Ashley McBryde talks to The Tennessean's Marcus K. Dowling about being a host for CMA Fest's concert special.
MKD: It's Marcus K. Dowling of the Nashville Country Music Report at the Tennessean. And I'm here at night two of the 51st annual Country Music Association Festival with one of the co-hosts of the event, Ashley McBryde. How's it going?
AM: Good!
MKD: I want to talk about you being a host. The first thing that I noticed last night is that you said, "HowDEE!"
AM: Yes.
MKD: Which, I don't know if everybody else got it, but there's a Minnie Pearl thing there. That was beautiful.
AM: Thank you!
MKD: So talk to me about the value of getting to be a host in this genre at this time in your career.
AM: I am so excited to do this, and I love doing it with Jelly. When they said, you're going to have to open the show on your own and you're going to have to rile the crowd up. And I thought, I don't have any idea what I'm going to do. So I gave them the old Minnie Pearl because as a member of the Grand Ole Opry, I think you should represent other members of the Grand Ole Opry. And when the crowd responded the way they responded to Howdee, I was like, oh, we're going to be fine! It's nerve-wracking, but they really make it impossible for you to mess it up. Everybody makes things run so smoothly. I enjoy performing so much, and I love theater so much, so getting to do a co-host thing, I kind of get to fill that bucket up a little bit too. Not that I'm going to deliver a musical number or any choreography because I won't. No one wants to see me dance. If I'm dancing, throw me in the truck. But being able to do this and be creative with Jelly, has filled that other bucket that maybe had gotten a little low for a little while.
Watch the full interview here!
