Watch: AG Bill Barr brings down the house with surprise bagpipe performance

Attorney General Bill Barr showed off his bagpipe prowess this week, delivering a surprise performance to kick off the U.S. Attorneys' National Conference.

What are the details?

Barr's staffers tried to surprise him Wednesday morning by secretly booking the NYPD Emerald Society pipe and drum band to play ahead of his opening remarks. But the attorney general had a surprise of his own up his sleeve, and the longtime bagpiper retrieved his own instrument from behind the stage to join in on a recital of "Scotland the Brave."

The show was met with a standing ovation from the audience, and afterward, Barr explained his aides had tried to invite the Emerald Society without his knowledge. "But as you know," he told the conference attendees, "I'm very proficient at — dare I say the word — spying. And I discovered the plot, and so this was my counter-surprise."

Bill Barr lets loose on the bagpipes at US Attorneys' Conferencewww.youtube.com

The New York Post reported that Barr went on to say the last time he played the bagpipes was at his daughter's wedding in December, the day after it was announced that he was President Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general.

Barr recalled to the audience that his daughter joked his bagpipe performance might upstage her as the bride, to which he responded that she was changing her last name, "just before the name Barr is dragged through the mud."

Wednesday wasn't the first time the attorney general has busted out his bagpipes in front of colleagues. After Barr was sworn in as attorney general under former President George H.W. Bush in 1991, he delivered an impromptu performance during a reception in the attorney general conference room.

Anything else?

According to The Daily Mail, playing the bagpipes has been a lifelong passion of the attorney general's. Barr has competed in the World Championships for bagpipe playing, and served as a board member of the U.S. Piping Foundation from January 2017 to December 2018.