Jim Hyatt Band performs for crowd of
10,000 at John McCain Rally!

     What an honor it was to be asked to open for John McCain.  Our good friend Bo Cottrell called us the day before and asked if we could do 20 minutes at 7:30am the next morning.  I made the calls and all five of us were excited about being a part of such an occasion. 

     We arrived at 6:30am and waited in VIP Security lines for a few minutes then were escorted to the stage by Secret Service.  We actually played for thousands as they waited to hear John McCain speak.  Twenty minutes turned into a couple of hours as we were asked to fill in for other speakers who had not arrived yet.  When we finished, John Elway came out to introduce Cindy McCain who introduced John McCain.

     Our show consisted of up-tempo, uplifting songs to get the crowd ready to rant and rave for John McCain.  We did a few cowboy songs which included a rendition of "When Payday Rolls Around" which was changed to "When Palin Comes to Town".  We dedicated "Johnny B Goode" to John McCain as a them song and even sang TV theme songs.  We watched a piece of paper being passed around the crowd to the band stand containing a request for a Johnny Cash song.  We started with Folsum Prison and even did an impersonation of Willie Nelson singing a Johnny Cash song.  The finale of the song came when Randy and Jim did a duet of "Jackson".

     What was originally scheduled as a 20 minute "acoustic cowboy show" turned into 10,000 people rockin with the Jim Hyatt Band for nearly two hours.  With Bruce and Jim on acoustic guitars, Chuck playing doo-brow, Pete with an abbreviated drum kit, and Randy on bass, the band sang and played one of the most memorable events in our musical lives.