David Nail (Good at Tonight) OC: …sing on it. :50
“‘Good at Tonight’ was a song that I heard the demo and I was actually kind of mad because I just assumed that they were…sending me the song because we’d been on the road with Brothers Osborne and they were just saying, ‘Hey! Here’s another Brothers Osborne song.’ When I realized that they were pitching me the song, I immediately texted John [Osborne] and was like, ‘Hey — are you sure you’re not gonna record this song, ‘cause I don’t want to…fall in love with it and then record it and then you decide six months from now that you love it and you want to record it, and then I have to take it off the record, ‘cause you win.’ And they were like, ‘Naw man. If you love it, man, do it.’ And so I said, ‘I’m gonna do it, but there’s one stipulation — you have to sing on it.’”

AJ (fave 4^th of July memory) OC: …very cool. :58
Well, this one is hard to beat. A couple of years ago, maybe longer than that now, I had an old boat in Florida. It’s like an old antique motor yacht, and it was kind of a cool old boat. I had taken that boat, I’ve always wanted to take it up north like to New York and up in that area, up in the northeast where it’s so pretty. So, we took the boat up there and Denise and the girls, we all went up. They like going to New York City, which I don’t really care about going to the city. So, I got to stay in my boat there at the harbor tied up, which was cool anyway. So they spent time in the city a few days and then that was Fourth of July, and we went out in the Hudson River that night and they shot the fireworks off and we were anchored out in front of the Statue of Liberty and New York City was behind us, and the Statue of Liberty and the fireworks were going off sitting on that boat. That was the coolest thing and my girls still talk about that. I mean, that was the coolest thing on Fourth of July I can ever remember. I can’t top that one probably. It was emotional sitting there watching the Statue of Liberty and thinking about all that. It was very cool.”

Billy Currington (4^th of July) OC: …of my life. :16
“My best memories would be hanging out with my mom, brother and sister on the beach on Tybee Island right off the coast of Savannah, Georgia. We’d go there every year, and we’d light our own fireworks and watch the ones that they had for us. They were the best times, some of the best times of my life.”

Canaan Smith (Fireworks July Fourth) OC: …kinds of stuff. :39
“Williamsburg, Virginia has a great fireworks display. It’s one of the best in the nation, they say or something like that. We’d go to the Governor’s Palace. They have a big lawn, and we’d sit out there and lay a blanket down. This was before I was old enough to drink, but we probably tried to sneak some in anyhow. And we’d just watch the [show], you know they’d have the grand finale, which always blew my mind ‘cause just when you thought it was over, they’d start bringing out all of the tricks and it just gets crazy. We did that on a regular basis. Other times, we’d do stuff in our own yard. We had a big yard when we were growing up with a dirt track in the back, and our neighbor’s yard was equally as big, so when you put ‘em together, we had a massive area to be destructive and do whatever we wanted. So, we blew up all kinds of stuff.”

Darius Rucker (4^th of July) 1 OC: …in the world. :24
“The Fourth of July to me is a day to celebrate freedom. We get to travel all over the world and see a lot of stuff, and I’ve been to a lot of countries that aren’t like ours and that’s when you really appreciate the fact that you can do whatever you want. As long as you’re willing to deal with the consequences, you can do whatever you want, you know?  [I] appreciate those soldiers who died for us to be sitting here doing this, and we live in the greatest country in the world.”

Darius Rucker (fireworks) OC: …off once. :15
“Oh, I love fireworks. We had the bottle rocket fights and all that good stuff. I was the typical little crazy kid, you know. In South Carolina, it was always legal, so we shot fireworks when it was legal. We did all that sort of stuff. I almost blew my hand off once.”

David Nail (4^th of July) OC: …up front. :45
“In Kennett, Missouri where I grew up [on] the Fourth of July, it was a race to get your car parked, so we could watch the fireworks at the airport; they did ‘em off the golf course. I wasn’t fortunate enough to be a country club kid to watch it from that side of town, so everybody else had to, you’d be riding through town at 8 o’clock, 9 o’clock in the morning and you could see lawn chairs along the side of the road by people getting their spot so they could see ‘em, even though the town’s so small you could sit in your front yard and watch ‘em. That wasn’t good enough. Everybody wanted to see ‘em up close. I can remember doing that as a kid and then as we got older, it became a little easier to get your spot, but as a kid, you wanted to get there as quickly as possible and be up front just so you could say you were up front.”

Dierks Bentley (4^th of July-patriotic) OC: …all the time. :17
“I’m extremely patriotic. I love this country, and I love the history of this country. I read books on this country. I spend my time on the road traveling physically throughout the country. The soldiers and their families are constantly on my mind. We work closely with the Wounded Warriors Project. We think about this stuff all the time.”

Easton Corbin (Fourth of July) OC: …clown around. :28
“Fourth of July, I remember growing up and having cookouts, and course we did the whole fireworks thing. I remember my uncle, he’d always get fireworks and bring down like from Alabama, because in Florida, you couldn’t get the bottle rockets and stuff, so he’d always go up to Alabama, ‘cause they live in Tallahassee, which was close to the [state] line. So, he would go over the line and get the good fireworks and bring ‘em down to my grandma’s for me and my cousin, and we’d just hang out all day and shoot off fireworks and clown around.”

Eric Church (4th of July) OC: …freedoms. 1:17
“The Fourth of July for me, growing up we would always go to the lake, we didn’t live on the lake but we would all go to the lake. Had a buddy who had a pontoon and we would always get on the pontoon and you go out and you’d tie all the pontoons together and just have a big time. This was before, I was younger then, the adults were having more fun than we were, you know it was just to go swim in the water and shoot off fireworks. Basically, water tailgating is what it was. And then as we got older, same thing…we would just, us younger kids had our own boat and we had as much fun as the adults.”

Josh Turner (fireworks) OC: …of money. [laughs] :20
“Yeah, we had fireworks around, especially my Daddy’s family. All the individual families had a lot of competition with each other and tried to outdo each other to try to see who had the biggest and baddest fireworks and all that. [laughs] My daddy, I think, was the smartest one. He just went out and bought maybe $25 worth of fireworks and let everybody else put on the big show, so he saved a lot of money.” [laughs]

Keith Urban (patriotism) OC: …the unity. :24
“It’s common, shared beliefs and identity. And I think at its core, it’s an incredibly strengthening, vital thing for our people to have, and it’s particularly gratifying in the midst of so much separating of ideas that it can get fractious. And it’s kind of nice that a sense of patriotism can remind everybody of the unity.”

Kip Moore (Fourth of July-soldiers) OC: …every day. :32
“I’m a very, very patriotic person, proud of the country that I live in, and I’m very proud of what those guys do for us each and every day, and I don’t take it for granted one bit. My grandparents were in the military, fought wars, and I’ve seen the battle that they go through, just the horror of remember things. When I start to think that I’m half-way tough, I realize how I’m not one bit when I talk to soldiers when I’m out and realize the things that they go through. I can’t imagine facing what those guys face every day.”

Lady A (4th of July-Hillary) OC: …on my hand. :29
“For many, many years in a row, we would be up at the lake for Fourth of July, and having those memories of being on the boat and going tubing and skiing and enjoying being out in the summertime, great weather on the water. But, then for me, Fourth of July was when [husband] Chris [Tyrell] proposed. So, I got proposed to on July 2nd up at the lake, the same lake I grew up going to, and so that’s probably the biggest highlight of Fourth of July to me – getting a rock on my hand.”

Luke Bryan (4th of July memories) OC: …we used to. :21
“Some of my favorite Fourth of July memories were spent on Lake Blackshear down in Georgia with my family. I was always kind of in charge of driving home from Tennessee and picking up all the fireworks and my nieces and nephews always got excited when I rolled in because they knew I had all the fireworks. But, it was always a great memory, and I miss not getting to do that as much as we used to.”

Luke Bryan (American) OC: …we want. :17
“I think the definition of an American is somebody who stands up during the ‘Pledge of Allegiance’ and stands up when ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ is being sung and just appreciates what all the fallen heroes and soldiers have done to keep us living in a country that’s free where we have the right to do anything we want.”

Sam Hunt (Fourth of July) OC: …good time. :39
“My granddad on the other side of my family, he would always take a lot of pride…fireworks were actually, I’m from Georgia, and most of them were illegal, I’m pretty sure, growing up. But over in Alabama, that’s where all the firework stands were, and we only had to drive 10, 15 minutes to get to the Alabama line, so we could go get a bundle of fireworks pretty easy. But he would always take a lot of pride in going and finding all the good stuff, and coming back with a  big pile. He’d have his torch out there at the end of the driveway and we’d all eat homemade ice cream and put down towels on the driveway and he’d shoot off fireworks for 30-45 minutes. Such a good time.”

“Hey! This is Alan Jackson, wishing you a happy and safe Fourth of July.”

“Hey guys! I’m Billy Currington, wishing you a Happy Fourth of July.”

“Hey y’all! I’m John, and I’m TJ, and we are Brothers Osborne, wish you a very Happy Fourth of July.”

“Hey! What’s up guys? I’m Canaan Smith, wishing you a safe and happy Fourth of July!”

“Hey! This is Clare Dunn, wishing you a very Happy Fourth of July.”

“Hey y’all, what’s up? This is Darius Rucker, wishing you a very, very happy Fourth of July!”

“Happy Birthday, America!”

“This is David Nail, wishing you a happy Fourth of July!”

Hey everybody! This is Dierks Bentley, wishing you a Happy and safe Fourth of July.

“Hey! This is Easton Corbin. Have a safe and happy Fourth of July.”

“Hey this is Eric Church, wishing you a very happy Fourth of July.”

“Hey! This is Eric Paslay, wishing you a very happy Fourth of July.”

“Hey! This is Gary Allan. Happy Fourth of July.”

“Hi, it’s Jon Pardi, wishing you a happy Fourth of July.”

“Hey everybody, Keith Urban here, wanting to wish you all a fantastic and safe summer. Enjoy the sunshine. Hopefully, you’ll get to spend some time with the ones you love, and hopefully, we’ll also get to see you out on the road.”

“Hi! This is Charles, Hillary and Dave of Lady Antebellum, wishing you a happy and safe Fourth of July weekend.”

“Hey! It’s Lauren Alaina. Have a safe and happy Fourth of July.”

“Hey! We’re Little Big Town. Happy Fourth of July!”

“Hey! This is Luke Bryan, wishing you a very happy Fourth of July.”

“Hey! This is Mickey Guyton, wishing you a Happy Fourth of July.”

“Hey everybody! This is Sam Hunt, wishing you a safe and happy Fourth of July.”

“Hi! It’s Toby Keith, wishing you a safe Fourth of July.”

David Nail (how Fighter came about) OC: …batteries. :50
“I’d planned on taking two months off. Catherine had finished up her Masters [Degree] that year and was getting ready to start teaching, and we were getting ready to start IVF, and so we had a lot of things going on personally that I really wanted to kind of reconnect with her with. Life is, as often the case, when people in Nashville and the business find out you’re home for an extended period of time, they’re not gonna let you not work for very long. So, lo and behold, the first week in January, I wrote both ‘Home’ and ‘Fighter.’ That was really the first time in years that I had not only written two songs in a week, but two really, really special songs. It’s amazing how quickly two great songs will recharge the batteries.”

David Nail (how Fighter came about) 2 OC: …at all. :49
“I immediately was intrigued by going in and recorded ‘em. So, I remember talking to Frank [Liddell] about just going in and recording a couple of demos – I hadn’t recorded demos in years. He said, ‘Well, if we’re going to do this, what do you think about using the same players that we used for I’m a Fire?’ Some folks at the label caught wind of it, and I remember the phone call that asked me ‘Why exactly are you going in to record these two songs and only two songs, and would you consider making a record if you had the songs?’ And I, as clear as day, remember just lying through my teeth and saying, ‘Oh, well, if I need to record a record right now, I mean I can record a record. I have the songs,’ and I didn’t have any. So, no, I never intended on making a record at all.”

Josh Turner (Father’s Day) OC: …one of ‘em.  1:05
“As far as talent and potential, my oldest three, especially, they could do anything they wanted to do if they put their mind to it and their heart was there. My oldest [Hampton] is incredible at playing mandolin. Colby, we kind of noticed him turn the corner lately with the fiddle, and Marion is actually playing a ukulele that’s tuned like the top four strings on a guitar, so in essence, he’s learning how to play guitar. They’ve just kind of started incorporating some singing into some playing, so they’re starting the whole singing and playing at the same time kind of thing, and not only that, they’re even learning to play songs together on their individual instruments. So, it’s amazing to see how much they can learn in such a short amount of time. It makes me realize how much I missed out on when I was that age, ‘cause I did take some music lessons growing up and everything, but I think they feed off of each other honestly. I think that’s why they’re getting so good is because they’re all doing it, not just one of ‘em.”

David Nail (1st Father’s Day) OC: …loved you. :58
“It’s going to be special from a standpoint of like my parents are going to be here, Catherine’s parents live here, so it’ll be three generations together, and so that was important for me. You know, I almost enjoy watching my parents hold my children more than I enjoy holding my children, because obviously they know everything we’ve been through and how difficult it was for them to be here. It’s only their second and third grandchildren, and so it’s still really new to them. It’s a first time in a long time that they’ve been through the whole newborn thing again and that process. It’s just really important for me to have family around, and somebody told me, my best friend in the world – Chris Sledge – told me, he said, ‘Man, when you see your kids, you will immediately know on a whole ‘nother level how much your parents loved you.”

Charles Kelley (1st Father’s Day) OC: …a lot of fun. :22
“I’ll actually be on Father’s Day on the road, unfortunately, but I’m flying out the next day to meet my wife and my little boy, Ward. They’re gonna be down at the beach. My wife said she’s gonna cook me a nice meal for me and enjoy the day, but it’s gonna be a lot of fun.”

Charles Kelley (being a father) OC: …wife Cassie. :38
“Gosh! I mean, being a father, it really puts a lot of things into perspective about making sure you do shut off that side of your brain, that work side of your brain and focus on what matters most. I think n the past, I think I’ve always had it in the back of the mind – work, and once you have a kid, you see something that you love more than yourself. I don’t know. It just really is making me realize how fast time moves and to really and try to enjoy these little moments with my little son and my wife, Cassie.”

Charles Kelley (qualities as a father) OC: …tolerance. :25
“I hope I’m a great father. My dad, I’ve always looked up to. He’s such a hardworker and an amazing man. He’s always showed me and the rest of my siblings a ton of love. And, so I hpe to instill a strong work ethic into Ward, but also a lot of love and a lot of tolerance.”

Charles Kelley (favorite thing about Ward right now) OC: …four months old. :29
“I think the most fun thing right now about Ward is, he’s four-months-old, is just to see how much he changes. Every time I come back from a weekend of shows, he’s doing something else. I think every parent feels like their kid is advanced, but I really do think this kid is advanced. There’s just something, he’s so intelligent and so physically like, I don’t know, with it right now. It’s just really fun to see him do all these things that I didn’t expect him to do at four-months-old.”

Vince Gill (Haggard nut) OC: …occasions. :12
“I‘ve been a  Haggard Nut my whole life. And I’ve played country music, recorded country music my whole life, and I’ve tried to emulate what I loved about Merle Haggard on a lot of occasions.”

George Strait (Merle Haggard) OC: …it’s just huge. :41
“You know, Merle was huge in my career. When he did ‘Okie from Muskogee’ back in the 70’s, I think it was, you know I kinda got hooked then on Merle and country music.  When I was in the Army and stationed at Schofield barracks in Hawaii, you know Merle came there, and he played Conroy Bowl.  And I remember I was playing an NCO club that night, and before my little gig, I got to run over there and I kinda snuck in and saw Merle and it just blew me away. That’s what I wanted to be like, you know, I wanted to be like the Hag. And so, I can’t tell you how big of an influence he was on me, just huge.”