Universal Universal Music Group Nashville Pressroom

Keith Urban wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of the fans for an amazing tour, as well as all of the cards, letters, gifts and well-wishes they’ve sent to him in regards to his upcoming vocal cord surgery.

Luke Bryan takes his fans behind-the-scenes of what his CMA 2011 was like — including rehearsals for the big show, radio remotes and a special fan performance! The video shows just how much Luke didn’t “want this night to end!”

Check it out!

“Hi! This is Alan Jackson. I hope y’all have a very happy Thanksgiving out there.”

 “Hey y’all! What’s up? This is Darius Rucker, wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!”

 “Hey! It’s Dierks Bentley! Happy Thanksgiving!”

“Hey folks! It’s Eric Church, wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving.”

“Hey! This is Eric Paslay, wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving.”

“Hey everybody! We are Lady Antebellum, wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving.”

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 24th, and most people will be enjoying time with their friends and families, including some of your favorite country stars, such as Alan Jackson, Darius Rucker, Keith Urban, Dierks Bentley, Lady Antebellum, Eric Church, Eric Paslay and more. They give us 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 has a lot to be thankful for, including his two daughters – Evie (rhymes with Chevy) and Jordan, who was born on Christmas Day. Here he gives us the extent of what he’s thankful for this year:

Dierks Bentley (Thankful for) OC: …appreciative of. :45

 “Coming off the Miles & Music event this year in Nashville and Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital and knowing how many families are going through tough times with health of their children. That’s the number-one blessing when you have kids is that they’re healthy. Even when they have a mild cold, it’s like, ‘Aww, man. I feel so bad for them.’ I can’t imagine what those folks at Vanderbilt and St. Jude and all of those children’s hospitals across the country, what they’re going through on Thanksgiving. I’m sure they’re just happy to be together, and that’d be the same thing for me—just to be with my family and thankful for the blessings that I have. And the second thing we will pray for is the troops and their families, the ones that are away from their families at Thanksgiving, the ones that are out there fighting on Thanksgiving Day so we can be back here and have that quality time, have that quiet time is definitely something we’re so appreciative of.”

AUDIO: Dierks Bentley talks about his Thanksgiving must-have! It’s an oldie, but a goodie!

Dierks Bentley (Thanksgiving must-have) OC: …for Thanksgiving. :4

“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 co8uple 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: 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: 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: 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 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.”

Luke Bryan is set to wrap his CMT On Tour dates this Saturday (November 19^th) in Monroe, Louisiana. The trek, which also features opening acts Lee Brice, Josh Thompson and Matt Mason, kicked off a couple of months ago, and Luke tells CMT.com that the tour has been one of the most humbling and gratifying moments in his career. As far as his first headlining tours go, he learned a lot from being on the road with others, and like a sponge, soaked up all of the knowledge he could from folks such as Tim McGraw. “You always learn from the big pros. They go out there and deliver it night in and night out, you know,” Luke tells us. “Guys like [McGraw], they’re where they are because they’re pros. And you just want to conduct yourself in that fashion too – go in, be ready to put on a show night in and night out and don’t take any second on stage for granted.”

• Luke is scaling the country charts with his latest single, “I Don’t Want This Night to End,” which is from his gold-certified album, tailgates & tanlines.

AUDIO: Luke Bryan explains a few things he’s learned from touring with others for his own headlining tour.

Luke (learning from others) 111711 OC: …doing that. :51

“You kinda have to just take all that knowledge and wrap it up into performing. And you always learn from the big pros. They go out there and deliver it night in and night out, you know. They may come off stage and, like with [Tim] McGraw. Heck, he almost fainted, you know, he broke his foot. We were in Raleigh, and it was about a hundred degrees on stage and just got dehydrated. When I saw him backstage, he was green as a gourd, and so he goes back out and finishes the show. Guys like that, they’re where they are because they’re pros, and you just want to conduct yourself in that fashion too – go in, be ready to put on a show night in and night out and don’t take any second on stage for granted. Take your audience on rides, you know, and let ‘em enjoy it and be a part of it, and you kinda learn that by watching the guys who’ve been so successful doing that.”

In the latest episode of DBTV,  Dierks Bentley takes fans behind-the-scenes while he puts the finishing touches on his latest album, Home. The new project hits stores February 7th!

The CMA Awards were an exciting whirlwind for Lady A as they came away with the award for Vocal Group of the Year right before kicking off their Own The Night Tour. Take a look at all the action behind-the-scenes and backstage!

Eric Church is getting used to the fact that he is now a father after nearly a couple of months of being one. His wife, Katherine, gave birth to their first child, son Boone McCoy, on October 3rd, 2011. He is truly a hands-on dad, which began in the delivery room after the bouncing baby boy was born. “Probably the least qualified person in the room to hold the baby is the dad, and all these doctors and nurses, and Katherine can’t hold the baby at that point in time, and who do they give the baby to, me, the dad. After they make sure they’re okay, which doesn’t take them too long,” recalls Eric. “I was still worried and they hand him to you and it’s kinda, ‘Good luck.’ They turn around and start tending to Katherine, and here I am just freaking out holding this little thing. I laughed at that, I got a chuckle out of that one. I thought I am the last person in this room that needs to be holding this kid, you know. Where’s the nurse?” Eric, who has been able to spend some time at home with his budding family, says the two are just learning as they go. “It’s just one of those things you’ve got to jump in with both feet, and that’s what we’ve done.”

• Eric is climbing the country charts with his latest smash hit, “Drink in My Hand,” which is from his R.I.A.A. gold-certified album, Chief.

AUDIO: Eric Church recalls being the first to hold his newborn son, Boone McCoy, in the delivery room.

Eric Church (Delivery room) OC: … we’ve done.  1:09

 “It’s funny, you’re in the operating room, the delivery room, and probably the least qualified person in the room to hold the baby is the dad, and all these doctors and nurses, and Katherine can’t hold the baby at that point in time, and who do they give the baby to, me, the dad. After they make sure they’re okay, which doesn’t take them too long. I was still worried and they hand him to you and it’s kinda, ‘Good luck.’ They turn around and start tending to Katherine, and here I am just freaking out holding this little thing. I laughed at that, I got a chuckle out of that one. I thought I am the last person in this room that needs to be holding this kid, you know. Where’s the nurse? [laughs] It’s one of those things you just learn as you go. You can’t really break them, I guess. They’re pretty durable. They bounce pretty good. [laughs] It’s just one of those things you’ve got to jump in with both feet, and that’s what we’ve done.”

From the TheCountryVibe.com:

Lady Antebellum performed a special acoustic show for their fan club members last night (Monday, November 14th) at The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. They played some of their early hits like “I Run to You” and “Love Don’t Live Here,” as well as many songs off their new Own The Night CD, including “Just A Kiss” and “We Owned the Night.” They even played a fan request for the first song they ever wrote together, “All We’ll Ever Need.” Hillary [Scott] revealed that the song was originally written for her to sing as a solo artist, but she begged them to turn it into a duet with Charles [Kelley], and if not for that song, the idea to form Lady Antebellum might have never been conceived.

When Lady Antebellum returned to the stage for their encore Hillary told the audience, “This next song I want to dedicate to my biggest fan.  I’m gonna try to hold it together but it probably won’t happen.”  Then through tears she said, “My grandfather passed away on Friday and he loved us, he loved the Ryman and he always used to say when you play the Ryman with those two tall, long-legged boys, you need to sing a gospel song, so that’s what we’re going to do.” They then sang “I Surrender All,” which brought Hillary to tears, and then closed the show with “Need You Now.”

Little Big Town gives their fans a “thrill” when they perform for fans on Halloween.