
A – Well, we do it together. In total transparency I can sing and play guitar and I can put stuff together. I can coordinate with those things. He is more gifted in music. He is the one that has the musical talent on guitar and piano. He has a great ear. He has perfect pitch. He’s very talented.
So, he’s involved with hearing the little minor changes that make the song more interesting.
Coming up with the beginning of a concert we’ll do that together so it becomes more of like a big production starting with the song. It’s like we really make the beginning very special.
He’s involved with a lot of the decisions. He’s a young man so I know Neil Diamond a lot more than he does. He is more involved with the putting the song arrangements together and arranging the songs in the sequence of which it would serve the show well which we have down to a real good science but we’re going to be changing it soon because the year is coming to an end.
He’s the talented one musically that’s for sure.
Q – Is Neil Diamond aware that there are guys out there doing tribute shows to him? And specifically does he know about you?
A – There’s no way he can’t know about us ‘cause we did the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. We did a 5oth Anniversary Show called ‘Love At The Greek’ where he performed 50 years ago at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. So, we did it in the same theatre and it was a big deal. It was all over the place and Neil was definitely aware of it I understand.
But, he’s not well as we know and it’s very sad for him and for us to have missed the opportunity to meet with him and talk with him. He knows of us.
Of course he knows about Jay White. Jay White is the guy who’s been doing it for 35 years. He actually knows Neil personally. Neil seems to be a nice, genuine man who appreciates people loving his music and playing his music so I think he has met a lot of the tribute artists over the years. But, we didn’t have that opportunity.
It’s very disappointing for me personally because I have such a love for performing. I learned a lot about him when I was preparing for this, the stories behind the songs where he grew up and everything that was necessary to make that authentic not just in the sound but also in the feeling of the stories that were told during the show. But, we didn’t meet him. I didn’t get a chance to meet him, but, he’s aware of us.
Q – I can see why Tribute acts are gaining in popularity especially when the artist is no longer able to perform anymore.
A – If you’re unable to perform your music and people are out there doing you it’s a great thing. If you’re older and you can still perform and people are out there maybe it’s a little different. But, it’s gotta be an honor to Neil Diamond looking at these people that are playing his music.
They’re not a threat to him obviously. They’re just perpetuating the love of his music, introducing it to a new generation. We have young people screaming at our shows that know the songs, singing along with the songs. We have shows that are mostly Senior Citizens.
We just did a show in Arizona and I’m telling you there were a lot of 30 year olds, some late 20 year olds and 40 year olds that were singing and screaming and dancing.
Then we have the 70 and 80 year olds that were loving it. It was bringing back those memories. Big smiles on their faces and the joy. One thing about Neil Diamond music, the joy that these shows bring to people is so satisfying for us that I can’t even describe it in words.
©Gary James
Official Website: www.neilforever.com
