Zac Brown is a DAWG

I'm a few weeks late, I know, but I guess as I sit here awaiting the start of a Georgia football game, the feelings and emotions from that fantastic weekend in Jacksonville are coming back to me. I'm not even going to speak about the game here. We all know what happened. This is about Zac Brown the night before the game.

We were fortunate enough to see him that Friday night in Jacksonville before the Georgia-Florida game. I had not seen him before and was really excited, love his music. His concert was not fancy. He doesn't use bells and whistles and smoke and mirrors, just stripped-down, unadulterated feel-good music. What he does do is surround himself with the best of the best singers and musicians. They were all so versatile. It seemed every song had someone playing an instrument that they didn't play on the previous song. There was one song, where Clay Cook was singing and I couldn't even find Zac. I spotted him way over at stage left, playing guitar in the shadows, happy to be sharing the spotlight. It was a great show, better even, than the Sugarland show we went to the weekend prior, though that was a great show too. 

"Chicken Fried"

Now, with all that said about how great the show was, I gotta tell you, I had a fleeting moment of disappointment. We all know Zac is from Georgia. I had been told that he is a big DAWG fan. I realized just before the last song that he had not said anything about the game. There was a room full of gator fans and he had a microphone. What an opportunity? If it were me, I would have come on stage, grabbed the mike, chanted "Gator girls wear jean shorts" and "GO DAWGS", and then broke into "You know I like my chicken fried…" But, that's just me. Zac obviously has more class. After the encore, as the arena was emptying, I told my wife "Zac didn't say anything about the game". Then, I saw a form jogging across the stage and stop at the microphone. A voice cut into the chatter of the unaware party-goers. It was Zac. This is what he said "Now I know we're in Florida, and you know I love you guys. But…(pause) GO DAWGS!" He turned and ran off stage and was gone. The arena became equally and simultaneously inundated with "GO DAWGS" and "GO GATORS". It was loud and it was a great moment. Thanks to Zac for that. 

K N O W S H O N 

Zac lit the place up with what he said. That's when it officially became Georgia-Florida weekend. It was raucous. We exited through a 4-story enclosed concrete stairwell that bounced sound back and forth. In a brief moment of quiet in the stairwell, I had to put in my 2 cents worth. I shouted "G E O R G I A" and waited. I don't usually put myself out there like that, but I guess I was caught up in the moment. The silence was a little too long and I thought to myself, a little embarrassed, that no one was going to respond. Then, a grumbling began to lift its way to the top of the stairwell as the shout broke out, 400 people strong "B U L L D O G S !!!" That was really cool. What a way to start the Georgia-Florida weekend… and the game was still more than 12 hours away.