Friday night we were treated to something few have experienced but everyone should try to do it once in their lives. Being part of the whole HillBilly experience, I have had the priveledge of getting backstage a time or two, sometimes legitimately, sometimes not, but it is far cooler to be invited backstage than to sneak in or to bribe a security dude with a hat or t-shirt. This past Friday night we were invited to the after party for the Dierks Bentley, Bucky Covington, and Luke Bryan concert at the Pompano Beach Amphitheater. It was one of the coolest experiences I have had yet. Believe it or not it was up there with the private taping of a Brooks and Dunn video because we got to actually interact with the stars. One thing I can say about country music stars is that they are more like talking to your neighbors than talking to celebrities. They do not seem to forget their roots, which with all the attention they get might be easy to do.

We met Bucky Covington before the show. I am not sure what I expected, but he was not even close. On one hand he’s already had more time on primetime television than most country artists will have in their career because of American Idol and on the other, he was not the winner. I guess I expected him to be arrogant or at least a little bit snobby. I mean afterall, he is a house hold name (even my aunt knew who he was and she doesn’t know a thing about country music). He was the complete opposite. Not only was he nice in meeting us, but took the time on several occassions throughout the night to come over and talk with us. By the end of the night you would have thought we’d grown up with Bucky and gone to the same High School.

While we were speaking with Bucky, Dierks Bentley was standing right behind us chatting with some fans. He was right there. We didn’t have to stand in some autograph line or hang out hoping he would have a few minutes to speak with us. We started talking to him like he was hanging out at a party and was ready to move on to the next conversation. It was that easy. He is a super nice guy. He’s one of those stars who likes to get out in the crowd and was telling us how he likes to get into his jeep before the show and go tailgate with some of the fans. He said often the fans do not realize who he is until he tells them (he goes out with a ball cap on, which I have to say makes him look like he would belong in any crowd, its like a Clark Kent disguise). He makes his fans feel very special and takes the time to keep in touch with reality.

We didn’t really get to talk much with Luke Bryan, but I can tell you from what we saw back stage, he likes to have fun…a lot of fun!!!! He’s that crazy guy at the party that always elevates it to the next level. He also fit in like a hand to a glove, cracking jokes and basically hanging out like everyone else.

 Any one of these guys would fit in at your Sunday football party or your Friday night happy hours and they all seemed like they would actually show up if you asked them. Anyway, it was one hell of a time and I hope we get to do it all again real soon.

 I would like to thank Steve, the bass player for Bucky Covington for inviting us and helping us to get our name out there. Steve is by far one of the best bass players on the country music circuit and one hell of a nice guy. I can see us doing a lot with Steve going forward so you will very like see his name pop into these postings.