One of our very own DB Congress members, Randy Alan (PA), recently won the amateur artist “Sing Your Heart Out for a Soldier” competition by submitting a video of himself singing the song “Lucky Me” by Helene Cronin. As we told you before, getting the chance to talk with our president, Dierks Bentley, about his
music really encouraged Randy to pursue his dream.
The University of Pittsburgh senior happily shared his story and photos with us! Enjoy!
Back in the middle of June, I saw that Josh Turner was
hosting a singing contest where you had to record yourself singing the song
“Lucky Me” written by Helene Cronin for a chance to win $10,000, a $300 gift
card, and a trip for two to Nashville to stay at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel,
and also a trip to a Tuesday night Grand Ole Opry show where the winner would be honored
onstage with a giant check presented by Josh Turner and the Opry board members.
So after making the video and uploading it, I found out that I was a top 10 finalist out of 26 potential videos. After a week of voting and judging by a
panel of judges, I was crowned the winner. It was such an amazing achievement
because I put so much work into this contest and it all paid off in the end.
So the trip to Nashville took place August 27 through 29, with the Opry show on the 28
th on a Tuesday
night. I decided to take my mother, Mary Shaffer, on the trip because I wanted
her to be there to see me on the Opry stage for the first time in my life.
When we arrived in Nashville I already had our schedule
mostly planned out of what we were going to be doing, since I’ve been to Nashville
numerous times and knew my way around. I should say that the first day we were
there (Monday), the highlight was going to the Fontanel Mansion (Barbara Mandrell’s
house) and having a personal tour of the place that was put together by my
great friends Ron Harman and Steven Whitson.
Steven actually does the tours at
the Fontanel Mansion. We explored the whole house with guitars and
memorabilia from today’s country artists. I even got to wear Kenny Chesney’s
tour jacket that belonged to him, but one of the greatest honors was to be
asked to play in one of the bedrooms, it might have actually been Barbara’s
room. But sitting at the foot of the bed and playing the song I won the contest
with for everyone in our tour was such an amazing honor that I will never
forget.
Earlier in the day we went to lunch at the Opry Backstage Grill,
where I was asked to play a song on the stage there. Usually an artist has to
audition to play there but since I was going to be on the Opry they waived that
requirement for me. All the staff there were so nice. It's a great place to eat and
I recommend it to anyone visiting that part of Nashville.
To cap the night
off, Ron then took us down to the Country Music Hall of Fame (where he works)
and invited us to
An Intimate Evening With Eddie Stubbs, who was
interviewing Jimmy Newman that night. The show is broadcast over
WSM online
weekly.
One individual that I was introduced to that night was Grand
Ole Opry member Jan Howard. We sat together as we watched the interview taking
place a few rows down on the stage, but between commercial breaks Jan would
tell me stories of how she sang the background vocals on Johnny Cash songs
(specifically “The Ring of Fire”), how she sang a duet with Bill Anderson that
went to number 1, “For Loving You,” and also that she was the one who sang the
demo tape for the Patsy Cline hit “I Fall to Pieces.”
Ron had showed her
the video of me singing the song for the contest and she loved my voice and
what I did with the song. One of the main pieces of advice she gave me was to
“surround yourself with people you can trust.”
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| Randy and Jan Howard |
After the interview, I was
introduced to Eddie Stubbs and got to chat with him for bit, telling him about
my career and how I am just finishing up college. He said “that degree is an important
thing, you are smart for getting your degree before coming down here.” I also
got chat with Jimmy Newman as well who told me that “you have a great smile.
Keep on smiling every day because a smile is a contagious thing.”
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| Randy and Eddie Stubbs |
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| Randy, Jimmy Newman, and Mary Shaffer (Randy's mom) |
After that my
mother, Ron, Jan,
Kelsey Hodges (DB Congress member), and my two cousins
Brittany and Stephannie Cantrell (who came up from Mississippi to see me!),
left and went to lower Broadway for a bit then headed back to the hotel to get
some rest for the show the next day. Monday was an intense day since we
started the day at 4 a.m. Eastern time and ended the day at 1 a.m. Central time.
Tuesday started off by going out to visit Richard’s and
Southern, a family owned Merchandising Company who does all the merchandise for
big name country artists such as Kenny Chesney, Luke Bryan and others. They were
the ones who made my t-shirts for my merchandise. Actually when we arrived they
had just got done unloading Kenny’s merchandise from this year’s tour and were
printing Luke Bryan and Justin Moore shirts.
The owners are great friends of
mine and such nice people. So we took a tour of the place and met everyone that
works there. It was really nice to see the behind the scenes of what went
into making my shirts as well as other country music artists. After that visit
we headed back to Opryland to get ready for the show.
When we arrived at the Opry we were instructed to park in
the back where the artists and backstage crew park. As we walked toward the
entrance, we were greeted by an Opry staff member who was going to escort us
into the backstage area and give us a little mini tour while the first act was
going on. We got to check out every dressing room there, which had a different
theme in each one.
I also was able to go out on stage while the stage crew was
finishing setting up, and stand in the famous Opry Circle! As I touched the
hardwood floor in the circle I thought about all the great country artists who
are my heroes who stood in that circle. For an artist like me, that was an awesome
experience that I won’t forget as well.
Backstage we ran into many people and
artists, Johnny Lee, Thomas Rhett, Chris Young, and then I finally met Josh
Turner. We went into one of the dressing rooms with Josh and got to talk for
about 10 minutes. He was even nice enough to give my mom and I some CD’s, hats,
and t-shirts. The one piece of advice Josh gave me was to “surround yourself
with people you can trust and who will represent you in your career.” He also
signed a poster for me saying to “keep on singing!”
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| Josh Turner, Mary Shaffer, Randy Alan backstage at The Grand Ole Opry |
After we chatted we
then took some promotional photos for the Opry together and then he went to get
ready for his set. So my mom and I went to our seats and watched Chris Young
play for a bit, then as Josh was going on I was brought backstage again to go
over what was going to happen for my award presentation.
In the process I had
the privilege of meeting Pete Fisher, Grand Ole Opry VP and General Manager,
who said, “We’ll be keeping an eye out for you in the near future,” and Bill
Cody, who was announcing that night.
Once Josh was done with his third song, Bill then introduced me to the Opry crowd and I stood in the spotlight
with Josh and Bill holding my check. Josh even held up my hand while the crowd
was clapping. It was such an amazing feeling to be there on that stage with my
family and friends watching. All I can say is I will never forget my first trip
to Opry ever. What an experience and blessing from God it was. I met so many
great people who believe in what I am doing.
Just before leaving on Wednesday, I was able to have lunch at the Opry Backstage Grill with Opry member Jeannie Seely who is from my hometown area of Northwest PA. Jeannie is known for her 1966 Grammy award-winning Country hit, "
Don't Touch Me" along with many other numerous country hits. Getting the chance to sit down and talk with her was so refreshing. She is an amazing individual with a great perspective on life. To hear her stories of what she’s done and been through just blows me away. I was blessed to have a quote from Jeannie in a recent article about me where she said the following,
“His presence as a person renews all your faith in young people. He embraces the history of country music, and he can add to its future.”
As we were leaving, someone recognized Jeannie, but then also recognized me from the Opry show. They even saw me on TV when I was on The Singing Bee on CMT. We took some pictures with them and chatted for a bit, but I just thought that was really funny they recognized me and my name.
As I finish college up this year I’m excited about the
next chapter of my life. My plans are to get a job in Nashville and make the
move down there in the summer. I’ve met some remarkable people that have
changed my life forever and made some lifelong friends who will be there for me
as I make the transition to Music City.
When people ask me why I decided to
pursue music, I just tell them what music did to me. Country music spoke to me
throughout my life; when times were good and when they were tough.
I believe
country music speaks from the heart and really is about things that everyone
goes through in life. For me it was people like Dierks, Kenny, George, Tim, and
countless others who changed my life through music. My goal is to change the
lives of people with my music the way that all those artists changed mine.
Here's the video of Josh Turner presenting Randy with his check:
Randy is performing October 14 at the
Conneaut Lake Pumpkin Fest, Conneaut Lake, PA. You can check out his website here and follow him on Twitter @randyalan99.
Here's Randy's winning video:
