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So many thoughts rushed through my head when my A&R guy, Steve Ferrera, asked that question.
I couldn’t believe that I was going to get to do my own tour this summer.
“Kellie!” I said. “We’ve got to get Kellie Pickler to go on the tour with me. I mean her album is doing pretty well on the country charts, isn’t it?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, it is,” Steve said.
“Well, don’t you think that would be a good mix?” I said. “We could both take advantage of our different fan bases. We could do some things together on stage. I think it would be a really fun show for people to see. Plus, I’d love spending some time with Kellie. I haven’t seen her in awhile.”
Steve gave me the go ahead to make the call to Kellie myself. I felt that it was appropriate for me to extend the gesture to her plus I hadn’t spoken to her in awhile so I wanted to catch up.
“Hello?” Kellie said sounding half asleep.
“Kellie?”
“Yeah, this is her.”
“Oh my God, Kellie! It’s Katharine! You won’t believe what my record people just told me.”
“What? What did they tell you? It must be good. You seem excited about whatever it is.”
“They said that they are going to send me on a tour this summer!”
“That’s great, Kat. I’ve seen how great your album is doing. I’m so happy for you.”
“Thanks, Kel, but the best part is that they asked ME who I wanted to perform with on the tour. And I said I wanted Kellie Pickler!”
“Me?”
“That’s your name, isn’t it?”
“I guess it is! Wow, I’ll have to think about that. It sounds like it would be a lot of fun.”
“Come on Kellie! What’s there to think about? We would be able to put on a great show together. Plus we would have so much more freedom to do whatever we want compared to last summer on the Idol tour. Just think we wouldn’t have to do the same songs every night!”
“That would be nice. I can’t tell you how many times I did that Grease song with Bucky. I think I was ready for something new before you joined us on tour Kat.”
“Yeah and we still had two months to go after that.”
“Got that right!”
“So you do want to do it, right?” I said. “I know you’ll have to run it by all of your music people but I can’t see why they wouldn’t jump at the chance of sending you on a tour with me. It’ll be great for both of us.”
It looked like we would have about 30 dates in two months. The venues were generally smaller than we went to on the Idol tour. Most of them were 5,000 seats or less. However, I noticed something strange on the tentative tour schedule. Steve had just told me that we would be going to smaller venues and I see this:
Thursday, May 24 – Staples Center, Los Angeles.
“Uh, Steve?” I said. “Staples Center seats almost 20,000 people; I thought we were going smaller.”
“Well, yeah mostly,” he said. “But we figured you could probably fill Staples and it would be a great way to create buzz for the rest of the tour.”
I was flattered and excited by the prospect of opening my own tour in my hometown. I couldn’t help but remember the Idol stop at Staples. That was such an emotional night. All my family was there, I had just received clearance to perform without that obnoxious boot on my foot anymore a few days earlier. Then when I got on stage, I saw a bunc