If you’re a fan of country music, Luke Bryan is probably a household name to you.
For anyone who doesn’t know, Bryan is a singer and songwriter from Nashville, Tennessee with nine albums under his belt. Though he has plenty of huge hits, some of the bigger ones include “What Makes You Country” and “Huntin’, Fishin’ and Lovin’ Every Day.”
If you don’t follow his music as much, you may also know Bryan from his role as a judge on American Idol. Through it all, America has fallen in love with Bryan’s easy-going personality and approachable nature.
It’s for those reasons specifically that he recently made the news once again.
Bryan recently has a big concert at Phillips Arena in Georgia and was playing a VIP-pre show.
After he’d played a few songs, he stopped to chat a little bit with the audience. As the clip begins, he thanks the entire crowd for coming and explains how he’s always wanted to play Phillips Arena.
“We’ve always done outdoor shows here,” Bryan says, “So we felt like maybe one day in the summertime we’d let y’all have a little air conditioning.” The crowd laughs and cheers at those words as Bryan scans the crowd.
Because the pre-show is so intimate, Bryan spends plenty of time talking to the fans—and one group starts yelling things at him.
It starts when someone yells that they love him, to which he says he loves them too.
After that, someone in the crowd announces that Bryan’s old neighbor is in the crowd… and his eyes light up almost immediately. He asks what her name is and the people in the crowd reply Bernice. “Bernice Williams?” Bryan asks in disbelief. When they confirm that it is indeed Williams, Bryan is visibly excited.
Within moments, he puts his guitar down and jumps off-stage!
After that, he walks right up to the front row and wraps his arms around Williams.
“Good to see you!” he says to her. The two share an adorable hug as they chat for a minute. After that, Bryan gets back onstage to explain what just happened. “People always say they’re they’re your neighbor,” he says,” but she’s, like, my neighbor.”
After that, he has to illustrate just how close the two are: their houses are right next to one another (well, with one other house in between).
Needless to say, the crowd is loving the exchange—and so is the internet.
So far, the clip has been viewed millions of times and has been written up by all kinds of news outlets and country music sites.
After watching the video, it’s not hard to see why! Although Williams is 88 years old, she’s clearly a big fan of Bryan’s and is happy to see him. Likewise, Bryan greets Williams like she’s an old friend and not a fan, despite how famous and successful he is. It’s always refreshing to see stars who don’t get a big head about their success. After all, if we were neighbors with some of our favorite musical artists, we would want them to come in the crowd to greet us too!
If nothing else, this video is great publicity for Bryan in general!
If you weren’t a big fan of Bryan before now, maybe this clip will change your mind a little bit.
Regardless of how you feel about country music, there’s something heartwarming about seeing this kind of connection between a big star and an old friend. As we move through life, we hope that we’re connecting and leaving an impression on the people we come in contact with—even if we never see them again.
In the case of somebody you live next to, you hope that you make even more of an impact. In the case of this story, it’s clear that Bryan and Williams are a lot more closely bonded than either of them may have thought.
Congratulations to Bernice on this adorable moment! Check out the full clip below.
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