The Thanksgiving holiday tradition traces its origins to a 1621 celebration at Plymouth, in the state that’s now known as Massachusetts. The 1621 Plymouth feast and thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest. While initially, the Plymouth colony did not have enough food to feed half of the 102 colonists, the Wampanoag Native Americans helped the Pilgrims by providing seeds and teaching them to fish. The practice of holding an annual harvest festival like this did not become a regular affair in New England until the late 1660s. People now celebrate the holiday by giving thanks for their blessings over the past year, as well as feasting on turkey and other festive goodies.
Thanksgiving Day is November 22nd, and most people will be enjoying time with their friends and families, including some of your favorite country stars, such as Alan Jackson, Billy Currington, Darius Rucker, Dierks Bentley, Easton Corbin, Eric Church, Eric Paslay, George Strait, Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, and more. They share their thoughts, memories and favorite Thanksgiving dishes.
AUDIO: Alan Jackson talks about his favorite Thanksgiving dish.
AJ (Thanksgiving) OC: …enjoy it. :19
“My favorite Thanksgiving dish would be the homemade dressin’ that we, cornbread-based kind of dressin’ that we always have with turkey. That recipe is a kind of a combination of my mama, and Denise has taken it and perfected it over the years, so that me and my children really enjoy it.”
AUDIO: Darius Rucker says he’s thankful for his family.
Darius Rucker (Thanksgiving) OC: …still alive. :17
“Oh, the main thing I’m thankful for is my family, there’s no doubt about that. Thanksgiving is about family for us. If we’re in Jersey, getting together with family. If we’re in Charleston, getting together with family and just cooking and eating. Sitting around and talking and remembering and being thankful for where we are, you know. We’re all still alive.”
AUDIO: Dierks Bentley, who is thankful for his wife and two daughters, talks about his Thanksgiving must-have! It’s an oldie, but a goodie!
Dierks Bentley (Thanksgiving must-have) OC: …for Thanksgiving. :41
“You gotta have a big turkey. Thanksgiving is not possible without a turkey. My dad’s always been the one to cook and carve it, but in years here recently, I’ve been taking over those duties. Big responsibility. We cook it traditionally, but when we’re in, a couple of Thanksgivings ago, we were here in Nashville, we did the whole fry the turkey up, and it was great. It just tasted so good; all those juices get locked in there, and I love that too. You really can’t, to me, cook a turkey wrong. I’m gonna eat it any way, and I have over the years. Trust me, I’ve played a lot of county and state fairs, where I’ve seen gigantic turkey legs, you know, I’ve had the flat meat. I’ve done turkey every way you could do it. I’m pretty good any way you want to cook it up, but you’ve got to have a turkey for Thanksgiving.”
AUDIO: Easton Corbin talks about spending Thanksgiving with family.
Easton (Thanksgiving) OC: …my grandma’s. :33
“Having family and being able to spend that quality time with them and obviously, the opportunity to do what I do. But absolutely during that time, being able to spend that time with family and your loved ones. We used to always go to my grandma’s, that’s Christmas and Thanksgiving. We’d go there for the big meal. I don’t get to go back much. A lot of times I’ll stay up [in Nashville] for Thanksgiving, and then go down during Christmas, but we’d always go to my grandma’s.”
AUDIO: Eric Church says he’s thankful for his family – including new son, Boone – as well as for his fans, who made this year his most successful yet.
Eric Church (Thanksgiving) OC: …want to do it. :38
“A couple of things. I’m thankful for my family, my son, my wife and great health. And I’m thankful for from a career standpoint, I’m very thankful for the success we’ve had lately. I’m thankful for Chief, I’m thankful for what the fans have done. I’m thankful that we’re starting to have some hit songs on the radio, I mean there’s a lot of stuff to be thankful for in that regard. And I’m thankful that I was given the opportunity to do it my own because I’m just not a guy, you know if we were having this success and I wasn’t able to do it my own, it wouldn’t be the same for me. I’m not one of those people that could keep doing that. Some people can, I can’t. I’d bail. So, I’m thankful that I’m going to get to keep doing this and do it the way that I want to do it.”
AUDIO: Eric Paslay loves him some turkey for Thanksgiving.
Eric Paslay (Turkey) OC: …really does. :09
“My favorite Thanksgiving food, I think, is the tryptophan turkey, ‘cause it really puts me to sleep. No [yawn], it really does.”
AUDIO: Eric Paslay talks about his favorite Thanksgiving memories.
Eric Paslay (Thanksgiving) OC: …too much. :05
“My best Thanksgiving memory, I think, is just hanging out with family, watching football and eating too much!”
AUDIO: Josh Turner explains what he enjoys about the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
Josh Turner (holidays) OC: …the peace and quiet. :38
“I love being outside in nature and the outdoors, and the holidays is a great time for me to go and partake in that part of my life. A lot of times, Thanksgiving and Christmas, it’s a little cold to go fishing, but when it comes to Thanksgiving and Christmas, it’s a great time to go hunting, especially in South Carolina, that’s when the temperatures are starting to drop and the conditions are getting right, and especially in November, kind of the tail end of the rut, as far as deer season. So, it’s a good time to get in the deer stand whether you kill anything or not, it’s just a great time to just get away from everything and get away from the noise and the lights and the diesel fumes [laughs] and just relax and just enjoy the peace and quiet.”
AUDIO: Keith Urban gives thanks for many things, including his wife and two daughters.
Keith (Thanksgiving) OC: …for me. :21
“Thankful that, well, my marriage is just, it’s life-giving, not just life-changing, it’s been life-giving for me. And from there, we created life, and that’s just beautiful, absolutely beautiful. And the effect that all of that has had in my work, has given life to it too, given it a sense of purpose and really deepened the experience for me.”
AUDIO: Even though she’ll be spending Thanksgiving with her in-laws this year, Kelleigh Bannen explains how Thanksgiving Day usually begins at her own parents’ house.
Kelleigh Bannen (Thanksgiving) OC: …the best kind. [laughs] :36
“This year, we’ll be with my in-laws. Mama’s day starts really early, and it’s been a while since I’ve actually spent the night in their house for Thanksgiving morning. The cooking starts well early, and it was the smell of onions sautéing for the stuff that would wake you up in the morning, and you’d come down to the kitchen and it’d be already going. My mom makes a mean, mean apple pie, and so I’ll be bringing that recipe with me to Columbus this year to celebrate with my husband’s family. You can’t go wrong with some good stuffing that’s actually cooked in the turkey the way they don’t want us to cook it anymore, but that’s the best kind. [laughs]”
AUDIO: Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley talks about his family’s Thanksgiving traditions.
Lady A (Charles-Thanksgiving traditions) OC: …with my brothers. :17
“Thanksgiving is a really big holiday for my family. We always have about 60 of our closet family and friends up in the North Georgia mountains for kind of a yearly, big Thanksgiving extravaganza. We have about everything under the sun to eat, and I usually have an eating contest with my brothers.”
AUDIO: Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley talks about the annual eating contest he and his two brothers – Josh and John — have over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Lady A (Charles-Thanksgiving eating contest) OC: …five pounds! :25
“One of my most memorable Thanksgiving memories was probably the first year that me and my two brothers decided to start our annual eating contest where we ate throughout the whole day. We started that morning and weighed ourselves and at the very end of the night, we weighed ourselves out and all three of us equally gained five pounds. I wish we had a more accurate scale to decide the winner, but we all tied. Five pounds!”
AUDIO: Lady Antebellum Dave Haywood says the whole band is thankful for their families.
Lady Antebellum (Dave-Thankful) OC: …with ‘em. :13
“I think all of us are definitely most thankful for our families. They have been a huge support of our career ever since we started, and Thanksgiving is a great time to be with them. We travel so much, and we always try to make sure we take off the Thanksgiving holiday so we can be home with them.”
AUDIO: Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott describes her favorite Thanksgiving dish.
Lady A (Hillary-Thanksgiving food) OC: …ever tasted. :12
“So, my favorite Thanksgiving food would have to be my grandmother’s sweet potato casserole. There’s just something she puts in it — probably all the love – that makes it better than anything I’ve ever tasted.”
AUDIO: Mallory Hope recalls a favorite Thanksgiving memory.
Mallory Hope (Thanksgiving) OC: …before lunch. [laughs] :44
“When I think about Thanksgiving, I can’t help but giggle because a few years ago my mother and all of my siblings and their spouses and the grandkids were coming up and staying for Thanksgiving, that she got up really early and started cooking our dinner, and she had the turkey and the dressing and the pecan pie and the mashed potatoes and fried potatoes, and she went all out and called us in for dinner, and it was 10 o’clock in the morning. And we all had to sit down at 10 in the morning and just eat and eat and eat. But it was so funny, because we have been teasing my mother about it for a few years now. But she just got so excited that we were there and it was great, and now we have this awesome memory of eating our dinner before lunch. [laughs]”
Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles explains what she’s thankful for at Thanksgiving.
Sugarland (Thanksgiving) OC: …happy girl. :24
“I’m most thankful for health, and the health of my loved ones and family. I’m thankful for the safety of my brother who came back from Afghanistan. I’m thankful for music and to have a wonderful partner and manager and a wonderful group of people to go on the road with and do what I love. I’m thankful for the fans that buy the records to allow us to do what we love. I could list on and on, but I am a happy girl.”
