Luke Bryan burst on the country scene last year with his huge hit, "All My Friends Say." The same year, he wrote "Good Directions," a multi-week #1 for Billy Currington. This year, Luke has a song in our Top 15, and has been opening for Kenny Chesney's Poets & Pirates stadium shows. All that is the prelude to Luke's debut as co-host of Country Countdown USA.
When he came in the studio, he told Lon, "It's great to finally be here! I used to listen to you in Georgia before I moved here, so to now have a chance to co-host is a dream come true."
Luke came armed with a bunch of stories from the Chesney tour, including one from the first night in Columbia. "What a ride, I'll never forget the first stadium show was in Columbia SC, and it was the closest show to Georgia, so all my family drove up for that show. After I was done, I put on some casual clothes, an old ball cap, a crazy beer shirt, some cargo pants, and some grey tube socks pulled up to my knees. So I'm watching the show, and one of Kenny's stage guys grabs me by the shoulders and says, "You're fixing' to go out there!" And I almost passed out because of what I'm wearing. I told my manager to go to my bus and get me some real clothes, but before she could get back, I hear Kenny call me on stage in my street clothes. So I went out and it's a wonder security didn't come tackle me because they thought I was a fan."
Lon was in Columbia for that first show, and he noticed Kenny do something to Luke as he walked on stage. Luke said, "Kenny has an interesting way of making you comfortable. I came running out, and he does a little, how do you say it? A 'man-tap,' it's totally the whole guy thing. So he kinda pops me in my mid-section, and I double over, and when I walked off the stage, his crew goes, 'Kenny got ya! He gets everybody!' So it was another thing that took my mind off of being in front of 70,000 people."
Keith Urban is also on the Chesney stadium shows, and that has given Luke a chance to see two great shows in one: 'To watch his show in a monumental thing, I get out front, stand on the front-of-house platform, it's the best seat in the house, and watch him. I can say I stood next to Nicole Kidman as Keith sang her Happy Birthday in Chicago's Soldier Field in front of 60,000 people. It's so weird to me, I can't believe it, country radio has let the ultimate country fan into the club. I'm running around being a fan and having a great time with it."
Another career highlight for Luke was his first major award nomination....for the Academy of Country Music's Top New Male award. As a result, Luke brough his whole family to Las Vegas for the show. "It was a fun week, I like to play dice, so I probably threw the dice too much that week. That whole experience and walking the red carpet was a fun experience." He also had a pretty fun experience as he walked through the hotel with his wife: "What was interesting is a lot of people tell my wife Caroline that she looks like Carrie Underwood. So Caroline as walking through the casino, and people were loosing their minds, coming up to her, wanting to take pictures, wanting me to take the picture, having no idea who I was, thinking she was Carrie Underwood."
There are lots more stories like these on Country Countdown USA with Lon Helton. Go to http://www.countrycountdownusa.com/ for pictures, audio, and video from Lon's interview.
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