New York, NY (Top40 Charts) On Tuesday, January 27, 2015, Rhonda
Vincent & The Rage performed two sold out shows in Naples, Florida. We were expecting to travel after the show to Key West, Florida and record in Jimmy Buffet's Recording Studio. After the show, we discovered it is illegal to park a bus of any kind in Key West, Florida. I called campgrounds, and they were all sold out of spaces till March, so our trip was cancelled. I began browsing Facebook as I do each night before going to sleep. I noticed a friend's check in to see Merle Haggard, then quickly looked up Merle's schedule, and found he was performing on Wednesday at The Villages, Florida.
I found the web site to buy tickets at The Savannah Center, and saw it was sold out. I turned out the lights and laid down to go to sleep, then sat back up, remembering that Merle's driver Ray had came to one of our shows in Bakersfield, California. I quickly text Ray, and told him we were in Florida, Merle's show was sold out, we couldn't get tickets, and that we would give anything to open a show for Merle Haggard. He quickly text back and simply said, "I will ask."
The next morning I woke up to a phone call that said they would love to have us open the show for Merle. I couldn't believe my ears. I had sang on five songs with Merle Haggard and
George Jones on their duet album "Kickin' Out The Footlights Again"; but somehow my path had never crossed the Mighty Merle.
At 7:30pm on January 28, 2015, on our free day, we ended up with the experience of a lifetime, and opened the show for Merle Haggard. We played two songs from our Grammy Nominated project, "Only Me", then sang our acapella gospel song "His Promised Land" and ended with a medley instrumental featuring the entire band. Merle and his entire entourage and crew showed us an incredible hospitality that is unmatched. Merle watched our sound check, and the entire band watched our performance. It was a dream come true that we will never forget.
I was thrilled to have a chance to visit with he and his wife aboard their tour bus, then later he posed for photos with the band and I. We told him about Hunter's wedding present to his wife, being a pot bellied pig, and how she had named it Merle Hoggard. The Hag even signed a photo of the piggy that will be framed.
Merle writes songs everyday, and my new dream is to record a song with him; and hopefully one he's recently written.
Our journey now takes us to Miami, FL where we will sail about the Country's Family Reunion / Larry's Country Diner Cruise. We will return to Nashville on Sunday 2/8/2015 to view The Grammy's from The Listening Room and also perform Sunday night at the
National SPBGMA Awards.
The fun continues!!
