Megyn took her ‘Megyn Kelly Live’ tour to Duluth, Georgia, Saturday night, where she was joined by an all-star lineup of Adam Carolla, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and National Review’s Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke to talk news of the day. Also making an appearance in The Peach State? Country music star John Rich, who treated the crowd at Gas South Arena to a very special set.
After talking about how country music has gone woke and quizzing Megyn on her guitar skills, Rich performed two songs from his catalogue. He knocked it out of the park like the seasoned performer that he is, but, as it turns out, it was far from smooth sailing leading up to when he took the mic.
BTS Drama
As Rich shared with the MK.com team backstage, he was “excited to get the call” to join Megyn in Georgia to, as he put it, “talk a little bit, sing a little bit.” Unlike most of his live performances, he was traveling solo without his band or crew, which proved all the more challenging when he had an unexpected equipment issue.
On his way to do a soundcheck Saturday afternoon, Rich had a mishap getting on stage. “I go trotting up the steps up to the stage where the show is going to be, and… the toe of my boot, the very end of it, catches on the last step,” he recalled. “It was like slow motion. Boom, I hit the stage, the guitar falls out of my hand, and it snapped the head off at the top.”
Now, this wasn’t just any guitar. “I’ve had it for over 20 years. It’s been all over the planet with me,” Rich shared. “It says ‘Music Mafia.’ It’s got rhinestones all the way around it… There’s 1,500 to 2,000 concerts on that guitar.”
But the freak accident wasn’t even the “worst part,” in his telling. “Now I don’t have a guitar,” he noted. “So, what am I going to do?”
He was hoping Megyn might have had hers, but those hopes were quickly dashed. That meant it was up to his team to pull a rabbit out of a hat. “We got on the phone and wound up with this little number here. I’ve never played it in a show before,” Rich explained of the new six-string. “It is a lot smaller than what I normally play, but I don’t really care. We’re going to be just fine… I’m going to give them hell when I get out there.”
Ever the pro, Rich made good on that promise. He spent some time warming up with the replacement in the greenroom before blowing the crowd – who was none the wiser – away on stage.
Our fingers remain crossed, however, that Rich’s beloved broken guitar can be restored to its former glory!
You can check out the full ‘Megyn Kelly Live’ show from Duluth, GA, on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch Megyn live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.