Wide-ranging Mayor Walsh moves with the music

“It wouldn’t make sense in any other city but Boston to have a Guster Day,” said singer-guitarist Adam Gardner, who started the band with fellow Tufts University students in the early ’90s. “I think it’s always great to get recognized, but by someone who represents the city we feel so closely bonded to is fantastic.”

Just as Bill Clinton was hailed as a rock ’n’ roll president, Walsh is emerging as the city’s music aficionado mayor. He turns up at concerts, admits to an appreciation of Journey and an even deeper love for U2, and mentions that the Sugarhill Gang, the early hip-hop group known for “Rapper’s Delight,” was one of the first concerts he ever attended.

In a lively 15-minute phone interview with the Globe, Walsh showed himself to be an astute fan of pop music. He name-checked Prince’s “Purple Rain” and country superstars Jason Aldean and Miranda Lambert (recent favorites he streams on Pandora). He talked about Boston’s own New Edition, whose Michael Bivins is part of My Brother’s Keeper, the task force Walsh put together to assist men of color. Oh, and he also rattled off the street names of where every member of New Kids on the Block grew up around here.

“I knew Joey McIntrye’s dad, and I got to know Jordan Knight and his family a little bit,” Walsh said casually.

As a state representative from Dorchester, Walsh teamed up with Joyce Linehan, a former arts publicist who is now his chief of policy, in early 2013 for a cause that made international headlines. Walsh co-sponsored a bill with Senator Robert L. Hedlund to make “Roadrunner” by the Modern Lovers (and written by Natick native Jonathan Richman) the Commonwealth’s official rock song. After a two-year fight that saw other politicians nominate Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” the “Roadrunner” bill stalled recently, but Walsh said there’s still hope for it.

“There’s a lot of top priorities and bills to get through at the end of a legislative session. I think it will eventually go through,” Walsh said, adding that Hedlund is expected to refile it.

Walsh’s broad interests in music – and in the arts, in general – reflect his inaugural pledge to be the mayor for everybody in every neighborhood. It goes hand in hand with his appointment of Chicago transplant Julie Burros as Boston’s first chief of arts and culture in more than 20 years. Already Burros has noticed this administration’s commitment to the issues she oversees, especially Walsh’s “meaningful” appearances at local music events.

“It shows that the mayor participates in the cultural life of this city,’’ Burros said. “I know he has a vision for Boston to be a municipal arts leader, to really support and elevate the arts community here.”

At times, that support has been unusually hands-on. In May, the mayor manned a turntable to drop “the ceremonial first beat” at Together Festival, the weeklong arts, music, and technology event. Headphones around his neck, Walsh even scratched like an old-school DJ. The song? “I Feel Love,” by Dorchester-bred disco queen Donna Summer, of course.

In August, at the end of the Godsmack Day ceremony at Newbury Comics’ Faneuil Hall location, he gamely slipped off his suit jacket and put on a black one emblazoned with the band’s name. “Ladies and gentlemen,” frontman Sully Erna announced with a huge smile, “Mayor Walsh is a Godsmack fan!” Walsh repeated the gesture Thursday, putting on a Guster hoodie when he proclaimed it Guster Day in Boston.

Even earlier, as mayor-elect at the end of 2013, Walsh joined conductor Keith Lockhart and the Holiday Pops, narrating “Twas the Night Before Christmas” at Symphony Hall — where he delivered his first State of the City address on Tuesday. A few weeks later this reporter bumped into Walsh at a Prince concert at the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut. It was just before he took office, and he mostly went unnoticed in the lobby until a supporter from New Bedford interrupted with an excited, “Hey, Mahty!”

The opportunity to take in casino shows proved fleeting. “Right after Prince, there was a concert I couldn’t go to at Mohegan Sun because we were in the middle of the casino issue,” he said. “Somehow, me going to a concert would tie me to supporting gambling.”

Thomas Menino, Walsh’s late predecessor, wasn’t especially known for his musical taste. He did greatly expand a free concert series that already existed on City Hall Plaza, presenting a diverse range of genres along with national acts. Frank Sinatra’s version of “My Way” became Menino’s signature song, often played at events he attended; a local musician performed it at his funeral in November.

Walsh hails from a different generation. His parents emigrated from Ireland in the 1950s. Accordingly, he grew up hearing plenty of traditional music from the homeland, but he also loved Aerosmith. In his remarks for Godsmack Day, Walsh recalled defunct but storied local rock clubs such as the Channel and the Rathskeller.

“I spent time at the Rat,” Walsh told the Globe, clarifying that he “couldn’t carry a tune if I had to” and doesn’t play an instrument. “I would be the Dorchester kid in there in jeans while everyone else was in black.”

While asserting that rumors of U2 playing Fenway Park this year were exactly that, Walsh indicated that he will almost certainly attend one of the band’s shows at TD Garden in July. (He’s holding out for the song “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” but wouldn’t mind “Beautiful Day,” either.) Has being the mayor of Boston at least gotten him a phone call closer to singer Bono?

“Not yet,” Walsh said. “I’m hoping when he comes here that I get to say hello.”

James Reed, a Globe music critic, can be reached at james.reed@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeJamesReed.