I had a very long, but awesome end to the week last week!
Thursday was the Nash Next finals, and for the second year in a row, Peoria had a finalist in the top 10! I wanted to go support The NATU Band the way they deserved to be supported! So at 5:15am, I headed to Starbucks to get a VERY LARGE coffee and start my solo drive to Nashville.
Let’s fill the tank, let Tom Petty Crank, you could be my American Girl. Just you and me making memories is better than anything in this whole wide world on this highway to one hell of a good time!
On my way to #Nashville to see The NATU Band hopefully WIN at #NashNext
— Radio Kristin (@RadioKristin) October 11, 2018
If you follow me on Instagram, you know I’m a big fan of sunsets and sunrises, so I was SO HAPPY to watch the sky go from inky black, to a little light, to the sun peaking out over the horizon, painting the sky pretty colors.
Let me tell you, while getting up early sucks, driving to Nashville early makes for so much easier of a drive. Even the Nashville traffic wasn’t bad when I got there around noon.
If you’ve never been to the show, Ty, Kelly, and Chuck broadcast from a building on 2nd st… just a few blocks from downtown, so that’s where I decided to park at. The Wildhorse Saloon is ALSO on 2nd Street, and I got into town just in time to walk to the Wildhorse and see The NATU Band’s soundcheck. They sounded great!
Afterwards (and the guys MIGHT kill me for revealing this part of the story, but I thought it was hilarious), they all didn’t like what they brought to perform in, so we went to the mall to go shopping. Let me tell you, I had NO IDEA guys spent as much time figuring out what they want to wear! The sales girl at Boot Barn told us this was the “payback store.” Girls drag their guys all over the mall and make them wait as they try on clothes, but Boot Barn is where the guys pay them back for that!
But the guys found some clothes, we all grabbed something to eat at the food court, and then it was time to get ready! We all went back to our respective hotels, and later met up at the Wildhorse Saloon! By the way ALL TEN artists are amazing, so check them all out!
Brecken Miles- Something About Ya
Murphy’s Ford- Let Love Do What It Do
Jessie Ritter- Meet Your Mother
Harper Grace- Yard Sale
Lane Mack- New Orleans Bound
Justin Rivers- Gone Gone
Jessica Rose- Back in Town
The Natu Band- Highway (obviously OUR favorite)
See their live performance below
Brian Fuller- Buzzin’ Like You
Pearl Clarkin- Fishin’
The NATU Band did an amazing job performing Highway at the Nash Next finale! They were 8th out of 10 to perform…
Just a few more songs and as the judges were deciding who won, Radio Romance played Weekend Live. Sorry, I didn’t capture that, I was too busy singing at the top of my lungs!
Then it was time to find out the newest artist signed to Big Machine Label Group…
Jessie Ritter representing Ft. Walton Beach, Florida was crowned not only Nash Next 2018 WINNER, but the FIRST female Nash Next Winner! She and her band played one more song:
So our boys did NOT take home the crown. But they played their hearts out and made some REALLY great connections while they were in Nashville.
AND Natu accomplished a goal he had set for himself three years ago! He said he brought his family to the Wildhorse Saloon to eat and said “someday I’m going to play on that stage” and he DID!
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo2iIWTn5j_/?taken-by=thenatuband
BUT we’re in Nashville for a night, win or lose, we were definitely going to celebrate the band. So we went to a few Nashville bars and danced and had a great time!
I Ubered back to my hotel shortly before the bars closed and ended up going to bed at about 2:15… which wasn’t a great idea when I planned to be at Ty, Kelly, and Chuck early the next morning…
In the not-the-best-decision-ever category, I JUST got back to my hotel (2:15a) and I need to be at Ty, Kelly, and Chuck at 7, to leave afterward and drive 6 1/2 hrs back to Peoria. But fun was had, even though Natu did not win!
— Radio Kristin (@RadioKristin) October 12, 2018
On about three hours of sleep, I touched up the makeup I fell asleep in from the night before (thankfully, most of it was still there!), ran a brush through my hair, and packed up to check out of my hotel (after grabbing breakfast, of course) before headed to the Nash Campus to watch Ty, Kelly, and Chuck! I was not alone in the studio! In fact, there was a HUGE Bachelorette party, and a mother/daughter duo where the daughter was celebrating her 21st birthday! The trio said it was one of the biggest and LIVELIEST studio audiences they had ever seen!
They interviewed Jessie Ritter on air, and then I snuck off to have my own interview with the newest winner! Jessie is one of those people who is just joyful and full of light, she’ll make your day happier just by being around her! We were ALL tired, so the interview wasn’t long, but check out her live version of Meet Your Mother with the fiddle and guitar from Aria and Jim respectively!
After the show, I was bad at taking selfies with our radio-family-from-another-city, but I did snap ONE with Elaina from Nash Nights Live!
Honestly at this point, I was just trying to procrastinate driving back…although I got on the road pretty quickly as I had Keith Urban Meet and Greets in Peoria Friday evening, and I did NOT want to miss that! So finally, I got back into the car and started my journey home… and realized that I hadn’t even snapped a picture of my favorite city… no I did NOT text and snap pictures! Really I aimed the camera and took a bunch, so that hopefully ONE would turn out since I wasn’t looking at it at all… and fortunately, I did get a pretty nice one, which, when I was completely stopped in traffic in Kentucky, I ended up posting on Instagram.
My trip home took about SEVEN hours due to stopped traffic in Kentucky, and then just to tease me with how close to home I was, just outside of Springfield. BUT I got into town around 5:45; I didn’t even go HOME before I went to the Graffiti U World Tour… Meet and Greets were at 6 so I hustled because I had NEVER MET Keith Urban, and…
Full disclosure, they made Brian and I take the picture together and I cut him out, lol!
Anyway, I spent a grand total of about 22.5 hours in Nashville, and these little teases are hard on a girl! But it was a LOT of stories for 22.5 hours, and I was happy to do it!
