Forever Country with Today's Best Country Announcers!

Being it is the 50th Annual CMA Awards, we thought having our announcers say something about country music and what it means to them!

Country music has been the one constant in my life. My earliest memory is dancing atop my father’s feet to “Silver Wings” by Merle Haggard. I knew that George Jones’ “He Stopped Loving Her Today” was the best song ever written at 5 years old. It’s been the soundtrack to my life and the joy in my career. What a gift I’ve been given to be raised by (and raised some hell by!) this music. Harlan Howard, the great songwriter once said the magic of country music was “three chords and the truth.” I believe that. This music isn’t what I do…it’s who I am.

For me, country music will always be my mother, listening to Glen Campbell. I’m pretty sure I knew the words to Rhinestone Cowboy before I could walk.

I love country music because the stories are real and relate-able.

The influence of Country Music started very early in my life, with my Grandfather being a bluegrass Singer and Musician. We sang hymns together almost every time we saw each other and wherever we could find an audience! Ha! My Grandfather taught me how to simply “sing along” (even if you don’t know the song), which led to me writing my own music by the time I was 12! Not long after that I fell in love with Johnny Cash simply because he reminded me so much of my Grandpa, but his honest and heartfelt lyrics are what hooked me in for good! Now I sing at campfires, family reunions, in musicals and along to the country songs I play every day on the radio! So I guess I owe my life to Country Music! I know my Grandpa would say the same!

My story, probably like most, starts with Garth Brooks. My parents would clean the house every Saturday Morning playing Garth Brooks. I fell in love with every song. I would then ask for a rocking horse for Christmas and cowboy boots! Every year my dad would take me to a rodeo where I would have the whole outfit goin’ on! The cowboy hat, boots, shirt, and would carry around a broom stick with a horse on it!

Like most kids, I grew up…I changed with the times. I started listening to other genres of music. Rap, hip hop, rock. I started playing football and country music wouldn’t be the music of choice in the locker room for pre-game rituals!

One Summer I didn’t play football. I decided to work a bit, save some money for school, and maybe hang out with friends. One summer night I was driving back from a friends house and my radio got stuck on a Country Station. Kenny Chesney ‘Boys Of Fall’ drew my attention and made me miss football so much! I thought if a song can build feelings like this, it must have meaning! I went out and bought ‘Hemingway’s Whiskey’ Kenny Chesney’s 2010 album. I listened to every song through and through. That fall I ended up volunteering to Coach my High School Football team to get back in touch with the sport. Along the way I bought so many country albums! Keith Urban ‘Get Closer’, Dierks Bentley ‘Up On The Ridge’, Darius Rucker ‘Charleston, SC 1966’. I slowly became acquainted with my country roots.

Fast Forward 6 years later as I live and breathe Country Music. I get to bring Today’s Best Country music to fans as big as me! I workout to Country music, I listen to it on my down time, road trippin’, cookin’, cleanin’ etc! After many years of being a boy…I grew up, became a man, and pulled up my country roots!