One of the wildest “show must go on” stories you’ll ever hear.
Tanner Horton (lead guitar, vocals) and Ashton Bowling (cajon) recently sat down with us on the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast and talked about their former jobs before they started to take off, how they found out that Luke Combs is a big fan of theirs, and why they often find themselves dealing with imposter syndrome.
Horton and Bowling also discussed how they handled getting stuck in Nashville during the nasty ice storm that hit earlier this year, and detailed a wild story about how their banjo player, Scott Sutton, had a heart attack before their debut show and still played through it.
As the story goes, before The Creekers had even officially formed, Horton was asked if he wanted to get a band together to play at the Renfro Valley Entertainment Center (near Mt. Vernon, Kentucky) as an opener for Rhonda Vincent. The frontman said yes… and then had to quickly get a group together to be able to fulfill the opener duties.
In need of a banjo player to play with them live, Horton asked Sutton if he’d be willing and able to. The banjo player said yes, and The Creekers were all of the sudden an official group. But as Horton explains, it wasn’t smooth sailing at their first ever show:
“Scott had a heart attack about five minutes before we went on stage. He never skipped a beat. We never knew he was having an issue until three weeks after. He got up the next day and went to work.”
Unbelievable, right?
Ashton Bowling added some more details to the story, saying that Sutton finished up with the rest of the band and went home. It was only a couple of weeks later when he was still suffering from the same symptoms that he went to see a doctor and found out he had a heart attack:
“He got done with the show, he got in his car, and then drove home. He went to the hospital like two and a half weeks later. They were like, ‘Yeah you had a heart attack this many days ago.’ It was right around the time that we played.’ He was like, ‘That’s why I was feeling like crap.'”
Because it was one of the wilder stories we’ve ever heard on the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast, we obviously had some follow up questions. The main one being, “Is Scott okay?” (he is), but after that… we inquired about if their banjo player has bad stage fright.
Tanner Horton shot that down pretty quick:
“No, that dude don’t get stage fright. He’s a (showman). He’s a character, is what he is. Now he’s got his pacemaker and stuff. He calls it his ‘jump box.’ His ‘jump starter.’ He’s still hammering right along with us. He ain’t slowed down.”
@whiskeyriff @The Creekers #whiskeyriff #whiskeyriffraff ♬ original sound – Whiskey Riff
The phenomenon that Scott Sutton likely suffered from is what’s called in the medical field as a silent heart attack, where symptoms are more subtle and often confused for other issues. Thankfully, The Creekers banjo player eventually decided to go get checked out, and got everything in order so he can keep “hammering along” with the band.
You can hear more from The Creekers by checking out the interview on YouTube or making sure to download the podcast on Apple Podcasts by searching “Whiskey Riff Raff” or by clicking here.
We’re also available on Spotify and wherever else you can listen to podcasts.
Cheers, y’all.
