Now that’s a real friend.
Of course, March Madness is slowly winding down, and both Final Four games are taking place this weekend. And one game in particular is drawing quite a bit of attention, as NC State and Purdue will face off on Saturday evening at 6:09PM EST in Phoenix, Arizona. Alabama and UConn will also face off later Saturday night.
And if you know anything about Scotty McCreery, then you know that he’s a die-hard NC State fan, and attended school there as well.
So when he realized that there was some way that he could both perform at Boots in the Park in San Diego, California like he’s been scheduled to do for quite a while, and also make it to the State/Purdue Final Four game, he made it happen.
He was initially scheduled to go on ahead of headliner Lee Brice at six o’clock Pacific time Saturday evening, which meant there was no way he could attend the game which starts around 3 o’clock Mountain time and still be on time for his set in California. So he did what any fan would do, and reached out to Lee to see if there was any possible way he’d be willing to switch times with him so he could make both work.
Scotty also went out of his way to note that he “wouldn’t miss” the show in San Diego, and there was no way he would “cancel for basketball,” which is the opposite of how his fellow North Carolinian Eric Church felt about it when Chapel Hill made it to the Final Four last year and also faced off against Duke, as he did outright cancel a concert to make it.
Scotty shared a lengthy video on Instagram explaining the situation, mostly to thank his friend Lee Brice for generously agreeing to switch:
“Y’all, I have to give a massive shoutout to my man Lee Brice. Wolfpack nation, I’m going to the game. I’ll be in Phoenix for the Final Four game on Saturday. And I’ve got a show that night in San Diego, got a show that night, Boots in the Park.
It’s me, Lee Brice, Thomas Rhett, a few others, it’s gonna be a fantastic show. I wouldn’t miss it. Wouldn’t cancel the show for basketball. Man, would I love to try and do both. The schedule had me going on at 6 o’clock in San Diego.
Game time in Phoenix is 3 o’clock, couldn’t make that work. But I got to thinkin’, I was like, man Lee’s on at 7:35 I think is what the schedule said, and I was like if there’s any chance we could switch, I could do it.”
Here’s how it went down:
“I hit lee up, and i said ‘Lee, you can totally say no.’ And he deserves that spot, he’s been going it longer, has all the hits, you name it. I said ‘But man, is there any chance you’d be willing to switch spots with me and go on at six and I’ll go on at 7:30 so I can get to Phoenix for the Final Four game?’
And Lee, just the class act that he is, he looked at me and said, ‘Scotty, if it’s important to you, it’s important to me. It’s not even an ask. Let’s do it.’ So me and Lee are gonna switch spots, he’s gonna go on at six, I’m gonna go on at like 7:45. And I’ll be in Phoenix for the game at three to cheer on the Wolfpack, baby.”
Brice himself is from South Carolina and a big Clemson fan (he played football there as a walk-on), so I think there’s certain level of understanding the fandom that came into play here, too. I mean, wouldn’t you hope your fellow artist friend would be willing to do the same for you if you were ever in the same, or a similar, situation?
It just seems like the right thing to do…
And of course, Scotty was elated to pull off something like this with the help of his friend, going to watch his Wolfpack play in the Final Four which hasn’t happened since 1983:
“God bless America. It’s just Americas’ team right now, cardiac Pack, never seen anything like this n my life. But man, I just live the Pack and I love country music so Saturday I get to do both and it’s all because of Lee Brice.”
As a North Carolina native, I’m not shocked in the least that Scotty was so willing to go to these lengths to be able to attend this game, which really will be special to witness seeing as it’s been over 40 years since State has made it this far into the tournament.
It will certainly be a fun game to watch, and I can only imagine what it will be like to witness in person. You can watch Scotty’s full explanation here: