A man after my own heart.
Dale Earnhardt Sr. was used to rubbing elbows with some of country music’s biggest stars, and of course famously appeared in Brooks & Dunn’s music video for “Honky Tonk Truth,” shot a Wrangler ad with Willie Nelson, and even recorded his own country music song, “Hard Charger.”
But apparently, he was a BIG fan of Faith Hill, which his son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., revealed on his Dale Jr. Download podcast a while back.
Jr. shared that his father was a huge Delbert McClinton fan, in addition to loving artists like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Meat Loaf, and had a massive record collection in the basement of their house on Lake Norman that they moved to in 1981.
He of course also loved his friends Brooks & Dunn’s music and whatever used to be on the classic country radio station, but apparently, one of his favorite artists was the only Faith Hill. So much so, that he once wore a Faith Hill t-shirt under his race uniform:
“But he liked Brooks and Dunn a bunch. Because he listened to that song black velvet, you know, they played that in the banquet for him one year when he won a championship.
Which was only traditional country radio for a while. He listened to quite a bit of country, Faith Hill, he was a big Faith Hill fan.
I think he got to meet her, he wore a Faith Hill T-Shirt one time underneath his uniform at a race…”
Iconic. If only there were photo evidence of that, because that would be a helluva t-shirt too.
And while it’s not the shirt-under-tracksuit look I’m dying to see, this reddit post also shows Sr. rocking a Faith Hill hat ahead of a race in 1997. And I think we need to hear Mrs. Hill’s side of the story when the two met, for purely entertainment purposes.
You hear so many tales about celebrities who were obviously massive Dale Earnhardt fans, but it’s rare to hear about the people that Sr. really admired and loved, which is really neat in and of itself. Also, the man has great taste in music, which doesn’t surprise me in the least.
I can only imagine The Intimidator singing his little heart out to “This Kiss” or “The Way You Love Me” in the shower and living his best life…
You can listen to Jr. talk more about his father’s musical taste in the clip below.
I’ll leave you with this in case you’ve never seen it before…
“Hard Charger”
