The Grand Ole Opry has been continuing its shows, but without an audience, due to the coronavirus pandemic. But for Saturday night’s show, Grand Ole Opry Salute The Troops Memorial Day Weekend Special, with Craig Morgan, Steven Curtis Chapman and Kellie Pickler, the Opry invited five members of the United States military to sit, socially-distanced, in the balcony of the historic venue, and watch the performance.
“Normally when I do this song, I recognize the men and women of our Armed Forces who are in the audience,” Craig shared from stage. “So if you’re out there tonight, listening, we thank you for your service. We have some special guests. Even though we don’t have a big audience, at the Grand Ole Opry, we do have some special guests.”
Craig recognized by name the five servicemen in the audience, before honoring those who lost their lives in service.
“Tonight we recognize all the men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice and during this Memorial Day weekend, lest we never forget,” Craig added.
Craig kicked off the show by performing a cover of Gavin DeGraw’s “Soldier.” The song appears on Craig’s just-released album, God, Family, Country.
“When I’m making a new record, I have a list of three things that are important to me when I’m recording a song,” Craig shared on the Bobby Bones Show. “One, I feel like I only want to record material that I think radio could play. Not that they necessarily will, but I want them to have the mindset that if they hear a song and like it, they could go, ‘I could play this on the radio, and it would work with our listeners.’ Two, it needs to be a song that I can deliver. Delivering a Gavin DeGraw songs was one of the more extremes, because Gavin is such a great singer, and it’s such a different song than I’m normally doing, but I felt like I could.
“And third, it needs to be something that fans would enjoy, that would inspire them to buy the records and come to the shows, and that I like singing as well,” he added. “So this song met all of that, and on top of that, I felt like every line in this song truly encompassed the character of the serviceman.”
Chris Young, Chris Janson and Brett Young will perform for this week’s Grand Ole Opry show, on Saturday, May 30, which will mark the Opry’s 4,926th consecutive show. The show will be broadcast live on Circle and Gray TV stations, DISH Studio Channel 102, Sling TV and other TV affiliates, as well as a companion live stream on Circle All Access Facebook and YouTube channels. Find more information at Opry.com.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Grand Ole Opry LLC. Chris Hollo, photographer
