Luke Bryan looked like a young guy straight off the farm when he took the Country Thunder stage in Florence for the very first time.
He was in an early afternoon slot β thatβs where they put the newcomers, the artists whose mission should be to give unsuspecting fans a reason to buy their records, request their songs on the radio and come see them the next time their tour bus/van pulls into town.
He had 45 minutes.
He made the impression about halfway through.
One song: βWe Rode in Trucks.β
We were sold.
Seems like a lifetime ago, and in country music years, it has been: On Sunday, April 8, Bryan marks the 10th anniversary of that first trip to the Arizona festival stage. He will be the last act among more than a dozen on the 2018 festival lineup. He takes the stage at 9 p.m.
That one song off his debut album was one of three singles β with βAll My Friends Sayβ and βCountry Manβ β to chart, providing a springboard for the success of his sophomore album βDoinβ My Thingβ and its No. 1 hit βDo I.β
Bryan returned to Country Thunder in 2010, and instead of his early-in-the-day slot, he inched up to early in the evening, opening for the opener.
After a five-year hiatus, he returned to Florence as a headliner in 2015; 27,500 people showed up, setting a festival record.
Organizers hinted on Thursday that they expected that record to be shattered with this yearβs lineup, which openedwith Cole Swindell, featured Jason Aldean on Friday night and Toby Keith Saturday.
Itβll be nice to sit back when Bryan takes the stage Sunday and think about how far weβve seen him come. He wonβt even be finished with his first song when the audience will be screaming so loudly that the volume will surely carry on any light breeze blowing through the little valley and all the way to the main road a mile away.
And thatβs when it will hit us: This very well could be one of the last times that he plays our little festival. Ten years after his first Country Thunder Arizona festival, Bryan is getting big enough to start thinking about headlining stadium tours like his buddy Kenny Chesney, who brings his βTrip Around the Sunβ tour to Chase Field in Phoenix on June 23.
And when that time comes, weβll secretly long for that day 10 years ago when it was just a few hundred of us sitting under a blazing sun watching a young artist find himself.
