By the evening of the draw date of Friday, May 6, it appeared that Jason Aldean’s fanclub picked all the winners. I hadn’t received and email so I had pretty much written it off my plans for Nashville.  Imagine my surprise on May 10 when I suddenly got an e-mail telling me that I was invited!

Several weeks went by and no information was posted or e-mailed about the details of Jason’s party, and before I knew it, it was time to begin my road trip to Nashville.  At my first overnight stop on my road trip in Columbus, Ohio, I logged onto my e-mail from my hotel and lo and behold, I finally received detailed information regarding Jason’s party.  I could not have been happier when I saw that the check-in was between 11:30 am to 12:15 pm, which meant that I would be able to attend Lady A’s party also, which was later that night.

I arrived at LP Field around 10:30 am to get in line.  There were only about 20 people ahead of me when I arrived, which meant that I would be able to see the soundcheck performance up close.  Around 11:30, we were let inside the gates to register and pick up our fan club shirts, and then we all stood in line again until registration ended at 12:15.  By this time, I would estimate that we had around 75 fans. I got to talking to a girl from Pennsylvania named Nicole, who had been to CMA Fest many times in the past, and she was giving me advice and tips on how to make the most of my time during CMA Fest.  It was nice to make new friends at events like this!

While we stood in line, the fanclub staff told everyone that during Jason’s soundcheck, there would be a “special guest performer” doing soundcheck as well.  Of course, everyone knew it was the one and only Kelly Clarkson, who is Jason’s duet partner in “Don’t You Wanna Stay.”  This was fantastic, because I love Kelly too, and was actually hoping all along that she would be at the party!

Finally, once the registration was complete, we were taken down to the seating area of LP Field, and we were placed in the front few rows of Section C.  Although I was in second row, I got to be smack dab in the middle of the section, so the view was excellent.  Jason and his band were setting up their equipment and getting ready, and then the music began.  It was “Don’t You Wanna Stay” first, and Kelly Clarkson came on stage.  There were plenty of cheers from the audience!  It was really cool to see both Jason and Kelly on stage in casual dress, and everything was all relaxed and informal, with no big fear of performing live in front of thousands of fans.  Kelly then left the stage, and Jason did one more song on his own, “Dirt Road Anthem.”

When the performances were over, we all went back upstairs and lined up to get a photo with Jason, which was taken by his fanclub’s photographer.  We were told that our meet and greet photos would be available for download on the fanclub within a few days.  Nicole was ahead of me, and since we wanted our pictures sooner, I took her photo on my own camera, and she took mine.

Jason was really nice!  I told him that I was looking forward to seeing him on stage in the evening, and thanked him for hosting something as cool as this for the fans.  He even signed my CD cover.  After the meet and greet, we were each given a giant autographed Jason Aldean poster, and then it was over.

That night, after Lady A’s party, we thankfully got inside LP Field before Jason Aldean (and of course, Lady A, too) came on stage.  His performance was really good, and definitely one of the highlights.  I especially looked forward to his performance with Kelly Clarkson, which was phenomenal.

All in all, my first Jason Aldean fanclub party was a lot of fun, as was my very first night of CMA Fest ever. I was glad that his fanclub allowed fans to use their own cameras at the meet and greet, as many other artists do not let you do so, and even hold your camera as you get your professional photo taken to make sure that you don’t.

I am glad that everything worked out in the end, and that the performances were fantastic…I will definitely be back in Nashville next year!

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So, me and my parents made the 8 hour drive down to KY and I met my friend Anna there! It was a free show so we wanted to get there early so we could have front row! I think we got there about 10am and we got front row! Anna also had a meet and greet so we just waited for the time to pass which took like forever. At about 4pm that day, we found out that Blake was gonna do a soundcheck and they told us we would be able to watch. At about 4:30, he came out and did his soundcheck and at the end of the soundcheck he started to walk over to me and I wanted to freak about! He leaned down and handed me the guitar pick he was using! After the soundcheck it just started to pour down rain for hours and it was an outside concert. I was praying that it would stop raining so It didn’t rain out the concert and the meet and greet! But finally around 7pm the rain stopped and they lined us up for our meet and greet! We went back and I was about the 7th one in line. We walked around the corner to where his bus was and there he was! I started freaking out inside and so I waited and waited for my turn with him which seemed like it took FORVER!! Then it was finally my time!! I walked up to him and he said ” I remember you from the soundcheck” and I still couldn’t get a word out! It took me like a full minute to get what I wanted to say out! I told him that I had come 8 hours to see him for my birthday and he said that he loved that and he wished me a happy birthday! I was in heaven! We took a picture and I was moved along! From that moment on I was hooked! He just was so real and sweet and TALL!!

So go to March 2011! I drove down to Fayetteville NC to see him in Concert and I had a meet and greet (my 4th one with him) and this time I had bought him a picture frame that someone told me I could give him for him and Miranda for their wedding. At about 8:00, we went back to the meet and greet! For this meet and greet I was the 1st one in line! He had been taping The Voice so he was late getting in and his tour manger told us that it would be a quick meet and greet, so I really didn’t think he would take the time to look at the picture frame because it was in a box and all. When I went up to him I told him that I had this for him and Miranda and that I hoped he enjoyed it and he was like ” what is this” and then he took the time to open it up and look at it! I had met him the week before in Nashville so I had that meet and greet picture for him to sign. I handed it to him and he looked at it and then looked at me and said “This is your twitter picture, isn’t it?” I was like ‘yes it is’ and then he said “I know you, I see you on there tweeting me.” At that moment I wanted to go fangirl on him but I kept cool and asked for a hug! Let me tell you that guy gives the best HUGS EVER!! He was like “Sure, you can have whatever you want!” Having that come from him makes you just want to MELT! SO then we took our pictures and the meet and greet was over.

Every time I meet him I come out a bigger fan! He is just so true and real and he remembers you! I have met a few country stars and I can say that Blake is the most real and down to earth country star I have met and I look forward to keeping going to his shows and meeting him!

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So you’re a die hard Lauren and Scotty fan. You win two backstage passes to meet them at the Grand Ole Opry…do you take your boyfriend/girlfriend, best friend or….a complete stranger?

You might be surprised to hear me say that my experience meeting Lauren Alaina and Scotty McCreery at the Opry was with a complete stranger. The Opry held a twitter contest on Thursday, June 9th asking people to retweet for a chance to win. I retweeted my little fingers off all day. In meet and greet lines, while eating lunch, while talking to friends…even while at fan club parties. you name it – I was retweeting it. As you can imagine, my twitter friends were less than thrilled. I found them tweeting the Opry telling them to pick me just so i’d shut up. (Hey, I really wanted it – and it was too late to give up!)

I was going through the tweets @ the Opry and found there was one other person trying as hard as me to win, a girl named Sarah. I decided since none of my friends were huge fans, that I’d give it a shot with seeing if this girl wanted to go together if either of us won. I sent her a tweet asking if she’d like to agree that if either of us won, we’d take the other. She agreed. Neither of us were going to give up!

Unfortunately later that day, my phone decided to give up for me. As anyone who owns an iPhone knows, the battery life isn’t exactly fascinating. My phone died by about 7pm and they still had not picked a winner. At this point, I’d been retweeting for 7 hours. SEVEN!

To make a long story short, Sarah didn’t give up and she was chosen as the winner! She notified me and asked if I’d like to go with her…and of course I freaked out. It wasn’t even that huge of a deal that we didn’t know each other – it was more the fact that she had friends who wanted to go and she still chose to take a huge fan like me over them.

I already had tickets for the show (about row 5) and was pretty pumped. When Sarah got there, she informed me our tickets were in the back and we had to be in them to be ready for them to come get us to go backstage. If we weren’t there, we didn’t go. So I left my seat and went back to sit with her. I was completely cool with leaving my good seats for a backstage experience – one I’ll never forget!

Almost immediately after Scotty’s set ended, a lovely man named Scott came and got us to go backstage. I remember feeling extremely flustered and nervous, as I always get when I’m meeting people I really admire. We were taken backstage and kind of kept to the side while Lauren and Scotty did some quick press off the stage. When they were ready, we were directed into an Administrative room where the meet and greet would be held.

There were about 5-10 people in the room, including some press people and a camera person who recorded the entire thing. I remember Lauren was singing in a low voice when we first entered the room, although I couldn’t make out what song she was singing.

Scott introduced us as the twitter winners and they let us all chat. One of the first things Lauren said was that her and Sarah had the same shoes, which led to a discussion about which store they got them from (Kohls was the winner!) Lauren and Scotty then both asked what our twitter names were – Sarah told them hers was “sweetsarahhh” and I told them mine was “Crayons15,” as Lauren repeated it with her southern drawl accenting the word ‘crayons’. We explained that had we spent our day re-tweeting and that we were both tweeting even during fan club parties. I told them that my phone died so I had to give up, but Sarah invited me to go with her, and that we didn’t know each other and they just loved that. Lauren was like ‘THAT IS SO SWEET!’

For their first show at the Opry, they made each of them a poster like the Hatch Show Prints. They had a handful of them laying around in the room, so before we left someone else in the room asked them to each sign one for us. So they personalized them and each wrote us little messages on them.

After they signed us the posters, Scotty started an interview. We got to watch for a minute then Scott pulled us out. Before we left Scotty yelled “wait, let me say goodbye!” and came out and hugged us both then went back to the room. Lauren came out with us also and chatted for a few more minutes. She hugged us and then we talked about the American Idol Tour. Sarah told her she’d be at the Nashville show and I told her I’d see her in NY at the last show in Rochester and she was like ‘Oh wow. We’ll have some practice in by then!’

Overall, my experience was amazing! I can’t be thankful enough that Lauren and Scotty were so sweet to us and most of all that Sarah took me with her! I’ll never forget it!

We then got to do a backstage tour of the Opry while the rest of the show went on. I had done this earlier in the week but it was still a new experience to get to do it while a show was going on! We got to stand on the back of the stage while people performed and look out at the crowd…truly an experience!

I want to give a HUGE thank you to Sarah and to Scott for being an awesome Opry staff member! And of course to Lauren and Scotty for being so down-to-earth and giving us their full attention like there weren’t other press and interviewees in the room waiting to sweep their attention away.

Not only did I meet Lauren Alaina and Scotty McCreery that day, but I also made a new friend – thank you, Sarah!

Sarah with Lauren and Scotty:

Me with Lauren and Scotty:

That’s my story..now what’s yours? :)

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Do you have a fan story you want the world to know about? Had an amazing meet and greet experience with your favorite artist? Want to brag about meeting your idol at Wal-Mart? We’re looking for first hand reports from fans for a brand new weekly segment on Keepin’ it Country.

It doesn’t have to be about CMA Fest, it could be from years ago. E-mail us at contact@keepinitcountryblog.com with your name, age, any pictures/video and your story and we’ll help you brag to the world! We’re fans, just like you, and we want to hear about the side of country music that makes us all love it.

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Rucker continued to sing, without missing a note, and acting like nothing went wrong with the rest of the song. Check out the video footage under the cut below. It all goes down around 1:15 in the video.

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