I guess my invitation to this one got lost in the mail.
NASCAR is in Nashville this weekend for the Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway, and that means that when the drivers aren’t on the track, they’ve been able to spend some time around town enjoying Music City.
And hanging out with Michael Jordan and Garth Brooks, apparently.
Jordan is the co-owner of 23XI Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series, which fields the #23 car for Bubba Wallace as well as the #45 of Tyler Reddick. Earlier today, Jordan was spotted at the racetrack as his cars made their qualifying lap.
And for this week’s race, Reddick’s car is sponsored by The BIG 615, the new radio station recently launched by Garth Brooks on TuneIn Radio.
Well last night after Cup Series practice, Garth was spotted attending a party at Electric Jane here in Nashville hosted by Cincoro Tequila, which is Michael Jordan’s tequila brand.
And of course MJ was there himself, along with both of the 23XI Racing drivers, showing off Reddick’s ride for the weekend.
Yep, only in Nashville.
I guess MJ’s a big enough guy that he doesn’t feel the need to watch his back around G.
Garth announced his radio station, The BIG 615, just last week during a press conference here in Nashville.
And according to Garth, he wants the new station to play traditional country music:
“The BIG 615 station is purely for the love of country music. We lean a bit more traditional at the BIG 615. We are proud of how the station sounds and want the entire world to hear what we think is the greatest format of all…Country Music…
I believe that country music listeners want to hear the latest from George Strait followed by the latest from Luke Combs. The latest from Ashley McBryde followed by the latest from The Chicks.”
And during a Q&A last week as part of Billboard’s Country Live in Conversation, Garth said he wanted a radio station that was free from the agenda of major record labels:
“I think radio is a reflection of the label’s agenda…
The labels simply own radio. They just do. They can say they don’t or radio can say they don’t, but the truth is nobody’s going to be playing on there that doesn’t have a major label deal. You might get 1 out of every 100 artists or whatever.
So what this does is, just because the label might think George Strait’s career is past the label part, I want to hear the new stuff from George Strait.”
Now I’m not exactly sure who thinks George Strait’s career is past the label part, but I get what he’s saying here. Guys like Tracy Lawrence who are still cranking out killer new music but not getting played on radio…sounds like they may have found a home with Garth’s new station.
Garth also brought in Storme Warren, former host of Sirius XM’s The Highway, to serve as the voice of The BIG 615, which will be streamed worldwide in over 120 countries and broadcast live from Music Row in Nashville.
The new station is just one of several that Garth hopes to announce in the coming months, all under his SEVENS Radio Network, that will be broadcasting on TuneIn Radio.
I guess the real question is, will they be playing any Chris Gaines?
