It's Independence Day, a commemoration of the very brave Founding Fathers, who risked their life, liberty and happiness in order to build an independent nation. Those signers of the Declaration of Independence epitomized the bravery and can-do spirit of America.
On this day, country music artists reminisce about what the 4th of July means to them.
Josh Turner: “All the individual families kind of had a lot of competition with each other and they tried to outdo each other to try and see who had the biggest and baddest fireworks and all that. My daddy I think was the smartest one. He just went out and bought maybe 25-dollars worth of fireworks and let everybody else put on the big show. So, he saved a lot of money!”
Carrie Underwood: “America really is, you know, the land of opportunity. It’s the only place in the world that I could try out for some show and win and…amongst hundreds of thousands of people…and go on to do great things. I mean, it’s just the land of ‘anything could happen.’ The people in it are what makes it great.”
Chris Young: “Fourth of July is always a big day with me and my dad. I think we spend, like, four-hundred dollars, five-hundred dollars on fireworks alone during Fourth of July. And we go do a cookout at the house, and then we set off fireworks. And we’ve almost blown ourselves up a couple times, but you know, it’s somethin’ that me and my dad just love gettin’ out there and doin’. It’s a lot of fun for us.”
Jerrod Niemann: “Well, as a kid, I loved Fourth of July because I could shoot Roman candles at my siblings. But then when you finally understand what it stands for, and you’re old enough to grasp that the only reason you can shoot Roman candles at your siblings is because there’s people out there that are sacrificing their lives and allowed all of us to continue to be free and do the things that we love.”
Kenny Chesney: “You know what? I was usually playin’ little-league baseball on the Fourth of July. You know, I was big into sports, and the summertime in east Tennessee consisted of playin’ baseball, and that’s what I did on the Fourth of July. And they had a big fireworks display after all the games, and I was usually, you know, tryin’ to win the affection of some little girl over at the concession stand. And, you know, things don’t change very much!”
Miranda Lambert: “I love holidays in general, but Fourth of July is…summer is my favorite time of year, so Fourth of July is probably one of my favorites because…my favorite firework is sparklers. Always it brings out the little girl in me. I always ask for sparklers for Fourth of July”
Billy Currington: “My best memories would be hanging out with my mom and brother and sister on the beach of Tybee Island, right off the coast of Savannah, Georgia. We’d go there pretty much every year and we’d light our own fireworks and watch the ones they had for us. Those were some of the best times of my life.”
Jake Owen: “Fourth of July is my weekend, man to relax. Every year, we do a big boat party and just a lot of my friends, family...cook a lot of food, do a lot of wakeboarding, water skiing, hang out, get sunburnt…get a little buzz…and have a good time.”
Darius Rucker: “Oh, I love fireworks. We had the bottle rocket fights and all that good stuff. I was the typical little crazy kid, you know. In South Carolina it was always legal, so we shot fireworks when it was legal. We did all that sort of stuff. I almost blew my hand off once.”
No matter how you spend your day, have fun, be safe and remember the bravery that made our nation possible.
I'm on vacation for the rest of the week...see you on July 11th!
