This Sunday (February 7th), millions of people around the world will be tuning in to the Super Bowl (the Big Game), including some of your favorite country artists. Some will be rooting for Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, while others will be pulling for the Tom Brady-led Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Eric Church, along with Jazmine Sullivan, have been tapped to perform the National Anthem at this year’ Super Bowl.
Luke Bryan and Eric Church are set to perform as part of The Big Concert for Small Business, Verizon’s after-party for Super Bowl VW on Sunday, February 7 at 11:00 p.m. ET. Hosted by Tiffany Haddish, the event will also feature performances by Alicia Keys, Brandi Carlile, Brittany Howard, Christina Aguilera, H.E.R., Jazmine Sullivan, and Miley Cyrus. The concert will be livestreamed on Yahoo, Fios, @Verizon on Twitter, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok, and broadcasted on BET, CBS Sports Network, CMT, MTV2 and MTV Live, as well as aired on iHeart and Sirius. The event is curated and produced by RocNation.
“I am excited to be a part of Verizon’s The Big Concert for Small Business,” shared Luke. “Small businesses are such an important part of our communities. I was honored to participate in their Pay It Forward Live series back in March of 2020. We need to make sure we are continuing to support them, and I love that Verizon has stayed committed to raise awareness on their behalf.”
Check out all the action at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, at 6:30pm ET on CBS, CBS All Access and the NFL Network.
Audio / Billy Currington says he loves watching football.
DownloadBilly 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.”
Audio / Darius Rucker is a HUGE football fan, as everyone probably knows by now, and he explains why he loves football so much. SIDENOTE: He’s a huge Miami Dolphins fan, and word has it, just to be able to meet then Dolphins quarterback, Dan Marino, he asked him to be in a Hootie & the Blowfish video for “Only Wanna Be With You.”
DownloadDarius 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.”
Audio / Keith Urban says his wife, Nicole Kidman, got him interested in football.
DownloadKeith (Nicole and football) OC: …new to me. :04
“She’s a big NFL fan, and she sort of turned me on to it.”
Audio / LAUREN ALAINA LOVES WATCHING FOOTBALL.
DownloadLauren Alaina (Super Bowl) OC: …I love it. :30
“My dad raised me to love football, so I think it’s like kind of in my blood to be obsessed with it. I feel like the guys are so passionate and they try so hard. Those people love playing that game as much as I love singing. I just love the heart and the drive and the passion behind it. I feel like those boys are playing as hard as they can – in college football and pro football – because it’s what they love to do and it’s their passion, and I just, I don’t know. I love it.”
Audio / Little Big Town’s beautiful and talented Karen Fairchild was a badass growing up when she was playing quarterback for her powder puff football team.
DownloadLBT (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.”
Audio / Luke Bryan talks about some of the food he likes to have while watching the Super Bowl.
DownloadLuke 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.”
Audio / SAM HUNT LOVES THAT THE SUPER BOWL MIXES HIS TWO LOVES – MUSIC AND FOOTBALL.
DownloadSam 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.”
Audio / SAM HUNT, A FORMER UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA BIRMINGHAM QUARTERBACK, WAS INSPIRED BY RETIRED INDIANAPOLIS COLTS AND DENVER BRONCOS QUARTERBACK AND FUTURE NFL HALL OF FAMER PEYTON MANNING WHEN HE WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL.
DownloadSam 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.”
