I've been checking in with my buddy, country star Craig Morgan, from his current tour across North America with Carrie Underwood. Fortunately, he says everything's going really well — despite one major hiccup: The death of one of Carrie's bus drivers at the beginning of the tour. Here's what Craig had to say about it when I spoke to him last on March 22, along with his plans to not give Carrie any advice on her upcoming wedding!
UsMagazine.com: How was the first night of the tour?
Craig Morgan: The first show went off with pretty much no hitches. It was pretty typical of a normal tour, except for the fact that we did get to rehearse. I've never rehearsed for a tour, so that was kind of nice. It was nice to see the set-up, kind of get a feel for knowing what we're going to be doing. And we've hung on a time schedule, which is really tough. But as we've gone through [dates] now, they’ve got it down to pretty much a science. Short of the fact that we had a truck driver who got killed.
Us: How did that happen? That's terrible.
CM: We don’t know exactly what happened, but we know he ran off the road. He was talking on his radio and they don’t know if something happened to him, like he had a heart attack. There’s a lot of speculation, but basically he ran off the road and off an embankment, and the truck exploded. It was the driver of one of the production trucks — the truck that had the stage.
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Us: Did you have a memorial service for the driver?
CM: They had a moment of silence the day of the show. It’s one of those difficult things, because you know, as the old term says, the show must go on. My truck driver knew him real well, had dinner with him the night before the accident. I'm sure there's people out there that thought maybe they should have cancelled the show, but when you have 10,000 people that have paid to see the show…we decided that we could do more for the family of this man by continuing to do what we're doing.
Us: What's it been like working with Carrie?
CM: Extremely smooth. Carrie and all her people are just absolutely amazing. Their extremely cordial, very professional. She actually had a party on a break from the tour. I was visiting my mom, who is going through chemo, so I couldn't go, but Carrie had a get-together and invited everybody. My [roadies] they said she was just amazing. She stayed there the whole time, talked to everybody and hung out. I hated that I missed that, but it was more important that I go home to my mom at that time.
Us: Do you get to chat with Carrie while you're on the road?
CM: Oh yeah, we talk. I see her before her show. Believe it or not, like I said, it's very busy. It seems like we're doing something the whole time. But yeah, we talk before the show, and she's an angel. She's as sweet as she could be. We couldn't ask for anything more.
Us: Have you met her fiance, Mike Fisher?
CM: We will see him this week, because we’re in Canada for a couple of days.
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Us: Has Carrie asked you for wedding planning advice?
CM: I doubt very seriously she would ask me for any wedding advice. There's a difference in wedding advice and marital advice. My advice would be to him, not her. I would just tell him to say yes because he’s going to give in eventually anyway.
For more on Morgan, visit his Web site, and keep checking Ian in Your Ear for more from the singer as he hits the road.
–By Ian Drew for UsMagazine.com. To read more of Ian's blog, click here and don't forget to follow him on Twitter.
