Tracy Lawrence helps the hungry with
Mission Possible
Sold-out concert follows turkey
fry
By Preshias Harris for Country Music News International Magazine & Radio Show
Tracy Lawrence is a country star with a
big heart. On Tuesday, November 26, Tracy and an army of volunteers
took over the parking lot at the Nashville Rescue Mission where they
were deep-frying hundreds of turkeys in row upon row of
propane-fueled turkey fryers.
It was part of his 14th
annual Mission Possible that has served over 84,000 meals to
the homeless and hungry in Nashville, Tennessee, and also in Dallas,
Texas, and Louisville, Kentucky. Mission Possible also raises
money (more than $500,000 so far) to help the homeless and hungry.
After the final turkey was fried to
perfection, Tracy was going over to Nashville’s Wildhorse Saloon
for the (sold out) Mission Possible Charity Concert. In
addition to Tracy Lawrence, fans were treated to performances by
Tracy’s friends Justin Moore, Rhett Akins, Clay Walker and the band
Halfway to Hazard.
I caught up with Tracy as he was frying
yet another turkey. The weather was fine this year, cool but sunny;
ideal weather for deep-frying hundreds of turkeys outdoors. I asked
Tracy about previous years when the weather hadn’t been so good.
“I don’t remember the year, but it was raining and sleet and
cold,” he said. “It was probably down [near freezing]. It was
absolutely miserable! It was one of the worst ones! But we still had
lots of volunteers. Everybody was still here, nobody turned away.
But this is a good day today.”
He turned to look at the Nashville
Rescue Mission. “I love this place,” he said. “I’ve made a
lot of great friends here. This is such a special event for them.
It’s grown to be like their Super Bowl every year.”
Thinking back to the first year that he
organized the turkey fry and fund-raising concert, Tracy said, “We
didn’t know what it was going to do. It was a grass roots thing.
We just wanted to do something good for the community, and here it
is, fourteen years later. It’s turned into something really cool.”
I asked Tracy to talk about the
fund-raising concert scheduled for later in the day. “Clay Walker
will be here, Justin Moore that I’m touring with next year, my
buddies Halfway to Hazard that have been hanging out here today and
Rhett Akins who’s had, like, thirty-one number one records. He’s
Songwriter of the Decade, he’s phenomenal. So we’ll all line up
on stage, I’ll sit up in the middle and everybody will be on both
sides of us and we’ll just do one song after another. We’ll do
an auction item after one round of songs, then we’ll do another
round and another auction item. I think we’re going to do six
rounds tonight.”
Several country artists stopped by the
turkey fry to lend their support, including Cody Purvis. “This is
such a great thing that Tracy does for the homeless every year,”
said Purvis. “It’s really special to be here. There’s a lot of
people out there that are less fortunate than some of us are and I
think it’s great that he puts this on every year. I think we need a
lot more events like this to happen. This is my second year doing it
and I’ll be back every year that I can.”
Purvis took time out from his busy
schedule to join the volunteers and supporters at the turkey fry.
“Right now, our single, ‘Drinkin’ Terms’ is out on the radio
everywhere,” Purvis told me. “We’re travelling around, meeting
with a bunch or radio stations and our booking agency is putting us
out on the road and keeping us busy. We’re working on some new
music we’re going to release in the spring. But this stuff here is
what really matters, to come out here and be able to do this.” You
can find the video for “Drinkin’ Terms” at YouTube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg1HzGfEfLE
Tracy Lawrence’s current album, Made
in America, is available now wherever music is sold. For more
about Tracy, his music and tour dates here
https://www.tracylawrence.com/#!/
Tracy performs at the Wildhorse fir his annual ‘Mission Possible’ fund raising concert. Photo credit: Catrina Engelby
Volunteers check on another turkey at Tracy Lawrence’s Mission Possible turkey fry. Photo credit: Preshias Harris
Volunteers set up hundreds of deep fryers for Tracy Lawrence’s Mission Possible turkey fry. Photo credit: Preshias Harris