Kicking off the 2019 CMA Music Festival with a bang, the 9th Annual Music City Gives Back took place on Monday (6/3) at Ascend Amphitheater in Downtown Nashville.
Hosted by country hitmaker Rodney Atkins, the free event was full of country music’s favorite celebs who took part in meet and greets and a concert, all while benefitting Nashville’s W.O. Smith School. Atkins shared with Celeb Secrets Country why the event and its cause are so important to him.
“I think we’re all in some capacity meant to be creative. When you can be creative and help somebody out, that’s the closest you can get to God. I majored in phycology in college and I never heard of music therapy but I worked as a counselor at a delinquent center for juvenile delinquents aged 12-18 who have been arrested for some kind of major crime. They would do what they call ‘getting bucked’, meaning they’re busting out of this place no matter what they have to do. They have to be put in lockdown,” Atkins said.
“I was the big guy that had to go over and sit them and many times I’d have my guitar there and start playing stuff. They’d be mad and it’d be like magic slowly forgetting why they were mad and start asking me questions about ‘how do you play that thing?’ And then I’m teaching them how to make a B chord and a C chord. Then I started finding out about music therapy and how it’s a real thing. There’s a spiritual connection. It’s as close to magic as you can really get. So with that said, when W.O. Smith School came on my radar, that’s exactly what I want to be doing is being a part of it.”
Celeb Secrets Country also caught up with the concert’s headliners/lovers Carly Pearce and Michael Ray to discuss new music, relationship advice and of course wine!
The 2019 CMA Music Festival is taking place all over Downtown Nashville this weekend and wrapping on Sunday, June 9th. Follow us on Instagram at @celebsecretscountry to see who we run into and many more surprises!
