A line formed outside Nashville Palace well before 8:30 a.m. Wednesday morning for the Reunion of Professional Entertainers (R.O.P.E.) breakfast. (photo: Jennifer Justus)
Drink plenty of water. Start the day with a good breakfast.
It might read like advice from Mom or a Wheaties commercial, but it’s also how some things get rolling during CMA Music Festival week.
The day before the official start of the festival, two groups held two different breakfasts to give fans a chance to hear music, take photos and collect autographs.
Near the Grand Ole Opry House at the sold-out Reunion of Professional Entertainers (R.O.P.E.) breakfast, a line snaked around the Nashville Palace on Wednesday morning. Fans waited for legends such as Mel Tillis, Charley Pride, Bill Anderson and Jean Shepard.
They stood in line with performers including rhinestone-bedecked Joe Edwards, who played fiddle in the “Grand Ole Opry” staff band for more than 30 years. His wife, entertainer Jan Edwards, said she can’t get used to calling the week’s events “CMA Fest,” as she’s used to the old days of calling it “Fan Fair.”
Inside Nashville Palace, Judy Wilson of LaFollette, Tenn., said she had returned for a second year to attend the R.O.P.E. breakfast and Marty Stuart’s Late Night Jam on Wednesday night. An avid fan of George Jones, she had visited previously for his fan club parties.
“We visited his grave yesterday,” she said.
Even earlier than the R.O.P.E. breakfast this morning, at just after 7 a.m., about 350 fans had already settled in for a meal downtown at the sold-out GAC Kick-Off Breakfast in the atrium of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Sandra Thomas of Raleigh, N.C., has been coming to the GAC breakfast for four years and to CMA Music Festival for 12 years. She said she looked forward to hearing Easton Corbin perform later in the morning after Lonestar, Eric Paslay and Drake White.
It might have been a younger bunch of performers at the GAC event, but the legends were honored, too.
“I’m a fan of George Jones…” White said in a mini-speech during his new single “Simple Life.” Applause erupted and hands lifted toward the ceiling. “…and I’m a fan of you,” he said.
So even with a different vibe in two different parts of town, the breakfasts this morning had at least a couple things in common: a love of country music and scrambled eggs.
