Kicking off the holiday season, 32 Bridge Entertainment / EMI Records Nashville recording artist Jon Langston is sharing his take on “I Only Want You For Christmas,” out everywhere today. Originally recorded by one of his musical heroes, Alan Jackson, Langston’s “blazingly bright” (MusicRow) vocals shine on his rendition of the track, featuring festive lyrics and steeped in steel guitar.
“I love Christmas, I love Christmas music, and I love Alan Jackson, so why not release my version of ‘I Only Want You For Christmas,” shares Langston. “I hope y’all love it and get in the spirit. It’s the greatest time of the year.”
Langston’s spin on “I Only Want You For Christmas” follows his recent release “Give You My All.” Country Now praises “this ballad goes above and beyond the standard country love song.” Brimming with heartfelt lyrics, the song is penned by Langston alongside Brad Wagner and Jordan Gray. Listen to “Give You My All” here.
On the road through November, Langston will take the stage in Simpsonville, SC (11/4) and Bartow, FL (11/5) this weekend, before his headlining BEERS GOT DRANK TOUR continues next week in Springfield, MO (11/11). For tickets and more information on upcoming tour dates, visit jonlangston.com/tour.
Catch Langston out on the road for his headlining BEERS GOT DRANK TOUR.
Halloween is Monday, October 31st, and the spooky, eerie holiday has some of your favorite country stars getting into costume, while others are recalling their favorite Halloween candy or memories of Halloweens past.
Billy Currington (Halloween) OC: …Halloween. :17 “You know, when I was a kid, I loved the trick and the treat. I loved dressing up. I was always wanting to be Dracula. That was my favorite guy. But, of course, who doesn’t love going door-to-door and getting these buckets of candy? [laughs] So, love, love Halloween.”
Audio / Brothers Osborne’s TJ and John Osborne talk about dressing up like zombies for Halloween.
Brothers Osborne (zombie costume) OC: (John) …was so fun! :29 TJ: “Literally, you can dress up like a zombie and drag your foot behind you all day and make weird noises, and everyone finds that completely acceptable.” [laughs] JOHN: “One year I dressed up as a ‘90s redneck zombie with a mullet wig and an Alan Jackson denim coat. I never once broke character. That’s part of the thing — you can actually not break character and get away with it. And everywhere I went, even when I ordered a drink, I ordered it like a zombie that was falling apart. [laughs] It was so fun!”
Audio / Brothers Osborne’s TJ Osborne talks about one of his favorite childhood Halloween costumes.
Brothers Osborne (Halloween costume) OC: (TJ) …I love it. :37 TJ: “There was a costume I had when I was a kid that my dad made. I was a caterpillar, no, you were a caterpillar and I was a spider. And so I don’t know if you’re familiar with pipe insulation? It’s like these black tubes, and so I had these little black pipe insulators as my legs.” JOHN: “There were strings attached to him that would hold some of the black pipe insulators under his hands, and he’d put working gloves on the end of them and so when he’d raise his arms, all of the little spider legs would raise up with it. [laughs] I’m telling you, our parents were total hippies. They were just…” TJ: “Artsy-fartsy hippies. I love it.”
Audio / BROTHERS OSBORNE TALK ABOUT THEIR FAVORITE HALLOWEEN CANDY.
Brothers Osborne (Halloween candy) OC: (John) …go stale. [laughs] :34 TJ: “I would say, Snickers, Baby Ruth, Kit Kat and Reese’s too.” JOHN: “I always hated those houses that would give you bad candy, though. You’re like, ‘C’mon. Step it up.’ Spend the extra dollar on a bag, you know?” TJ: “A house when we were growing up used to give out whole candy bars. It was the best. You were like, ‘That house – that’s the honey hole of candy.’” JOHN: “I love it, and I love like at the end, like three or four days after Halloween you would see what candy was left, and it was always like those crappy cheap candies, and they would just go stale.” [laughs]
Audio / Dierks Bentley talks about the Halloweens of his childhood.
Dierks Bentley (Halloween) OC: … …around home. [laughs] :23 “Oh, when I was a kid, I was all into fireworks. Growing up in Arizona, we couldn’t get ’em, so we’d have ’em shipped in illegally. I still remember the name of the guy we’d call. His name was Joe, and he’d bring in, ship ’em in a package with no writing on ’em. We were all about M-80s in the mailboxes and bottle rocket wars. To me, as a kid, Halloween was fireworks, was blowing up stuff around home. [laughs]”
Audio / Eric Church recalls his favorite Halloween costume.
Eric Church (Halloween) OC: …Franklin Street. 1:18 “My favorite Halloween costume really came, I remember when I got a little older my first year of college, there’s this thing they do every year in Chapel Hill, North Carolina – Halloween on Franklin Street. We drove down from Boone, North Carolina. I had a bunch of friends that went to University of North Carolina, and we didn’t have costumes and didn’t realize until we were on the way that we had to have costumes. So, we stopped at a costume place in Greensboro, North Carolina. It’s Halloween, so there’s a run on everything and couldn’t find anything. And we end up getting sent around, driving around town. We end up finding this hole in the wall place, but they had the full costume, Sesame Street outfits. The real deal. The real ones [with] feathers and fur. We were Elmo, Cookie Monster and I was Big Bird, and the Big Bird was the actual Big Bird. It’s about 7-foot-4, and yiou looked out of the body and then you had these straps that went on since the head was a lot higher. There’s a lot of beer involved in Franklin Street, so we get down there and as the night went on, my straps broke, so the head would pivot. And so, I would be walking one way and the head would be facing the other, and it just became this funny…I didn’t know the head was on backwards. I had no idea. I see out of the body, so I’m just kinda walking around and people were talking to my ass-end. [laughs] The whole time people’d come up and start talking and go, ‘Hey, turn around.’ And I’d turn around, and they’d go, ‘No turn around.’ It was a mess. That year, there was no other Big Bird on Franklin Street.”
Audio / Jon Langston talks about his favorite Halloween show a few years ago when his band surprised him on stage.
“So we played a show a few years ago in Baton Rouge and I go off stage and I come back on stage for the encore. I don’t know this until midway through the song, I’m just into the crowd, like I’m engaged. I’m in the zone, and I just see everyone, like everybody else behind me but me and I’m like what’s going on. I turn around and each of them has a different huge mask on, like one of those stuffed animal masks, like my drummer has a dinosaur head on. My guitar players, one of ‘em has monkey head on, the other has a unicorn head on. And my bass player has like a, I think a dog or cat head or something like that. I couldn’t finish the song I was laughing so hard just seeing them playing with these like oversized huge mask heads on Halloween night. That was funny. It was a good prank, so that was probably the most memorable Halloween.”
Audio / Jon Pardi talks about his favorite Halloween costumes as a child.
Jon Pardi (Halloween) 1 OC: …the Superman. :15
“Man, I went through phases of costumes – the Superman costume, then it was a ninja, then I was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle one year. I remember rockin’ the Superman.”
Audio / Jon Pardi reveals his favorite Halloween candy.
Jon Pardi (Halloween candy) OC: …during Halloween. :06
“Man! The candy corn is pretty good, and that’s seasonal, so it only kinda pops out during Halloween.”
Audio / JORDAN DAVIS TALKS ABOUT HIS FAVORITE HALLOWEEN COSTUMES OVER THE YEARS.
Jordan Davis (Halloween) OC: …jet black. :49 “I can remember being really big into Power Rangers. I always liked the Red Ranger. I remember being Red Ranger one Halloween. I remember me and my br4other being big into the Ninja Turtles. I was Donatello one year, which I think was the purple turtle. I think, though, my favorite Halloween was I was in college and I went as Luigi from Mario and Luigi, and I actually grew a legit mustache and dyed it jet black and ran into an ex-girlfriend at the costume shop and completely forgot I had the mustache on. So, when Is saw her, she was like, ‘So, you’re going with a mustache nowadays, huh?’ [laughs] I remember being like, ‘I swear this is part of my Halloween costume.’ [laughs] When I dyed my mustache, my top lip was black for a week. Like I really did dye it jet black.”
Audio / JORDAN DAVIS TALKS ABOUT HIS FAVORITE HALLOWEEN CANDY.
Jordan Davis (Halloween candy) OC: …some Starbursts. :21 “My favorite Halloween candy [is] probably Reese’s or M&M’s, although I love the variety of Starburst. It’s one that I feel like I only eat at Halloween, because I feel like at Halloween one of the popular ones is the two-piece Starburst things. So, probably Reese’s, M&Ms and throw in some Starbursts.”
Audio / A few weeks ago, Jordan Davis told us they were going shopping for Eloise and Lochlan's costumes.
Jordan Davis (Halloween 2022) OC: …this Halloween. :35 “We actually just figured out Eloise’s Halloween costume, because we’re going Halloween shopping this afternoon. So, she’s probably going to pick out the same exact thing as she did last year. She’s heavy into PAW Patrol, so she’s either going to be Skye or Rubble. Locklan, he’s still fighting the walking thing, so he’s crawling everywhere. And I actually found a spider suit for him, where he has like all these legs and he truly is going to look like a spider crawling on the ground. So, those are our two (laughs), we’re gonna have a PAW Patrol and we’re gonna have a spider this Halloween.”
Audio / CANDY CORN IS A PRETTY POLARIZING CANDY THAT ONLY COMES OUT AROUND HALLOWEEN. SOME LOVE IT; SOME HATE IT AND NEITHER OPINION IS WRONG. JORDAN DAVIS SIDES WITH THE FOLKS WHO DON’T APPRECIATE THE SUGARY SWEET (DON’T BLAME HIM), SINCE HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO CANDY CORN.
Jordan Davis (no candy corn) OC: …they’re awful. :05 “You know what I never got? The candy corns. I’ve never been a candy corn guy. I think they’re awful.”
Audio / Josh Turner and his family (including wife Jennifer and their four sons) enjoy dressing up as a family for Halloween. The multi-platinum selling star says his favorite family costumes was a few years ago when they dressed up as Star Wars characters.
Josh Turner (Halloween costumes) OC: …pretty classic. :27 “My favorite family costume was from a couple of years ago when I had my six-and-a-half-month-old beard going, and me and the whole family dressed up as Star Wars characters. So, I was a young Obi Wan Kenobi, Jennifer was Princess Leia, Colby and Marion were Storm Troopers, Hampton was Darth Vadar and Hawk was, I guess, pretty much still a baby, and he dressed up as Yoda. It was pretty classic.”
Audio / JOSH TURNER REVEALS HIS FAVORITE HALLOWEEN CANDY.
Josh Turner (Halloween candy) OC: …can’t beat ‘em. :09 “My favorite Halloween candy…hmmmm…that’s a tricky one. I’m going to have to go with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Can’t beat ‘em.”
Audio / Luke Bryan says you can tell a lot about your neighbors from what kind of Halloween candy they hand out.
Luke Bryan (Halloween) OC: …your teeth. :21 “You can find out a lot about your neighbors by what kind of candy they put out. So, well, like full bars of Snickers bars, that’s what, and Reese’s cups, [but] the old chocolate popcorn ball of stuff, that’s no good either, like Dots – you get Dots one time of year and they pull your teeth.”
Audio / Luke Bryan talks about his Halloween traditions.
Luke Bryan (Halloween) 2 OC: …with all that. :33 “My tradition for Halloween is Caroline picks the outfit. I never know what I’m wearing. So that day, I’ll talk to the neighbors ‘cause I have a tractor back there and I’ll go get my tractor and get a big long trailer, and then I’ll run down to…a couple miles from the farm, we’ve got a big hay farmer that keeps hay and you run in there and pay him for his hay bales. And I’ll load the hay up and get the hayride ready and we’ll take all the kids behind the tractor and have a fun Halloween with all that.”
Audio / Luke Bryan says his wife Caroline usually pick out his Halloween costumes.
Luke Bryan (Halloween costumes) OC: …always has. :20 “Me and Caroline did one year where I dressed up as the old lady, and she dressed up as, she called herself a dirty old man. So, she went around acting like an old man saying snide comments to everybody. That was a fun one. The main thing is Caroline is a big, she loves Halloween and always has.”
Audio / Maddie & Tae sit on opposite sides of the fence when it comes to scary movies.
Maddie & Tae (Halloween) OC: …princesses. :24 TAE: “Oooooh, Halloween [is] my favorite holiday. Anyone who knows me knows I love all things scary and gory, so especially on Halloween all the scary movies that come out in theaters, I am there every single time.” MADDIE: “And I never go with her because I hate scary things.” TAE: “You know what’s funny? As little girls, everyone wants to dress up as princesses, and I think I was a witch like six years in a row. I just wanted to be scary.” MADDIE: “Girl, I was like Jasmine and you know [other] princesses.”
Audio / Mickey Guyton was raised in a very religious household, so she didn’t really celebrate Halloween and only went trick-or-treating one time.
Mickey Guyton (Halloween) OC: …the costumes. :50 “Growing up, my parents were very, very conservative Christian, and so they viewed Halloween as a pagan holiday. BUT, I got to go trick-or-treating once in my life, and I dressed as a clown because my mom made me this clown suit and that was the best. We were in Moody, Texas. It was all three of my siblings and myself and we had so much candy that it lasted for months and months. My parents eventually had to throw it away because we had so much candy. And it was one of the most amazing, magical experiences I’ve ever had, because I never got to celebrate freaking Halloween. I tell you what, this son of mine is gonna definitely going to be celebrating trick-or-treating. Like I can’t wait to dress him up in all of the costumes.”
Parker McCollum (favorite Halloween candy) OC: … “What I can eat like 6,000 of are Tootsie Rolls. If I eat one Tootsie Roll, I’m gonna eat 30. Man, they’re so good.”
Audio / Priscilla Block says she’s not a huge candy/sweet person, but instead, give her all the carbs.
Priscilla Block (Halloween) OC: …you’re cooking. :52 “You know what’s so funny about me? I’m not a huge candy girl. Is that shocking? Hit me with all the carbs! Hit me with all the pasta! Don’t love treats. It’s really crazy. I’m not a huge chocolate girl. I would say my favorite candy is a Cow Tail. I love to get them from the gas station. Yeah, it’s usually in a little long package and there’s like cream on the inside. Love it! That’s my favorite candy. Give me that and a piece of pizza. Trick or Treat do you have any pizza ‘cause it smells like pizza in this house. 9laughs) That’s me going to the door. It smells like steak. Don’t want the Twizzler. Want the steak that you’re cooking!”
Audio / Reba McEntire, who is selling out shows all over the place on her current tour, says her Halloweens as a child involved lipstick, walking, milk, cookies and her brother scaring the daylights out of her and her sisters.
Reba McEntire (Halloween as a child) OC: …right there. :35 “The way we used to celebrate it when we were kids – we were out in the country; our nearest neighbor was a couple of miles away from us, so we’d gotta get dressed up and put on lipstick or whatever we could. We didn’t have Halloween costumes, and we’d walk down in the dark to Mr. and Mrs. Winslet’s house, and she’d feed us cookies and milk and then we’d walk back up in the dark. But Alice, Susie and I weren’t attentive enough to realize that Pake wasn’t with us in the group, and Pake would get up on the road going to the house and crawl up in a tree and scare the crap out of us. So, that was my Halloween memories right there.”
Audio / Travis Denning talks about his favorite – and probably most embarrassing – Halloween costume.
Travis Denning (Halloween costume) OC: …Busch Light. :21 “Honestly, I think one of my most proud and embarrassed Halloween costumes is I went as Terry from Reno 9-1-1. I had the roller skates, the short-shorts, the tied-up shirt. Looking back, it wasn’t the manliest thing I ever did, but it got a lot of laughs. And I think that year my favorite candy I ever had was Busch Light.”
Audio / Tyler Hubbard reveals his favorite Halloween candy.
Tyler Hubbard (Halloween candy) OC: …of childhood. :20 “Ooooohhh—I’m a chocolate guy, so I do love just a good ole Reese’s or a good ole Snickers, but when it comes to classic Halloween candy, I still, I like ole candy corn. I do. I like candy corn. Well, it only comes around once or twice a year, well I guess once a year. Maybe it’s nostalgic, all that sugar, a couple of good cavaties, remind you of childhood.”
Audio / Tyler Hubbard talks about his favorite family Halloween costume, and he reveals what they're going to dress as this year.
Tyler Hubbard (Halloween 2022) OC: …Here we go. :30 “For Halloween, one of my favorite costumes – I have a family and three kids, so we can kind of be something together. I think it was last year, no the year before, we were Toy Story, so I was Woody, and that was, I don’t know, I just think of that picture of us sitting on the front porch, all of our costumes. Anyways, it’s quite a trip. And this year, we’re actually, the kids want to be Peter Pan. For some reason, they love Peter Pan, the old throwback classic, so we’re all gonna be Peter Pan. I think I’m going to be Captain Hook, and Happy Halloween. Here we go.”
Jon Langston is bringing his latest track “Beers Got Drank” to life, with the official music video out now, after making its official premiere on Facebook last week and amassing more than 5 Million+ views. Following Langston for a river-floating summer throwdown, the Rand Smith-directed clip embodies the song’s good-timing, “truck got stuck” storyline. “Beers Got Drank” is written by Langston with Rhett Akins, Dan Isbell and Jacob Rice, and the track is produced by Jody Stevens.
Langston is hitting the road for his headlining BEERS GOT DRANK TOUR, which kicked off last weekend with a wall-to-wall crowd in Pensacola, FL plus a high-energy home state show at Athens’ Georgia Theatre. Langston will take the stage across the country, performing new music and fan-favorite hits through November. For tickets and more information on upcoming tour dates, visit jonlangston.com/tour.
Jon Langston’s BEERS GOT DRANK TOUR dates:
9/8 | Medford, OR – The Rocky Tonk Saloon
9/9 | Bend, OR – The Oregon Spirit Distillers (Co-Headline w/ Eric Paslay)
9/10 | The Dalles, OR – The Gorge Hops + Hogs Fest (Co-Headline w/ Eric Paslay)
9/16 | Fayetteville, AR – JJ’s Live
9/17 | Little Rock, AR – The Hall
9/22 | Rootstown, OH – Dusty Armadillo**
9/30 | Rome, GA – Peaches
10/1 | Charlotte, NC – Moo & Brew Festival**
10/14 | Easton, PA – One Centre Square
10/15 | Chesterfield, VA – Keystone Acres**
10/21 | Franklinton, LA – Washington Parish Free Fair
10/22 | Chicago, IL – Joe’s on Weed Street
10/27 | Savannah, GA – Saddle Bags Savannah
10/28 | Dothan, AL – The Plant
10/29 | Baton Rouge, LA – Texas Club
11/5 | Bartow, FL – Bartow Ford**
11/11 | Springfield, MO – Midnight Rodeo-Springfield
11/12 | Columbia, MO – The Blue Note
11/19 | Indianapolis, IN – 8 Seconds Saloon
** = shows not part of the BEERS GOT DRANK TOUR
About Jon Langston: Jon Langston grew up in Loganville, GA, listening to music by his heroes Alan Jackson and the Eagles. Earning a Division 1 college football scholarship, Langston always thought football would be a part of his life, but after his sixth concussion left him blind for fifteen minutes, his football career ended abruptly. He picked up his guitar – untouched since eighth grade – and re-taught himself how to play. Performing at open mic nights and honing his songwriting led to the 2013 release of self-penned, “Forever Girl,” the first song he ever wrote, and now certified GOLD by the RIAA. That release kicked off his music career, culminating in sold out shows across the country and over 500 million career streams. Once a fan attending Luke Bryan’s Farm Tour in Athens, GA, Langston experienced a full circle moment by joining Bryan on the Farm Tour in 2017 and 2018, and again as support on his Sunset Repeat Tour in 2019. Langston signed a publishing deal with Sony ATV, management with KP Entertainment, and is the first artist signed under Bryan’s label 32 Bridge Entertainment with EMI Records Nashville. He made his Grand Ole Opry debut in February, where he performed his single “Back Words.” Recent releases “Beers Got Drank” and “Back Words” follow tracks including “Happy Ever After,” “Try Missing You” and “When You’re Lonely,” highlighting his adept songwriting and classic country influences. He released his anticipated EP Now You Know in 2019, featuring six original songs he co-wrote. Langston’s debut major label single, “When It Comes To Loving You” hit No. 1 on the all-genre iTunes Chart and his single “Now You Know” reached the Top 30 on the country radio airplay charts. Catch Langston out on the road for his headlining BEERS GOT DRANK TOUR.
For many decades, Labor Day was seen as a day for workers to voice their complaints and discuss better working conditions and pay.
U.S. Congress declared Labor Day a national holiday in 1894, and on Monday, September 5th, we will once again celebrate the people in every occupation whose work and dedication help the nation keep going.
Labor Day weekend also signals the unofficial end to summer, and many of the hottest country stars are taking a look back at some of the toughest jobs they had prior to making their mark in music or their dream job now.
Audio / Alan Jackson says that working man values have always been a part of his music.
AJ (working people songs) OC: … appreciate that. :28
“I’ve always written songs and recorded songs, other people’s songs, about workin’ people, and workin’, the workin’ life ’cause I mean, that’s where I’m from. I mean, I worked…I’d already had jobs and worked as a grown person before I ever even thought about bein’ in the music business, so I come from that background, and…although I hadn’t had a job in a long time (laughs), I still remember a lot about it, you know, and I remember what the lifestyle is, and I still appreciate that.”
Audio / Billy Currington recalls some of the jobs he had before landing his record deal in 2003.
Billy Currington (Labor Day) OC: …record deal. :40 “I started working like at [age] 12, landscaping. This was summer, every summers, and roofing. I started when I was about 16 roofing houses, and that was probably one of my toughest jobs because down there in South Georgia, it gets hot, so doing that every day all summer long. The pawn shop when I moved to Nashville was one of my favorites, even though it was one of my least favorites. The concrete job was my least favorite of all – six years of that, and I couldn’t take it no more. After that job, that was my turning point. Either I’m going to do something else for a living [laughs] or quit and try to really focus on music and get this record deal.”
Audio / CARRIE UNDERWOOD TALKS ABOUT THE JOBS SHE HAD GROWING UP AND HER BEST JOB -- PERFORMING FOR HER FANS.
Carrie Underwood (Labor Day) OC: …born to do. :59 “I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad job. I’ve had hard jobs. I’ve had jobs that worked random hours. My first job was at a gas station, and that was a lot of fun actually. While I was working at the gas station, I took another job at a hotel down the street. There was nobody else working there. I had one day of training and then the next day I came in, and the lady that had worked there the longest and was training me just didn’t show. So, the second day at work I was now in charge ‘cause I was now the senior member that was working at the hotel. So, I feel like that one was really challenging to figure my way through it, but I did. My best job is definitely what I do now. I really like being on stage. I really like performing for people and just having fun and singing, because that’s what I feel like I was born to do.”
Caylee Hammack (Labor Day-worst job) OC: …worst job. (laughs) :38 “My worst job was working in a nursery, actually. I love kids so I thought I’d be really good at it, but when you’re the new person coming in, you have to change all the diapers first. So, I was changing 45 diapers a day and it got to the point where everything smelled like baby poop. It literally drove me crazy. I would walk my dog and I would have to go to pick up her poop, and it would smell like baby poop, and I just couldn’t handle it, honestly. The smell of poop warded me away. The children were lovely, but the smell of poop lingered, and I couldn’t handle that job. That was my worst job.” (laughs)
Audio / Darius Rucker recalls one of his worst jobs before turning to music.
Darius Rucker (Labor Day) OC: …pizza. :15 “I was fifteen, and I worked at a pizza place, and the guy decided that at fifteen, that I could not only clean the floors and wash the dishes, but I also had to make pizza. So, for two months, he taught me how to make pizza
Audio / Dierks Bentley makes a living performing for his fans, and he can’t say enough about them.
Dierks Bentley (Labor Day) OC: …generosity. :26 “Personally, the fans give me amazement. That’s the only word to really sum it up. I look out in the crowd, you know, usually see a lot of faces and fans are cheering. I know each one of these like from the road-the signs are from California…Michelle and Kayla live up in the Ohio area. They’re all, I just see them, and I’m like, ‘Wow!,’ they’re all from different regions. You know when you’re in a different region of the country and you just see certain fans. These people are way more hard core than I am, and I’m just amazed by their generosity.”
Audio / Eric Church talks about one of his worst job.
Eric Church (Labor Day-odd jobs) OC: …bought at 2am. 1:27 “I had an awful job. I’ve had a lot of awful jobs…my worst one was when I first came to Nashville. I got a job at the Shop at Home Network. I worked midnight, graveyard, midnight to eight. That was bad enough but then I would work all night, go home, shower and then I had writing appointments all day because I was trying to get a career started. I’d go write songs and get meetings just trying to get signed. And end up getting done at 3 of 4 with all of that, I’d go home, take a shower or sleep for a little bit and then I had to be at work again at midnight. So the schedule was bad enough, however, what I had to do at the job…I sold knives from midnight to 7 or 8am. And, anytime somebody calls you at 3 or 4am and needs 200 knives for $19.95, it’s automatically an alarming situation. And I just, I was young and I’d been in a lot of these people’s shoes, I had done this…I knew they were drunk. I knew what they had done. They’d just come home from the bar, flipped on Shop at Home and said, ‘You know what? I need that.’ So the reason the job didn’t last long for me is that I was maybe the worst salesmen in history because I ended up talking a lot of these people out of it, I’d say, ‘I’ll tell you what man, go to bed, call me, I’ll be here in the morning. If you get up in the morning and want these knives you call me back.’ Because I knew what was going to happen, you know. They bought 200 knives for $19.95…first of all some of these people you didn’t know whether you should call the cops. What do you need 200 knives for? Even though I’m selling them…what do you need them for? So, it was awful doing that job. And then they got rid of me because, they were like, ‘You’re the worst. I can’t believe you’re talking people out of it.’ I was like, ‘Man I know…I’ve been there.’ [laughs] I’d want some to talk me out of buying some of the stuff I’ve bought at 2am.”
Audio / GEORGE STRAIT’S CAREER HAS SPANNED DECADES AND 60 NO. 1 HITS, BUT HE CAN RECALL HEARING ONE OF HIS SONGS ON THE RADIO AND HOW COUNTRY RADIO HAS SUPPORTED HIM.
George Strait (first time on radio) OC: …records I’ve put out. :26 “I took it to a radio station in San Antonio KKYX, and a guy named Jerry King put it on and played it while I ran out to the car to listen to it on the radio. So, it’s just been relationships like that through the years that I’ve had with different people. I don’t know, they’ve just supported me so much and have been very open to the records I’ve put out.”
Audio / Jon Langston talks about his jobs prior to making a career in music.
Jon Langston (Labor Day) OC: …is the bomb. :45 “The worst job – it wasn’t bad – I could just say growing up and stuff and in high school, I was working for my dad. It was a great job, working at the shop. One day I got tired of working for my dad. I thought it’d be smart to go work for somebody else and so I went to work at Chik-fil-a for a family friend, and I’m just not made for cooking chicken. But, I told my dad, ‘Hey, can I come back to work?’ (laughs) So, yeah, I mean, Chik-fil-a a great place to work if you’re into that kind of thing, but not me. But Chik-fil-a is my favorite fast food restaurant of all time. I mean, I will go to war for Chik-fil-a. I eat there probably three or four times a week. Chik-fil-a is the bomb.”
Audio / Jon Pardi talks about his worst job, which was at a grocery store.
Jon Pardi (Labor Day) OC: …so bored! :17 “The worst job I ever had was at Hometown Grocery Store. I didn’t want to work, I was 15, and I did not want to work at the grocery store. Bagging was fun, but they sent me down the aisles to pull up cans and turn ‘em around and face ‘em, and I would just get so bored!”
Audio / Jordan Davis talks about one of his worst jobs.
Jordan Davis (Labor Day) OC: …worst job. :41 “[My] worst job was probably whenever I got out of school I started working for an environmental group in Baton Rouge, and I was doing actual environmental work at first. I went to my boss probably about four months in and told him that I was going to move to Nashville and write songs. Luckily enough, he let me stay on, but I became the weedeater guy for the landscaping side of the business. I seriously weedeated eight hours a day. The only break I would get would be in-between yard to yard. So, like we would be in the car and I would try to doze off for like 10 minutes. I was covered in grass in the middle of the summer in Baton Rouge. It was awful. That was definitely the worst job.”
Audio / Keith Urban talks about one of the worst jobs he had while working on doing music full-time.
Keith Urban (Labor Day-job) OC: …to sell things. 1:56 “I’ve had a lot of crappy jobs. Wow! I don’t know about the worst job, oh, telemarketing. (laughs) I hated it! By all accounts, I was actually pretty good at it, and my boss was really upset that I wanted to quit, ‘cause he said you’d actually be pretty good at it, other than I was just too brutally honest. I was working for a company that at the time sold Franking Machines, which was a thing where – back then – you would put postal impressions on an envelope and send them out, instead of buying a whole stack of stamps. So, you had this thing called a Franking Machine and you’d pre-load it with a whole bunch of pre-paid for stamps. And you just put the envelope(s) in and (sound efx). So, if you’re putting out a whole bunch of mail from a business, it’s much better to get a Franking Machine, then have someone go to the post office all the time. I would have this whole long pitch about, ‘Hi, I’m Keith, blah, blah, blah, what volume of mail would you say you do every week?’ I was talking to this lady from a florist, and she was so sweet, and she goes, ‘Oh, I’d say I send out about three letters a week, love.’ And then I’m supposed to say, ‘Well, then you need a Franking Machine…’ (laughs) ‘cause it’s on the script, you know? I’m going, ‘I’m so sorry, you don’t need what we’re selling. I’m sorry to bother you.’ And she goes, ‘No, no, tell me about this. What are you selling?’ She was the perfect customer, and I went, ‘I promise you. You don’t need this thing. It costs a fortune. You don’t need it. You don’t need it.’ She goes, ‘No, but tell me about it.’ I said, ‘Honestly, I’m not even going to waste your time. You’re so lovely, but thank you so much. Have a great day,’ and I hung up. My boss was standing behind me (laughs), and he goes, ‘They all need Franking Machines. They all need…’ I was like, ‘She didn’t. I hate this job. I quit.’ And that was it. I wasn’t cut out to sell things.”
Kip Moore (Labor Day-worst job) OC: …than that. :21 “I’d have to say my worst job ever was laying sod in the south Georgia heat. There’s nothing than that, especially when somebody would think that you’re waiting for the next sod patch to be thrown to you and you got your back turned, and all of a sudden, that big ole piece of sod hits you right on the back. You got nowhere to clean up, and you’re just stuck with dirt on your back for the rest of the day. It doesn’t get any worse than that.”
Audio / KYLIE MORGAN SAYS BEING ON THE ROAD PERFORMING FOR PEOPLE IS HER “HAPPY PLACE.”
Kylie Morgan (the road is her happy place) OC: …that’s me. :48 “The road is truly my happy place. I love going to sleep and not knowing where I’m going to be the next day. I love hotel beds. I literally just eat and breathe the road. It is truly an adventure all the time, and I knew even when I was little that I had to do something where I traveled because I love the feeling of it. I love experiencing new things, and the fact that I truly feel like what I do is not a job. And the fact that I get to see the world, meet so many amazing people, have a one-on-one connection through my music, I never have to work a day in my life because I would do this for free. It is one of the most liberating feelings to finish a song and see someone turn to someone and go, ‘Omigod, that’s me.’”
Audio / Luke Bryan talks about the different jobs he worked in and around Leesburg, Georgia, before heading to Nashville to pursue a career in music.
Luke Bryan (Labor Day-jobs) OC: …Nashville… 1:07 “At age 12 thru 13, I worked at Rubos IGA Supermarket in Leesburg, GA. I worked during the summers on Monday and Tuesday. I stocked and cleaned up the produce. They paid me under the table…I peeled off all of the brown lettuce. Let’s see, when I was 15, I was a cashier at K-Mart for two months. I worked at K-Mart for two months, and then I reverted back to Rubos because it didn’t really make sense for me to drive all the way into Albany and work for K-Mart. The benefits were great though-you’d get an hour-long on the blue light special. So I started back at Rubos, and then I quit Rubos and worked for my Dad-just awful just driving tractors through cotton all day, and spraying pesticides that eventually would turn your hair green. And then at some point, I started playing guitar. And well, after college I went back and worked for my dad and continued to spray and haul fertilizer around. And then I moved to Nashville…”
Audio / RISCILLA BLOCK HAD A LOT OF SIDE JOBS WHEN SHE WAS TRYING TO MAKE IT IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS, INCLUDING CLEANING AIRBNBS.
Priscilla Block (Labor Day) OC: …didn’t care. :34 “Cleaning Airbnbs, and that was really interesting ‘cause you’d find some crazy things in those Airbnbs. Those bachelorette parties, all I’m saying is I want to be invited next time. I was kind of sad that I had to be the house cleaner and I wasn’t at the bachelorette party. It was great! You’d go in and sometimes there’d be extra food, alcohol. When I walked in and I would see White Claws in the fridge, I’m, ‘Bingo, baby! Let’s go!’ I don’t know if I was supposed to be taking the alcohol, but I didn’t care.”
Audio / TRAVIS DENNING HAS NEVER HAD ANOTHER JOB OTHER THAN PLAYING MUSIC.
Travis Denning (Labor Day) OC: …right for it. :13 “I’ve always played music. I mean, my first gig was when I was 16-years-old. That was what I did. And as soon as I found out I could make money doing it, I thought I’d much rather make money doing this than anything else, so I went right for it.”
Audio / Tyler Hubbard learned his work ethic from working manual labor jobs when he was growing up, and it shows now in how hard he works at his music career.
Tyler Hubbard (Labor Day) OC: …where I’m at. :43 “One of the worst jobs – I don’t know if it was the worst job, definitely the most physical, was probably pouring concrete. I did that for a year with a friend that had a concrete business, and we poured a lot of concrete that year, and I just remember really early mornings and really late nights. It was, if the sun was up, we were working, and that was pretty influential in creating the work ethic that I have. It was either that or my dad had a tree service that I grew up working with him doing that, as well, which was again, very manual labor, very long days and taught me a lot about working hard. And so, those were special times and as hard as it was, I’m thankful for those years. I love working hard, and I’m grateful for the struggle that got me where I’m at.”
Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776, declaring independence from Great Britain and tyranny.
The Declaration of Independence, which is on public display in the Rotunda of the National Archives in Washington, D.C., was primarily authored by Thomas Jefferson, however, he worked with Benjamin Franklin and John Adams to come up with the final document. The Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4th, 1776, but the actual signing of the document took place August 2nd, 1776.
Now, the Fourth of July holiday is commonly associated with fireworks displays, parades, barbecues and concerts. Some of your favorite country stars take time to remember their Fourth of July traditions, memories and what the holiday really means to them.
Mickey Guyton will host and perform during A Capitol Fourth on the Fourth of July on PBS beginning at 8pm ET. Country star Jake Owen, Grammy Award-winning gospel artist Yolanda Adams, Tony Award winner and Broadway icon Chita Rivera, Grammy Award-winning musician and actor Gloria Gaynor, Blues musician Keb’ Mo’ and many others are also among the stars performing during the special.
AJ (fave 4th 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.”
Audio / Billy Currington talks about his favorite Fourth of July memories.
Billy Currington (4th 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.”
Audio / Carrie Underwood recalls one of her favorite Fourth of July memories.
Carrie Underwood (favorite Fourth of July memory) OC: …work out. :51 “I think my favorite Fourth of July memory would be going to the fireworks stand and picking out which fireworks I wanted to do. I must’ve been like 7 or 8, and I came home and made a list of what order I wanted to do them in, because I wanted to put a show on for Mom and Dad, and of course I couldn’t wait until it was dark outside (laughs). So, I made my Mom and Dad get the lawn chairs and come out to the backyard and watch some not very dramatic fireworks at like six o’clock in the evening, but I was so proud of myself, and I was so proud of the show that I put on. So, I feel like that was a little training for what I do now – putting on shows, figuring out how it’s all going to work out.”
Audio / Darius Rucker enjoys setting off fireworks.
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.”
Audio / Eric Church recalls his family activities on the Fourth of July holiday.
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.”
Audio / Jon Langston talks about what he usually does on the Fourth of July,
Jon Langston (Fourth of July) OC: …either way. :17 “The Fourth of July is usually different every year. We’re usually playing shows, or we’re out on the lake or at the beach, or sometimes I’ve said, ‘I’m staying at home,’ shooting fireworks off the back porch or something. That’s probably not the safest thing, but we have a good time either way.”
Audio / JORDAN DAVIS TALKS ABOUT SOME OF HIS FAVORITE CHILDHOOD FOURTH OF JULY MEMORIES.
Jordan Davis (Fourth of July) 2 OC: …really cool. :17 “Probably baseball games, firework shows at baseball games. We’d go to Shreveport Captains games, so yeah, we’d do that or barbecues and fireworks. I can remember being on the lake for a couple of Fourth of Julys. We’d take the boat out and we’d watch the downtown fireworks show from the boat, which was really cool.”
Audio / Josh Turner talks about the fireworks “wars” his family would have when he was growing up.
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]
Audio / Keith Urban recalls coming over to America for the first time.
Keith Urban (coming to America 1st time) OC: …as I could. :39 “1989 was the first year I came to the States, and it had always been my goal, but I had no plan on how to get here. It was just a case of keep playing, keep getting better at what you do, and then hopefully, somehow, some way I’ll end up over here. The guy who was managing me at the time, we just planned a trip over here – it was actually for the New Music Seminar in New York. And we came over for that, and then we did a trip down to Nashville, and I was shopping my little demo around. I think I humored everybody more than anything else [laughs] with my tragic, ill-fitting demo for the time. So, I left there, but I was just so committed to coming back as quick as I could.”
Audio / Luke Bryan recalls one of his favorite Fourth of July memories.
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.”
Audio / Luke Bryan talks about his Fourth of July plans.
Luke Bryan (Fourth of July plans) OC: …on the fourth. :15 “My plans for the Fourth are always to be on the boat somewhere in the water, and buy a few fireworks, send ‘em up in the sky for the boys, but it’s always a boat and water, whether it’s in the Gulf of Mexico, whether it’s in Georgia…we don’t have a total plan yet, but we’ll be having a good time on the fourth.”
Audio / MADDIE & TAE TALK ABOUT THEIR FOURTH OF JULY TRADITIONS.
Maddie & Tae (Fourth of July) OC: …it’s perfect. :29
TAE: “One of my favorite Fourth of July traditions – I’d say it’s a tradition ‘cause it happens every year, but I’m not always able to make it – is that we go to my grandparents in Oklahoma, and we all line up lawn chairs right in front of their garage and we just light fireworks. We always do it far away and then we light it, and we always run back and watch the fireworks, but that’s probably one of my favorite memories.” MADDIE: “My birthday is July 7th, so I always get built-in fireworks for my birthday, and sometimes we actually celebrate it on the 4th, because there’s fireworks everywhere, so it’s perfect.”
Audio / PARKER MCCOLLUM TALKS ABOUT HIS FAVORITE FOURTH OF JULY MEMORIES. NOTE: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.
Parker McCollum (Fourth of July) OC: …days of my life. :23 “My favorite Fourth of July memories growing up are actually kind of dangerous now that I think about it, but we used to have fireworks wars where we’d shoot like roman candles and bottle rockets. We’d always go to my grandma’s house, pop fireworks and we’d end up shooting ’em at each other and having wars; no eye protection, no nothing, just shooting bottle rockets at each other’s faces. But it was so fun; some of the best days of my life.”
Audio / Priscilla Block says the Fourth of July is one of her favorite holidays.
Priscilla Block (Fourth of July) OC: …we get crazy. :26 “I love Fourth of July. I usually always have a Fourth of July party. It is known that there is a slip-n-slide at my house on Fourth of July. You know, it’s such a great holiday to just bring friends together and, I don’t know, we get wild on the Fourth. We get crazy.”
Audio / Sam Hunt talks about what he and his family did over the Fourth of July holiday when he was growing up in Georgia.
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.”
Audio / TRAVIS DENNING TALKS ABOUT THE FOURTH OF JULY EVENTS HIS HOMETOWN OF WARNER ROBINS, GEORGIA WOULD THROW EVERY YEAR.
Travis Denning (Fourth of July) OC: …will love. :51
“Fourth of July in Warner Robins, Georgia is an event. It’s something else. In fact, forever they’ve thrown an Independence Day concert, and back in the day, it was huge. It was the biggest thing they did all year. They would actually have the concert in the MAC (McConnell-Talbert Stadium), which was the high school football stadium that Warner Robins and Northside and Houston County shared. I mean, one year they had Wynonna play and then they had Josh Turner one year, Darius Rucker. I mean it was like a big deal, and there’d be 15,000, 20,000 people there, and I think it’s so cool that there’s a little bit of a legacy of people coming together in that town and making something happen, you know? I’ll never forget going to those shows and thinking, I was more proud of what the city had done. I was like, ‘That’s just so cool that they could put together a show like this, an event that everybody will love.”
Audio / Tyler Hubbard talks about his Fourth of July plans with his family.
“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.”
Carrie Underwood (Father’s Day) OC: …guy all around. 1:18 “Well, I am very lucky in my life to have two incredible fathers – my own father and then I get to watch my husband be a father to our boys – strong, amazing men, I am very lucky to be around them. Mike as a dad is just super involved in our boys’ lives, very hands on. It takes a team, definitely, to be able to support my crazy life and Mike’s always running around doing a lot of charity things and he’s always meeting with people and he’s on different boards and stuff like that, so we’re very much switching off duties as far as taking boys here and there to school and sports and to all the extra-curricular activities. I just love that I feel like we’re such a great team. I love it that he gets to now work with Isaiah on sports and things like that, and I know he loves it too. So, I think that’s one of my favorite qualities about Mike is just how hands on of a father he is and very willing to pick up the slack when I’m crazy busy. Obviously, he’s just a very Godly father, as well. He keeps God as the center of our family and gets to teach our boys all about that, as well. So, he’s just a great guy all around.”
Audio / Caylee Hammack says her father is a good man.
Caylee Hammack (Dad) OC: …forget that. 1:19 “My dad has this really unnerving ability to be able to build anything at all just by thinking of it. He can look at something and build it in his mind and build it by hand, and it always works. I’ve always respected him for that. He’s a very hard worker. He’s worked every day of his life. He’s also kind, even when he doesn’t have to be. He’s the type of guy who always gives money at the light to whoever it is on the street. One of my favorite moments with my dad was when we were driving to Macon, Georgia. I was playing a show that night, and we were driving up and we saw this dog and I could tell she was a mama dog. I could tell she had babies somewhere that she was trying to nurse, and she was so skinny. And I’m a bleeding heart. I get it from my Mama, and I just start crying, and I’m like, ‘That poor dog. She’s starving trying to feed her babies.’ I thought, ‘Poor dog.” And my dad doesn’t say anything, goes up two more blocks and pulls into the McDonalds. And he goes through and he asks me if I wanted anything, and I say no. I just think he’s hungry. He goes and he buys three or four burgers, and then he goes back to that block and he drives around until we find that dog to feed it to ‘em. I just remember looking at him, being like this is what a man is; this is what a good man does, and I’ll never forget that.”
Audio / Darius Rucker says his mother made him a good father to his three children.
Darius Rucker (mother’s qualities makes him a great father) OC: …my mom. :45 “She had a lot great qualities, but she was always, family was first for her. She was always a rock and making sure she took care of us and making sure we had things we needed to have to survive – food and clothes and a home – and seeing that and seeing how hard she worked and all the things she did just really made me the father that I am today. I mean, I’m so crazy and hands-on with my kids. I think it all comes from watching my mom have to struggle so much to support us. And so now, I don’t want me or my wife to ever have to struggle, and I don’t want my kids to ever want or wonder where I am or where there mom is. I want them to always know where we are and always be taken care of, and that all comes from my mom.”
Audio / Dierks Bentley, the father of three, is very grateful to his own dad for turning him on to country music as a kid.
Dierks (Father’s Day) OC: …that’s for sure. :10 “My dad was my biggest influence in country music because my dad loved country radio. So, we always drove around listening to country radio and George Strait, Hank Williams and Randy Travis and all these guys, so. Without him, I wouldn’t be doing this, that’s for sure.”
Audio / Dierks Bentley explains how being a father (to three children) has changed him.
Dierks Bentley (how fatherhood has changed him) OC: …different. :07 “There’s a whole kind of different universe that has opened up that I never knew existed, and I’m not the center of it, which is really cool. It just makes you look at things totally different.”
Audio / Eric Church describes his father and the qualities he admires in him.
Eric Church (Father’s Day) OC: …always admired. :29 “My dad is a great guy, honest guy, very call it like he sees it, which is where I get a lot of that. No BS. I’m gonna tell you how I feel whether you like it or not. I’m that guy, I’m me…My dad’s that way, so I get a lot of that from him. There’s also an honesty and an integrity that my dad carries himself with that I’ve always admired.”
Audio / Jon Langston looks up to his father and hopes to become just like him.
Jon Langston (Father’s Day) OC: …just fine. :16 “My Dad has been my hero all my life. He’s the man I want to be one day when I grow up. I’m thankful for all he’s done for me and the sacrifices he’s made for our family. If I’m half the man he is one day, I’ll be just fine.”
Audio / FATHER OF TWO JORDAN DAVIS TALKS ABOUT HIS FAVORITE QUALITIES OF HIS DAD.
Jordan Davis (Father’s Day) OC: …my music. :45 “The thing I love most about my Dad is just his overall love of life. He’s a guy that’s worked hard and is now at a point where he can enjoy it, and he’s living every day to the fullest. That’s something that I’m very thankful that I’ve seen my Dad do and something to learn from. So, that’s probably my favorite quality about the old man, and just the hard work too. My dad ran a furniture business in Shreveport for a long time with his Dad. It was great to grow up and see a guy work hard and helped his Dad build a business from the ground up to a very successful business, and that’s something that I even try to carry over into my music.”
Audio / PROUD DAD OF FOUR (HAMPTON, COLBY, MARION, HAWKE), JOSH TURNER TALKS ABOUT HOW HIS THREE OLDEST SONS ARE LEARNING THE FAMILY TRADE.
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.”
Audio / Keith Urban – father to daughters Sunday and Faith -- says there are a number of things that are at the top of the list of being a dad.
Keith Urban (Father’s Day) OC: …experience that. :36 “The first thing is probably just having someone call you dad. I’m like, ‘Omigosh! I’m her dad! That’s amazing.’ That’s probably the first thing to me. I don’t know, I mean, the different personalities that our two daughters have, that’s amazing. It’s such a long list I think. I always say…I think for the people that haven’t had kids – which I hadn’t for a long, long time. I didn’t have kids ‘til later on, and being around it is not the same as having them, you know? I realize that it’s not something that can be explained until you actually sort of have it, so I’m glad I got to experience that.”
Audio / Keith Urban talks about the qualities he inherited from both of his parents.
Keith Urban (parents qualities) OC: …both of those. :23
“He was very artistic and creative, my dad, and very detailed, and I think his attention to detail I definitely inherited from him. And my mom was very much a people person, very social. My dad was a bit more shy and quiet, but my mom was very social. I think those two really wonderful attributes, I was lucky enough to inherit both of those.t
Audio / Kip Moore talks about his late father’s influence on his music career, and how he’d play classics on their fishing trips.
Kip Moore (Father’s Day-dad’s influence) OC: …of us singin’ ‘em. :29 “He would just play all those classic records – Little River Band, Jackson Brown, Springsteen, Seeger, Willie Nelson, the Red-Headed Stranger, Kristofferson, Sam Cook – like classic music. He’d be singing the songs and telling us why it was such good music. And I looked up to him so much, that’s the music I gravitated towards and that’s what I continue to listen to. Whenever I think about those old fishing trips, that’s what I think about is on the way down there, him singing those songs and all of us singin’ ‘em.”
Audio / Luke Bryan talks about the life lessons his own father taught him.
Luke Bryan (Father’s Day-life lessons) OC: …live by that. :46 “Well, my dad was, I always just go back to the life lessons that always started either in a fishing boat or hunting somewhere, and that’s why I’ve always kind of been a champion of those types of behaviors certainly with your boys and your children because you get to spend time and hand down values. My dad was always big on just hard work and being good to people and a handshake is the contract. A handshake is your bond, your word. His famous saying always was, ‘Do something right the first time and you won’t have to go back and do it over again.’ I won’t say I batted a thousand perfectly on that, but I’ve kind of tried to live by that.”
Audio / MADDIE MARLOW TALKS ABOUT HER FATHER’S FAVORITE GIFT SHE’S EVER GIVEN HIM FOR FATHER’S DAY.
Maddie & Tae (Father’s Day) OC: …for Father’s Day. :26 “So, for Father’s Day, I made my Dad – I think it was right before I moved to Nashville – I made my Dad this little photo book where it had like his quotes that have stuck with me my whole life and then some pictures, and it was really funky. It looks horrible. It’s not put together, but that’s one of his favorite gifts that he’s ever gotten, and I cherish that ugly photo book thing that I made for him for Father’s Day.”
Audio / Parker McCollum credits his father and grandfather with his work ethic and drive to be successful.
Parker McCollum (male influences) OC: …a good place. :50 “As far as my Dad, he’s like a real-life superhero. I mean the most incredible, self-disciplined, work ethic. I get my entire work ethic, I think, from him and my granddad, who’s actually my mom’s dad. I’m so lucky the kind of people that I come from, like I had no choice to go out and work hard and try to be successful. My brother definitely – that creative, artistic side of my brain I think it really was…he kind of catered to that when I was a kid. He really put a lot of emphasis on me showing that some love and some attention in trying to be creative and write songs and stuff. But I just think my work ethic and kind of drive to do things the right way come from my dad and my granddad, for sure. Just lucky to have that. I always say if everybody had a granddad like I had, the world would be a really good place.”
Priscilla Block (father) OC: …from my dad. :49 “So, my dad has honestly been my rock star, my whole life. He was the one to bring me to Nashville when I was 15, once I wrote my first song. He’s just really supported me. He was the one driving me to all of my try-outs for every single show I tried out for. And my dad’s taught me a lot. He’s a hard worker, and that’s where my work ethic comes from is my dad. You know, I’m one of five kids, and he always found a way…there was a lot of rough times growing up, and he always found a way to pull through and just keep going, and I think that’s why I stayed in Nashville as long as I have – it comes from my dad.”
Audio / Travis Denning says his father is his best friend.
Travis Denning (Father’s Day) OC: …for sure. :43 “My dad – I call him ‘Diamond Dave’ and a lot of other people do too. Honestly, I don’t know if I drink more with anybody else more than my Dad. I think a super cool thing now is getting older and knowing that I’m starting to get more and more sustained as a human that it’s like my parents get to be friends now with me and my sister, which is such a cool thing. And so, yeah, me and my Dad – we love music and we love heavy metal and we love all that. We get to go to concerts and football games and drink beer and just enjoy that cool part of a father and a son and a mother and a son where now we get to be friends and it’s really cool. My Dad is my best friend, for sure.”
Audio / Tyler Hubbard says his children have re-energized him and have channeled the little boy inside of him.
Tyler Hubbard (Father’s Day) OC: …just so special. 1:01 “Well, I think being a dad is one of the most special gifts in the world. I’m getting to watch kids grow up – a big responsibility, but also a lot of joy. I mean, so much fun, and to have three little kids, man, it’s a house full of energy. It’s a whole lot of fun. And one of the coolest things about it that I’ve found is it helps me kind of channel my inner child. It takes me back to being a kid and how much fun just jumping on the trampoline and playing basketball and playing outside and all that really is and how good it is for us. I’ve lost that for quite a few years, getting wrapped up in my career and working hard and just prioritizing that over being a kid and just playing. So, it’s been really healthy and helpful to me to have these kids running around to just kind of channel that little boy inside of me and the person that I want to be and it’s been really healthy and really fun and kind of re-energized me creatively as well as a songwriter and as an artist. So, I’m really thankful to be a dad. Love those three little kids more than anything in the world, and it’s just so special.”
Audio / Vince Gill talks about the qualities he hopes for his children.
Vince Gill (Father’s Day) OC: …feels like. :33 “Kindness-hopefully make them kind and that’s all we got. Five great kids, a couple of grandkids. Those grandkids are the complete light of my life. You know, they just show up and the rest of the world can kiss my you-know-what. (laughs) I say, ‘We’re just gonna go swing in the backyard; we’re gonna wrestle on the bed; we’re gonna eat those Goldfish (crackers), you know? And nothing else kind of seems to matter. And then I think what I love seeing, more than anything, for my kid to finally understand what it means to love, and it’s awesome to see my kid finally get it what that unconditional love really looks like and feels like.”
“Hey! It’s Jon Pardi, wishing all the fathers out there a very Happy Father’s Day. Here’s to you, Senior. Insert beer can opening sample (sound effect). (laughs)