So about a month ago I received an email from
DariusRucker.com. This isn’t out of the ordinary, as I’m pretty sure I signed up years ago when Darius put out his
R&B album and I guess it just carried over. He’s kind of a big country music guy these days,
maybe you've heard, so there’s no mention of his former efforts,
successful or
not, on the site. Anyhow, back to this email…it was offering the chance to be in the audience for a
CMT taping of some series they have called
Invitation Only. I’m not big on CMT, and I don’t think I actually get the channel, so I’d never heard of it. But, naturally, a virtual once-in-a-lifetime offer like that is hard to pass up. I replied and figured I’d just get lost in the thousands of entries there were sure to be. This was one of the times I liked being wrong.
To say I was pleasantly surprised to get the email confirming my seat for the show would be an understatement. I was smiling and laughing (more like little girl giggling, really) for the next few hours. I had to put in an hour of elliptical at the gym to calm myself down.
If the original email said where the show was, I didn’t remember, but turns out it’s in Nashville, TN, which makes sense, at one of the studios in the
Grand Ole Opry. I’d never been to Nashville, so this was sure to be a fun adventure. My friends at
Google Maps gave me the lowdown that it’s about 5.5-6 hours from here to the Music City. I also got some sage wisdom from some cross-country travelers: Don’t just roll in and ask for a hotel room. Stop at the Welcome Center along the interstate and get some discount coupons. Good deal.
The driving portions of the trip were fairly uneventful. It’s interstate the whole way and the weather was nice. My only mistake was getting a
Thirst Buster of
DDP at the Circle K when I gassed up in the morning. I had to make two pit stops on the way because of that misstep. My favorite part of the drive was crossing the Tennessee River. You don’t see many mountains around here, or any at all for that matter, so it was just beautiful to see the huge river and mountains in the distance. Several times I wanted to stop off at the places I saw called something like Look Out Point and such to take in the vistas. I’ll have to do that on my return trip to the central time zone…whenever that happens. Hopefully that comes more sooner than later.
I ended up checking into the “
World Famous Fiddler’s Inn.” Who knew? Seemed to be on par with, or slightly below, a Days Inn, but was $5 cheaper, came with a $10 gas card, and was right across the street from where I needed to be. Can’t beat that.
I had about two hours to kill between checking in and show time, so I went to the
Opry Mills mall. Again, I had no idea what to expect on this trip, but the Opry area is much more all-inclusive than what I’d expected. It’s not just some theater on a street in Nashville. I guess the best way to describe it is to compare it to a college campus. Opry U. includes the actual Grand Ole Opry, a huge mall (Opry Mills) and some sort of
Opryland resort place.
The mall was very nice…and huge. I have a pretty good sense of direction and I lost myself just roaming around. The only disappointment I had on the entire trip was that there wasn’t a
Chic-fil-A in the food court. I did fall victim to the Chinese lady’s offer for a free sample of Orange Chicken, though, so it wasn’t too bad for my first, and only meal, on the day. While dining on my MSG-laced feast, I got confirmation that Hazel was
exhausted and napping after a big trek down the
Augusta Canal.
The highlight of the mall time was interacting with an oriental lady at one of the little cart/kiosk stations in the center of the walkways. I’m just too nice to totally ignore those people. This lady was hawking “Dead Sea Soap,” or something like that, and wanted me to try it out. I made it clear up front that I didn’t want to waste her time and I wasn’t buying anything. She’d have nothing of that, of course, like any good salesperson, and proceeded with the demonstration. I guess it was a good product and my hands did feel clean, and smelled like lavender, but I still wasn’t budging on my “this isn’t in my budget” stance. I tried to explain that I was unemployed (though I really didn’t look like it, since I was dressed up for the show) and that I really couldn’t buy it. The best part was when she said this: “This usually sells for $80, but today I can let you have it for $40. This is a year’s supply…” bla bla bla. Eventually she says, “OK,” looks around, “only for you today, how about $25?” I really did feel bad but, even at $25, I don’t need some once-a-week hand soap.
On to the show!
“Oh, you’re my only V on the list,” says the lady checking off names. “Oh? That means I get to sit in front, right?” As it turned out, I almost did. Everyone milled around in the parking lot for about an hour before they let us into the studio. I met a bunch of nice people, who all seemed to feel the same way about it that I did. They just replied to the initial email and never thought they’d get picked. The main people I was standing with were long-time
HBF fans and followed Darius over to this new genre. One guy didn’t get the memo that his name never was Hootie, but I didn’t really want to get into that discussion and ruin the mood, so I just let it slide.
The farthest I heard of someone coming was from
Canada! There was a lady from Chicago, too. She, apparently, had hand made Darius a shirt and planned to give it to him later. I never got a confirmation that that happened, sadly. I met a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, and his wife, from Ashville, NC, a single dude from Ohio, an RN from LaGrange, GA, and a couple of other ladies from Greensboro, NC. One of these ladies told a story that she used to tell her son that Darius was his dad, since the kid’s last name was Rucker. (Classy) The RN was there with her husband and they were making a weekend of it. Apparently
Reba was doing the Opry on Saturday night and they were getting down on that, too.
Finally…we’re getting ushered in! I really had no idea what to expect and just assumed it would be an auditorium setting with a stage. Wrong again, I’m afraid. The best description I can give is that the place looked like a big living room. There were lots of plush and leather sofas and chairs, random wooden cubes, and lots of fancy Oriental-looking rugs.
Television is a production and, having never been involved with anything like this before, I really didn’t know everything that goes into it. It probably took a half-hour or so to get everyone situated where the production staff wanted them. As people filed in and took initial spots others would be moved around to balance out the look and, presumably, to get the best-looking people in spots where they’d be on camera. I was first put on one of the wooden cubes close to the middle. “This is OK,” I thought, “at least I’m here and this is going to be great.” A few minutes later a different lady with a headset came over and said, “We need you up on the front row. Take that couch over there, next to the ladies.” “You got it, boss!” I said back to her. It was like being called up from the minors.
I stayed on the front row for about 20 minutes and, naturally, made friends with the people around me. If I’m not good for a one liner to spark conversation, then I’m good for nothing. At one point a camera crew from CMT came around and got us to answer some questions about the experience. It seemed like one of those filler things that may or may not be used, but it’s good to have just in case it’s needed. I’d put it as part of an opening montage of clips, but I don’t know what the real feel of the show will be once everything is put together. At this point I’m probably 10 feet from the spot on the stage area where Darius will stand. After seeing some people around us get moved around, the four of us on my couch decided no eye contact with the production people would be the best strategy.
That seemed to work, up until they started checking the lighting on those people who were chosen to ask Darius questions. The RN from LaGrange and I were bumped back a row after the lighting for people behind us wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t terrible, though. I now had better back support in a nice leather chair (and a fancy leopard print accent pillow) and was about 15 feet from Darius. If the lady in the bright yellow dress and the guy in the blue blazer make it on TV, I was sitting there first! ;)
Darius came out soon after that and played for what seemed like two hours or so. Not constantly, of course, as it’s just taping for TV and everything will be edited together seamlessly later. I’ve said this to some people since I got back and I’ll say it again here, this has to be one of the top five things I’ve experienced in my life. Everyone has their own things that they love and build up in their hearts and minds and I'm no different. A lot of the time, though, things don’t live up to the hype you give it. This was everything and more for me. I was smiling ear-to-ear and trying not to get choked up while singing along w/ the songs for the first half hour or so of the show.
He talked between most songs and told a little story for some of them. He introduced the band and was dropping names of who all he wrote the song with and what the inspiration was and that sort of thing. There were a couple of songs they had to do twice. Once he was dancing and moving around too much and went out of the good lighting, or something like that, so it was a do-over. “Well, I’m sorry people on the left and right. I guess I can’t do that anymore,” he joked. Not sure what the deal was with the other song needing to be redone, but no one seemed to mind.
Every two or three songs some makeup people came out and dabbed off Darius’ sweaty forehead. “Boy, I set CMT back some money. They had to buy all new shades for me…my complexion is a little different than they’re used to, you know,” he jokingly said.
The night wasn’t without its technical difficulties. At one point the wireless pickup deal wasn’t working on Darius’ guitar, so they had to plug him in directly. The guitar tech guy asked the sound guy to mute the channel while he changed out the plugs. He must have only muted it in the outgoing speakers, because Darius yelled “OWW! Well, that hurt,” when it clicked back into place. And another time the lead guitar guy needed some stuff adjusted in his in-ear monitors. I liked all of that action and didn’t feel as bad that
Sunday mornings are sometimes a little rough.
They did most of the songs on his country album,
Learn to Live, and also
Hold My Hand and
Let Her Cry from HBF. While I love those songs, it was a little strange seeing some random band behind Darius for them. They also did a song that I’ve only heard a couple of times before to end the show. I don’t know the name of it, but I take it that it’s one of those country staples that you just have to play if you’re in country music. Kind of like if you’re a random bar band in the south, you have to play
Sweet Home Alabama and
Living on a Prayer. Anyway, I think the song is called
Family Tradition.
Al Gore’s Internet tells me this is true and it’s a
Hank Williams Jr. ditty.
Darius stood by the door as people exited and smiled for pictures, signed autographs, and shook hands with everyone who wanted it. I took a couple of pictures for people with my phone and sent them along. I didn’t want to bother him with getting a picture with me; I just shook his hand, thanked him for the night, and said to keep up the good work. It was really an awesome thing to be a part of and I’m so glad I got the opportunity.
It was about 10PM central and I almost just went back to my motel room and crashed but I talked myself into heading downtown to see what there was to see. I’d been told before that Broadway was the place to go, so I glanced at my fresh Nashville street map and started on my way. To my surprise, I managed to find it without any problems. I had to make some educated guesses as to which interstate forks to take, but it all worked out. After parking on a side street, and being assured from a local girl who parked behind me that I didn’t need to worry about feeding the meter, I walked up to Broadway and strolled around. Neon lights and cowboy boots (sometimes paired together) is a good way to describe it. I strolled along both sides of a two-block section and decided that
The Stage looked like the best option.
Aside from the $4 beers (
Master’s week flashbacks) I didn’t have any complaints about the place. It was an interesting crowd. When I got there it was a mixture from grandparents to fresh 21 year olds. As the night went on the older crowd faded out and the place filled up with Gen X and Y’ers. (Are those tags still appropriate?) There was at least one bachelorette thing going on and another group was celebrating their friend getting chosen earlier that night as a cheerleader for the
Tennessee Titans. I socialized some, made some three-hour friends, and had a good dance partner most of the time.
The band there was pretty good. I didn’t catch their name, but it was a seven-piece outfit and had all the elements you’d ever want in a honky-tonk bar band. Tight harmonies? Check. Fiddle? Check.
Keytar?! Check. Lead guitarist who looked like Alice Cooper? Check. After being there for an hour or so I thought I was ready to leave. I wasn’t tired, but I had to drive home in the morning and needed some sleep. I made an agreement with myself that if they played back-to-back country songs that I’d never heard of again that I’d leave. Well…that didn’t happen. If it'd left I would have missed
Tommy Tutone coming up on stage to do
867-5309/Jenny. By the end of the night the country music was few and far between and the lead singer made the comment that, “If y’all weren’t still here, we’d be fired for this,” regarding all the rock music being played. I ended up closing the place down at 2:30AM. This is central time, of course, so really 3:30AM for me.
I found my way back to my motel without a problem and managed a few hour of sleep before rolling out once the sun came up. Of course there was a two-hour thunderstorm during my naptime, which seemed to be right above my world famous accommodations, and I awoke to the sound of booming thunder and car alarms a few times. My neck and shoulders are still sore from my time on that bed.
All in all, it was a great day. (Top Five, even) I unquestionably want to go back to Nashville sometime soon, when I can spend more time and take in more of the sights and sounds it has to offer.
