“You kind of stop yourself from going places where you think something might be triggered, and Fan Fair - CMA Fest - is definitely one of those for me.”Ī Look at Tina Turner’s Country Music Moments “Everything’s a memory there when you get into that world of grief and loss,” Johnston says. When the senior Johnston died, it made the thought of playing CMA Fest an emotional trap. His father, former Grand Ole Opry drummer Jerry Ray Johnston, frequently took him to Fan Fair in the ’80s and ’90s at the fairgrounds. Like the genre itself, the festival is built on those memories, which is why Johnston skipped it last year. Hall, Roy Acuff, Porter Wagoner, Skeeter Davisand Marty Robbins. ![]() Of course, there’s the “pink carnation and a pickup truck” line in “American Pie” - that pickup truck is still big business in country music: “wait in the truck,” “Heart Like a Truck,” “Truck Bed,” “I Drive Your Truck,” “New Truck,” “Out of That Truck,” etcetera.īut not to be forgotten is McLean’s reference to the spirit world with “the three men I admire the most/The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost.” Many of the artists who were crucial to that first Fan Fair are gone, including Ernest Tubb, Tom T. That’d be fun.’ It just doesn’t exist anymore.” ‘Man, you remember that Skynyrd crash? Dude. “It’s like, ‘Hey, I got an idea, Neil.’ It’s me and Ashley Gorley and Neil, let’s say. “Just writing a song about that shit - can you imagine?” asks Jaren Johnston, who founded The Cadillac Three with Neil Mason and Kelby Ray. He has occasionally dipped into mortality in hits such as “If Tomorrow Never Comes,” “Papa Loved Mama” or the long version of “The Thunder Rolls,” and “American Pie” is famously built around the deaths of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper in a plane crash.īig Loud CEO/Partner Seth England Wins Billboard Country Power Players' Choice Award Since those are the kinds of songs that Brooks was frequently attracted to, his penchant for “American Pie” influenced the generations of country artists who have followed him. And it was a song that could be delivered with an acoustic guitar and a voice on the back of a truck.” “It was a story, and you kind of had to listen to the words to get the full value of the song. “That song was about that undeniable chorus - you hear it once, and it’s stuck in your head forever,” says Charlie Worsham, who will play June 9 at CMA Fest’s The Cadillac Three & Friends concert at Ascend Amphitheater. And “American Pie” had a huge influence on Garth Brooks, who said it “could quite possibly be the greatest song in music history” in a 2022 documentary, The Day the Music Died: The Story of Don McLean’s “American Pie.” McLean became close friends with producer-guitarist Chet Atkins (who, ironically, died June 30, 2001, just 17 days after McLean played CMA Fest). Before the ’70s were over, McLean recorded Roy Orbison‘s “Crying” in Music City with The Jordanaires on backing vocals, and it brought him a country hit in 1981. ![]() Pop singer Perry Como recorded one of his songs, “And I Love You So,” in Nashville exactly one year after “American Pie” hit No. 1. But it didn’t take long for them to build. It’s doubtful that anyone who heard “American Pie” in 1972 thought the song, or McLean, would have country connections. Or, better put, from the “Chevy to the levee.”Ĭountry Power Players: Billboard’s 2023 List of Executives Revealed It returned to Lower Broadway downtown in 2001, and McLean appeared that year with a performance of “American Pie” at the Riverfront Stage - appropriate, since it coincided with the festival’s move from the racetrack to the riverfront. And it even features some new ones - for instance, Kidd G, Harper Grace, Avery Anna and Noah Thompson -who are so young that they were born after the last time the festival changed its location, in 2001.ĬMA Fest launched at the Municipal Auditorium downtown in April 1972 and stayed there until 1982, when it moved to the Tennessee State Fairgrounds. It has its share of heritage acts, including Reba McEntire, Tanya Tucker, Trisha Yearwood and Shenandoah. The lineup includes current hitmakers Lainey Wilson, Jason Aldean, Jon Pardi and Jelly Roll. ![]() I usually ask all of our young staff, ‘Tell me about an artist you saw for the first time,’ because one of the things I think we really value is the opportunity at the festival to have artists in all different stages of their career.” “That’s what I always think about every year. “One of my favorite lines as relates to CMA Fest is ‘I can still remember when the music made me smile,’ ” CMA CEO Sarah Trahern says.
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