Kenny G serenades Delta passengers

Ahhh… sax on a plane. It ain’t cheap — but can be so rewarding, especially when it’s with the legendary Kenny G.

The Grammy Award winner had a captive audience — when he busted-out some tunes aboard a Delta flight heading from Tampa to Los Angeles.

The head flight attendant announced the saxophonist would play his instrument in the aisles if passengers could raise $1,000 for a good cause.

The people on the plane ponied up double that — and Kenny G made good on his promise.

The performance went viral and “CNN Newsroom L.A.” asked him to explain how it all came about.

@kennyg

“So I’m sitting in my seat and next to me is Jane Mitchell. She does in-flight service for Delta, but she’s not working that day.

During the flight she shares with me a tragic story of her daughter’s passing at 30-years-old from brain cancer. And now, she’s working with this great program that Delta does to raise money.

It’s a great cause and it’s called Relay for Life.

Jane says to me, ‘Let’s raise money on this flight.’

I said, ‘Well how?’

@kennyg

And she says, ‘Why don’t you play your sax for people who donate?’

I said, ‘Well, it’s not gonna go that cheap, Jane. Sax is not that cheap.’

But what I thought was let’s come up with a number — and we came up with the number of $1,000.

If we raise that I will play and serenade the plane.

Well, we walk down the aisle and the best part of this whole experience was how fast and furious people put money into this basket to raise money for this great cause.

@kennyg

They felt the heartfelt story that Jane shared. The music was there. The feeling that we all wanted to see some really nice things happen at 30,000 feet for a change. We all came together as a wonderful group. It was amazing.

My hat’s off to Jane Mitchell for all the work you’re doing for this great cause and to Delta Airlines for giving us the atmosphere for something wonderful to happen in the sky.”

@kennyg

Written & Produced by: Ben Bamsey for “CNN Newsroom L.A.”