2022.07.30 Happy 50th Opry Anniversary to Barbara Mandrell!

07.30.2022  When I was about 11 or 12 years old, I met Ms Barbara Mandrell for the first time and she gave to me these precious gifts that I use and cherish to this very day . There's not enough time or space, here, to share with you all right now just what she has meant to me throughout my life. But I can say, apart from my dearest most precious amazing Mom, Ms Mandrell has been the greatest and most precious inspiration and influence, both, personally and professionally. I'll forever be immeasurably grateful for the example she has set for me and so many women in every walk of life. If I did not have my own show, this evening, without question or hesitation...I would be in Nashville, Tennessee tonight...where, in a short while from now, the lights will go up on the Grand Ole Opry stage and they will be honoring Ms Barbara Mandrell for her 50th Anniversary as a Member of the Opry. My heart has never felt so torn, professionally, wanting to be two places at once. And so the very best I can do in this present moment {and I'm totally going to have puffy eyes on stage tonight, because I've been crying all day and I'm in tears as I type this} is say: With the fullness of my heart Ms Mandrell, Thank You...thank you for all the music and every precious gift you've given to me, and countless others...I treasure each and every moment, and all that I've ever learned from you, to this very day. And for the most precious gift of all, I thank you for the gracious and generous gifts of time you were always so kind to give to a little girl with big dreams and so many scary things going on at home. You may never truly know how much you mean to me and so many folks all around the world, yet I pray that tonight as we all honor and celebrate you, on the Opry stage and on a little stage in California and in our hearts all around the world, I pray you may have and feel some notion in your heart of just how much I, and we all, love you and appreciate you so very much beyond measure. Tonight's Girls With Guitars show I dedicate to you, and one more time before I have to get going to load-in and sound-check for tonight, Thank You. For every precious gift, from my heart to yours, I love you and Thank You and Happy 50th Opry Anniversary to you Ms Mandrell!