An Intimate Interview with Buddy Jewell

Mary: If you could go back in time and see one musician or band in concert, who would you choose?
Buddy: Lynyrd Skynyrd when Ronnie Van Zant was still alive. The original band, I would of loved to of seen those guys. I've gotten to be friends with Johnny and Donnie Van Zant over the last year or so and they're great guys. They were shooting a dvd, not too long after I won Nashville Star, and one of the producers on the show whose company was shooting their dvd. He got me into the concert.
I just wanted some passes or tickets to this and he put me in-between the front row and the stage, there was a barrier and he put me and my sister who is a big Skynyrd fan. She was in town and I took her for her birthday. We were like 5 feet from Johnny Van Zant... so cool!
At one point during the concert he motioned for me to come up on stage and I didn't see him, I was watching the guitar player or something, I wasn't watching him. Tené and my sister elbowed me and said hey he wants you to come up there and I was like ahh, no he doesn't. So I didn't go up there. So I was talking to him about it after I had met him last year... I said, my sister and my wife, silly things said you were trying to get me to come up on stage and he said oh I was. I was like, Oh man... I could of gotten to sing with Lynyrd Skynyrd, what an idiot! *laughter*

Mary: You entertain through your music. What entertains you and makes you want to keep doing what you're doing?
Buddy: Well, I don't know if the two are connected at all. *laughter* My entertainment, I love pro-football and riding my motorcycle. Those are my two passions outside of music. And what keeps me wanting to do what I do is that I love what I am getting to do and am having the time of my life. Getting to do something that most people only get to dream about doing... and I've been successful at it. And aside from that fact I just really feel that is what God put me here to do. I'm pretty happy about it.

Mary: With all your support of St. Jude's, what is the greatest thing you have learned from those experiences?
Buddy: It's kind of wild, we go there as artists to help lift the spirits of the parents and the children who are in the hospital and be a blessing to them. I don't think I've ever walked away from there, from any of those visits, without coming away feeling like I've cheated them, like they've blessed me more than I've blessed them.

The biggest thing for me is, it increases my gratitude. I am so fortunate that I am not having to live through a catastrophic childhood disease with one of my kids and I am so blessed. We've got some real good friends, Mike and Amy, Mike is our youth minister at our church, and their son Cameron has leukemia. (It is well documented through Buddy's website) By the way, he is doing great! I can't imagine what it is like waking up every day and seeing that child you love so much and knowing there is a chance that they may not get well and that they might die.

Man, I come to St. Jude, it's the kids who are the ones who are least worried about it... they are upbeat and really positive for the most part, it is the parents who are having the toughest time dealing with it. You go to the chapel and read the prayer book and it will just tear your heart out. If you could call it learning something from it, that's what I've walked away from the experience with, a deep appreciation of healthy children and an enormous amount of respect and reverence for the families and what they are going through.

Click Here to View Buddy Jewell at the Belcourt.