Even if you don’t know Vince Gill by appearance, you’d likely know him by his voice, which is why he had to crash a karaoke night under a fake identity. By the end of the night, he had two false personas to bear. Gill recounted the hilarious story during a 2015 concert in Carmel, Indiana, taking the attentive audience to a “middle of nowhere” Holiday Inn in Washington State.
Videos by American Songwriter
As Gill put it, the band had the night off, the Holiday Inn had a bar, and the group of 60 musicians, roadies, and drivers were “looking to roar a little bit.”
Vince Gill Recalls Crashing Karaoke Night On Tour
Being on the road can be expensive and exhausting, which makes a night off especially nice for musicians and their accompanying crew members to relax, blow off a little steam, and take a break from the hectic load-in, performance, and load-out schedules typical of a touring outfit. Vince Gill, his touring partner, Patty Loveless, and their respective bands and crews got one such free night while they were staying in the middle of nowhere in eastern Washington. The entire road crew was staying at the Holiday Inn, and naturally, they all made their way to the bar.
Or, more specifically, Gill said, “We decided to take over the Holiday Inn Bar. We had a night off, and we were going to roar a little bit, you know? So, the party’s going, and it just so happens to be karaoke night in this Holiday Inn bar. The crew boys are up there doing heavy metal covers and just acting stupid and crazy, and it’s a riot. I’m sitting there at the bar, just taking it all in, laughing my head off, and enjoying the night. This beautiful girl came and sat next to me. Pretty soon, I could feel her eyes on me a little bit. I finally turned and looked at her, and she said, ‘Um, do I know you?’ I said, ‘I don’t think so. I don’t think we’ve met.’”
But the woman insisted. She asked Gill again where she might know him from, then she asked him his name. Gill replied, “Willis.” The country music legend told the woman he was an auto parts salesman and was staying at the Holiday Inn for a convention. “I’m just laying it on,” he smiled.
Accepting An Unassuming Invitation To A Duet
Vince Gill might have thought he avoided recognition with his fake backstory about being an auto parts salesman named Willis. But the curious woman’s next question would throw him for another improvisational loop. “She was watching all the fun going on, and she says, ‘Let’s go up there and do a duet,’” Gill recalled during his Carmel, Indiana, concert. The “Whenever You Come Around” singer tried to protest, feigning shyness and telling the woman, “You couldn’t get me up in front of people to sing.” Nevertheless, the woman was persistent, and Gill finally acquiesced. She picked out an old Motown song, and Gill began to sing like he had never sung before. (Read: badly.)
“I was supposed to sing the first verse, and I sang the wrong words way out of key,” he continued. As his bandmates and crew watched on, howling with laughter, Gill continued to put on a terrible singing voice into the second verse. “She was all distraught and humiliated up there. So, there was one more verse, and I just went completely Stevie Wonder on it. I started doing all these falsetto runs and stuff way up high. All these licks and everything. We finished, and she put her arm around me, and we were walking off that stage. She said, ‘You know what, Willis? Once you wasn’t quite so nervous, you got much better.’”
Gill laughed and fessed up, admitting he was a “fairly well-known singer” from Nashville. Fortunately for Gill, his jig still wasn’t all the way up, and he was able to maintain some level of disguise from his true identity. “She goes, ‘That’s where I knew you from! You that Alan Jackson boy!’”
Photo by Margaret Norton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.