Lee Brice still gets emotional talking about his performance of the national anthem with Luke Bryan during their September 12 concert at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Since it was the day after the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Luke gave a shout-out to those who lost their lives on that day in the attack on the World Trade Center. As the crowd chanted, “USA! USA!” Luke brought Lee onstage and whispered in his ear, “I just feel like we should do the national anthem.”
After they decided Luke would start it off, Lee then jumped in on harmony. Says Lee, “It was something really special. I’ve never heard a crowd sing the national anthem that loud. It was a moment I will never forget, and I think Luke’s the same way.”
Lee especially loves that the big display of patriotism was all off-the-cuff, too.
“I don’t think he even knew he was going to ask me to do that,” Lee says of Luke’s decision to sing the anthem, “but he definitely just threw it at us as we’re walking out onto the stage in front of people, he’s whispering in my ear. So, that was the coolest part.”
Lee is very thankful to Luke for letting him warm up the crowd every night on the That’s My Kind of Night tour. They’ve played two sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden this year before moving on to become the first country concert ever held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn last week.
Lee says of the opportunity to tour with Luke, “There has been a lot of experiences that I, you know, who knows if I would have ever gotten to do?”
The good times keep rolling for Lee. He had a party in Nashville Wednesday to toast his latest #1 hit, “I Don’t Dance.” It’s the title track from his latest album, which just debuted at #1 on Billboard‘s Country Albums chart.
Follow @ABCNewsRadio
Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio