Sam Hunt (4-song EP) OC: …in EP form. :35
“The four songs really go with all the songs I’ve put over the last couple and a half years, but I didn’t want to put them all together on a project considering all those songs have already been out. So, these songs do go together, but they also go together with all 10 songs when you add ‘em up. But I had 3, let’s see, ‘Outskirts’ has been out, but I had three new songs finished, but had I had all the other seven finished, I would’ve have put ‘em all out together, but (ha) this is the first time that I had more than just one at a time finished, so I decided to put them out in an EP form.”

Sam Hunt (hopes for fans for EP) OC: …soon after. :35
“These four songs reflect, I don’t know, the last three or four years of my life and that season I’ve been in, that writing season, and I hope they’ll listen to them with the other seven songs as well, because they all go together. Yeah, I hope that they can appreciate all the things about these songs that they might have appreciated about songs in the past. There are some themes I touch on that I’ve touched on in the past and some new direction, but overall the sound, I think, is pretty consistent with what I’ve done in the past. It’s a chapter that I’m closing and hopefully will start the next one soon after.”

Sam Hunt (Locked Up) 1 OC: …in one take. :34
“Well, ‘Locked Up’ is a song that started with a title. I had that title in my phone. I wanted  to write a song called ‘Locked Up.’ I had no idea about what it may be about, although I have had a few run-ins with the law in my lifetime. My producer was playing me some music, he had built some tracks and was playing through a few songs, and I was looking at my phone, and I saw the title in the songs. The music sounded like the title, which is always a good start, and I just started singing that chorus. I think I filled in, 30-40 percent of the lyric in one take.”

Sam Hunt (Locked Up video) OC: …coming out. :41
“So, we found a really cool old prison in East Tennessee, and we had this idea originally to recreate the Johnny Cash Folsom Prison concert that he did back in the day and dressed up in all black, a suit, and I got a bunch of local guys to come out and dress up as inmates and had a really good time with it, sort of a period piece idea, I guess you could call it. I don’t know if I did Johnny Cash justice. I doubt I did, but I enjoyed making the video and had my family out there with me and met a lot of cool folks who came out to help us with this video, so that was one of the more fun video experiences I’ve had.”

Sam Hunt (on touring) OC: …the whole thing. 1:05
“My favorite thing about being on the road and playing our music in front of our fans is connecting with the folks who have provided me with a career, an opportunity to live out this dream that I had as a young college graduate years ago. And I really enjoy being out on the road with my buddies in the band and our whole crew. We have a real family out there now that we’ve been out here for several years, get to travel and see places that I wouldn’t otherwise get to visit, and we get to play music. And that’s at the end of the day is something that I always wanted to do and that I really enjoy doing, but most importantly, it’s connecting with the fans. You write these songs in little rooms in Nashville, and you hope that they mean something to somebody. It’s hard to believe that that’s true until you get out there and see the smiles on people’s faces and see people enjoying themselves and having a good time, and it really gives a lot of meaning to the whole thing.”

Sam Hunt (Fatherhood) 1 OC: …a lot of fun. :41
“I think what I have enjoyed most about fatherhood is the sense of purpose. It’s deep, and it’s something I couldn’t have imagined until I experienced it. It gives such meaning to all, all that I’m doing in life, all the little mundane things that I might have done by myself before having kids, now have all this weight and meaning when I do them with my children. I’ve got my little girl who’s coming up on two years old who is growing and changing every day, and I’m having a lot of fun with her. I have my first son, just a few months ago, who is growing fast and a lot of fun.”

Sam Hunt (Fatherhood) 2 OC: …every day. :31
“Lucy, Lucy the Ouise (Wheeze) — we call her Ouisy (pr. Wheezy) — Ouisy’s having a big time with her little brother, and one kid feels like a family, but two kids now feels like a big family. And it’s a lot of responsibility, but I feel like I’m walking in God’s will now more so than I ever have at any point in my life. So, I’m just eternally grateful for these little miracles and smelling the roses and soaking it in every day.”

Billy Currington (football fan) OC: …love football. :36
“I’m a big football fan. I mean, when I was growing up, if you asked me who my favorite team is now, I couldn’t tell you. But when I was a kid, it was the Dallas Cowboys. And I don’t know if it was because my mom bought my brother a Pittsburgh Steelers pennant, for some reason, and bought me a Dallas Cowboys pennant, and of course over the year I fell in love with the Cowboys, and then I wanted a jersey the next Christmas, and then the next one, I wanted [more Cowboys stuff]. So, I became a long-term fan with those guys. But I like it all now that I’m older. I’ll watch any game; it doesn’t matter who’s playing. But [I] love football.”

Carrie Underwood (loves being a part of SNF) OC: …my whole life. :54
“I love being the voice of Sunday Night Football because I grew up watching football…from birth. I’m from Oklahoma – we’re a football state. It’s just a part of the country that everybody has their teams and there’s such an energy about it. We would drive down to Dallas and watch the Cowboys play whenever we could. There’s just something about being at a live sporting event or watching it on TV. You have your favorites. They have their rivals. There’s an excitement to it that really, it’s unlike anything else, so being a small part of that is absolutely amazing. It’s been so wonderful working with everybody at SNF, and I count myself very lucky and very blessed that I get to be a small part of something that I’ve loved my whole life.”

Darius Rucker (football) OC: …football season. :20
“Ever since I was five years old, I’ve loved football, and I love how physical it is. I love the chess match of the game. I love the speed of the game. I love college football, but for me watching pro football is better because the speed is so much more. For me, there’s two times a year, man — football season and waiting for football season.”

Dierks Bentley (Super Bowl 2024) OC: …Santa Tracker. :50
“I have been watching every single playoff game. It’s the great thing. In my house is the Kansas City Chiefs because my daughters love Taylor (Swift). Any dad out there that has daughters knows what I’m talking about. She has made football much easier to watch at my house. Everybody’s down with it now, so I’ve been able to watch a lot of playoff games with my family, which is amazing. I’m not out there in the garage. I’m allowed to be in the main part of the house watching football, and it’s so fun. As far as the Super Bowl goes, I have no idea who’s going to win, but I’m there for the whole thing. I’m there for the pre-show concerts, the introductions, our National Anthem, the half-time show and of course, the game. It’s going to be awesome. I have no idea who’s going to win, but I just hope Taylor Swift makes her flight from Japan back to the game, because that’s what we all want to see. That’s going to be the most followed flight. It’ll be followed more than the Santa Tracker.”

Jon Langston (Atlanta Falcons) OC: …cool place too. :17
“Favorite team in the NFL is the Falcons. You know, growing up an hour from Atlanta, I just loved the Falcons, I guess, and going to the games and stuff. Going to the Georgia Dome was a pretty big deal, and we got to play there in high school and stuff, and it’s sad to see that it’s gone, but Mercedes Benz is a pretty cool place too.”

Jon Pardi (football) OC: …two great teams. :12
“I grew up playing football and it was always the 9ers, you know? Like we looked up to those guys. I looked up to the 49ers. It was like our local team, and I guess I just never lost that spark from when they went to the Super Bowl.”

Keith (Nicole and football) OC: …new to me. :04

“She’s a big NFL fan, and she sort of turned me on to it.”

LBT (Super Bowl 2020) OC: (Phillip) …win this game. :29
JIMI: “This game is gonna be fun. Of course, my team is the Tennessee Titans, so I don’t have quite the heart connection that I do with these two teams. (Phillip: “I like Mahomes though.”) But I’m excited because I think it’s gonna be a great game. They match up very interestingly, and I think it’s gonna be fun to watch. I don’t think anybody’s gonna stop Mahomes, though. Shew. The 49er defense, they are for real.” PHILLIP: “If you can pick apart the 49er defense, you can win this game.”

LBT (football story) OC: …my lip. :40
“I was the quarterback to my powder puff team. I was running the ball and I came around the corner – this was in high school – and a foreign exchange student, I think her name was Inga (KIMBERLY: “Inga.”), and I didn’t want to fumble ‘cause my brother and my dad were there, and I come from this very athletic family, so I held onto the ball. I knew I was going to go down, so I let my head hit first and I bit all the way through, but I didn’t fumble and I had a hole in my face, though. The sad thing is that it was just flag football, but I left my flags on and cleats and everything, ‘cause it looked cool, and I had blood running all down my jersey. I went to the emergency room like that, and they sewed up my lip.”

Luke Bryan (Super Bowl food) OC: …over again. :22
“Definitely Super Bowl is like the queso, the Frito Lay scoops with the Ro-tel situation. I guess it’s like, what’s the black-eyed pea stuff too? All of that, just stuff that you can sit there and have lots of sodium, and then just, it’s like Thanksgiving all over again.”

Priscilla Block (Football/Super Bowl food) OC: …what happens. :23
“I mean, I feel like the Super Bowl is like just such a fun day. I’m really excited for the half-time show. I feel like that’s usually why I’m there, is to watch the anthem and the half-time show, but yes, excited to eat all the bad things. And I’m honestly, I don’t feel pulled any way this year. I wish the (Tennessee) Titans were in it, but we’ll see what happens.”

Reba McEntire (full circle moment National Anthem) OC: …they asked me. :35
“It’s absolutely amazing coming full circle, 50 years after being discovered by Red Steagall me singing the National Anthem at the National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City. That was in 1974. Little did I know, I had no idea 50 years I’d be singing (laughs) the National Anthem at this year’s Super Bowl. Omigosh. I don’t even have the imagination to say that I would be doing something like this. I’m absolutely thrilled to pieces that they asked me.”

Reba McEntire (football fan) OC: …at the Super Bowl. :42
“I’ve always liked football, even in high school. As the Singing McEntires and being a part of the Kiowa High School Cowboy Band in Kiowa, Oklahoma where I went to school for 12 years, we were part of the half-time entertainment there at the school. We’d pull the trailer out and we’d play at half-time for our football games, and then my boyfriend, Rex Linn, absolutely loves college football. I really get into that, and I cheer for the Longhorns in Austin, Texas. And now getting to sing at the Super Bowl, I think Rex was more excited than I was, if that’s at all possible. I’m a huge, a huge fan of the Kansas City Chiefs, so I will be cheering them on at the Super Bowl.”

Reba McEntire (Super Bowl snacks) OC: …gonna be great. :30
“Omigosh, wouldn’t it be neat if we could cook up some recipes out of my Not That Fancy book and you know, like the ranch dressing from Reba’s Place, that’s my restaurant in Atoka, Oklahoma, with chicken tenders and the beer cheese dip? Okay, if y’all don’t know what I’m talking about, get online and get the Not That Fancy book. It’s pretty cool, lots of pictures and what it’s supposed to look like when you get through making it. That’s gonna be great.”

Sam Hunt (Super Bowl & music) OC: …combined there. :24
“It’s become such a massive pop culture event, and I love that they’ve incorporated music and entertainment with the sport itself and the entertainment value that comes from that. It encompasses just a strong representation of American culture, and I’m a huge music fan, obviously, and I’m a huge sports fan, so those are two of my favorite worlds combined there.”

Sam Hunt (Peyton Manning) OC: …with music. :39
“When I was in high school, I went to a camp called the Manning Academy, and it’s a quarterback camp down in Louisiana. And I got to spend some time with Peyton and Eli, and they have another brother [Cooper]. I’ve followed [Peyton’s] career for a long time,” he says. “Actually, a couple of years ago, I was at a concert of Kenny Chesney’s in Denver, and I was standing there side stage and Jake Owen was there. He had opened up for [Kenny], and I’ve been a friend of his for a little while, and he turned and introduced me to the guy behind us, who I wasn’t aware of at the time, but it turned out to be Peyton Manning. He was just a really nice guy, and it was just pretty cool to be on the stage with two people who inspired me in two different arenas, with Peyton with football and Kenny with music.”

Travis Denning (Super Bowl 2024) 1 OC: …very clutch. :13
“I believe the Kansas City Chiefs are gonna win the Super Bowl. I just think Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in the post season are just built different. They’ve been there before. They’re just used to it. I think they’re very clutch.”

Travis Denning (Super Bowl 2024) 2 OC: …love story. :09
“Honestly, I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing Taylor Swift in the crowd. I think it’s been awesome this year to see her. Her and Travis Kelce’s just got an All-American love story.”

Travis Denning (go-to Super Bowl snack) OC: …other pick. :05
“My go-to Super Bowl snack is buffalo chicken dip, obviously. There’s no other pick.”

Travis Denning (National Anthem) OC: …your life. :27
“The National Anthem, I think, is one of the hardest songs to sing that we sing regularly in this country. It’s essentially two very full octave ranges and every note matters. It has to be powerful. It takes an amazing singer to sing it. And the other thing that’s hard about is if you sing it great, everybody goes ‘that was cool,’ and then they forget about it two minutes later, and if you mess it up, they remember it for the rest of your life.”