That picture would be coming down quick.
If you know anything about Dale Earnhardt Jr., then you probably know he and his wife, Amy, are big country music fans. Amy even surprised Dale Jr. with a Dwight Yoakam concert after his NASCAR Hall of Fame induction a couple years back. Amy, who’s a native Texan herself, is also huge fan of George Strait.
And he’s told the story on his podcast The Dale Jr. Download before, but he met Strait by chance in Key West years ago, as they had gone to vacation there with Amy’s sister and her husband, as well as another couple from Texas, who are all big fans of The King, too. And it just so happened that George was in Florida recording an album at a studio in downtown Key West while they were there. One day, around lunch time, Dale Jr. and his friend, Billy, got split up from the rest of the group. They ended up wandering around Key West for most of the afternoon looking for their wives, and vice versa.
They went to the house they were staying at twice, all the bars they could think of, but they never saw them again all day, no matter where they went after hours of searching. And as luck would have it, one of them had left their phone in the locked house (they didn’t have a key with them either… men), and one of their phones was dead, so they couldn’t call anyone to find out where they were.
It sounded like it was a complete sh*t show, and eventually, Dale Jr. and Billy gave up on their search, knowing they’d find the girls at some point, because Key West isn’t that big of a place. So, they ended up back at a bar called Schooner Wharf to have a drink. At this point, it was 10 or 11 o’clock at night, and they decided to just stay there and wait, because sooner or later, they knew the rest of the group would end up there as it’s their favorite hangout spot when they visit.
And when they walked in, George Strait himself was sitting nearby having a drink with his son, Bubba.
Of course, Dale Jr. and Billy start debating whether or not they should approach him, and Dale Jr. felt like it couldn’t hurt since Dale Sr. and George were big hunting buddies back in the day (I would kill to hear those stories, too):
“Right there sits George Strait, having a drink. And so I told Billy, I said ‘Man… I know he hunted with dad, I know he knows dad.’ And as we’re kind of having that conversation, he looks over and his sons with him, and his son walks over and says, ‘Hey, dad would like to have a drink, hang out.’
And I was like, ‘Of course, you’re dang right. George Strait? You bet.’ So we sit down with George, we took a picture, we talked, he told me about hunting with dad, and we had a beer.”
Can you even imagine George Strait approaching you about having a drink?
As they were sitting there talking and having a grand old time, Dale and Billy realized they might be able to use Bubba’s phone to get in contact with their wives. So what do they do? Instead of calling or texting one of them, they used it to send their wives the photo they took with George:
“While this is happening, it dawned on us that if George’s son was okay with it, we could use his phone to text the picture to them, to our wives. And we did. So we send them the picture on his phone, we’re like ‘Man, we ain’t got our phones, they’re at home, we gotta find our family, if we could use your phone we’ll send this picture that we just took of George Strait and us to them.’ We do that, George stays for another couple minutes, says ‘Alright, I’m gonna head home.'”
And you already know where this is going, right?
They thanked George for his time, and Bubba for letting them borrow his phone, and not but a minute or two after George and Bubba left, the girls came barreling through the bar on a mission to meet The King:
“As soon as they walked out, literally moments later, here comes our gang, wide open, loud, ‘Where’s George? Where y’all been?’ Barreling into this bar. They were out of breathe trying to get there fast enough.”
And I’m no runner by any stretch of the imagination, but if I got wind I had the chance to meet George, sign me up for the NFL combine because I’d break the 40-yard dash record (and probably an ankle) to get there.
Unfortunately though, the girls were just a few minutes too late, and Dale Jr. had to break the bad news to them:
“He left… And then, you know, the attention went from that to this is all our fault.”
Of course it’s your fault, Dale. You should’ve chained him to the dang table until they got there to ensure that they, too, would get the chance to meet George. To this day, Dale and Amy still go back and forth about the whole ordeal.
And recently, she had her sister on her podcast she usually does with Dale, Bless Your Hardt, where she told her full side of the story, which started when they had all been at a concert together, and had been drinking heavily, and they were supposed to all meet back up at their house, but Dale and Billy split off from the group, and somehow everyone got separated, and Dale didn’t have his phone, nor did his friend, so they spent the rest of the evening trying to find each other.
Both groups had gone back to the house several times, but they always missed each other, and eventually, they figured out one girl in their group, Kayla, had Dale’s friends phone, who was her husband, and a photo popped up on the phone which was, of course, a photo of Dale and George.
Of course, Amy was ready to book it over there, as she could tell which bar they were at by the photo:
“That is f****** George Strait. And there’s happy little Billy and happy little Dale standing side by side with George Strait, hanging out.”
They all ran out of the bar as fast as they could, and Amy’s sister called the phone number the photo came from, which was Bubba Strait’s, George’s son, and she told him to tell Dale and his friend not to leave, and she was sure they “scared the s*** out of him.”
Eventually, they get a cab to the bar, and find out that George had left and Amy was pissed. She grew up in Texas, and even though NASCAR has King in Richard Petty, no one compares to her King, George Strait.
She had another chance to meet him for her 40th birthday:
“I start dating Dale, and I get to NASCAR, and there’s another King, right? I’m like, no, no, no, you don’t understand. George Strait is our King. And we missed The King, and we have tried several times since to meet him, and failed.
For my 4oth, we went to Texas to one fo the concerts, and it was in Houston… we met the same people, all the Texans came together to go to George Strait. Dale lined up a meet and greet with George Strait.”
Last minute, Dale decides they need to go eat before the concert, Steak 48, so it took a long time. She says she ate as fast as they could, they knew there would be traffic and it would take a while to get in.
You can probably see where this is going… they didn’t make it in time:
“The whole thing was a disaster. We missed George Strait, we missed the meet and greet. We were too late, by like ten minutes. So we had to sit through the concert all sad, to be honest, that we missed that too. I wanted to bless Dale up and down about the Steak 48 choice, too. He had just thrown me a dinner on my 40th at Steak 48 in Charlotte, like why are we going to the same f****** place again? Why are we doing this again?”
She still hasn’t met him, though it sounds like she hasn’t given up:
“I still haven’t met him. It sucks.”
They also talked about how her sister lives near George now, and how he golfs at their country club, though she knows if her husband really wanted to make it happen, he could:
“All Dale really has to do is call him.”
And Amy also pointed out that Dale has that photo of him and George framed and hung up at their house in North Carolina, as well as their beach house in South Carolina:
“He’s got it framed at home and at the beach.”
Just adding insult to injury at this point… Dale needs to do the right thing and make something happen for Amy because I think she more than deserves it at this point:
@nomibbahjxx Chasing George Strait in Key West_ A Wild Friend Trip Story! #chasing #george #strait #friend #story ♬ original sound – nomibbahjxx
The full podcast is available below:
Dale’s side of the story is pretty funny too:
