Country great Vince Gill is known almost as much for his amazing sense of humor as he is for his incredible musical talent.
And fans at a recent tour stop got to witness that firsthand, when Vince paused his singing to tell a story about how he and his band spent a night off between performances.
In the video, posted to his Instagram account, Vince tells the audience, “We were in the little town in Eastern Washington. So we decided to take over the Holiday Inn bar, it’s the thing to do! We took over that bar and it just so happened to be karaoke night.”
As the audience burst into laughter, Vince continued, “So, cocktails are flying, everybody’s having a big time with the night off, and the crew boys are up there singing heavy metal covers and acting foolish and just crazy, crazy night you know, and we’re all having a ball.”
“I’m sitting next to this pretty African American girl,” Vince goes on. He caught her looking at him and said hello, to which she asked, “Do I know you?” Vince told the audience at that point he spun a tale, telling his bar mate his name was Willis and that he sold auto parts in “here in the tri-state area.”
As the audience’s laughter grows, Vince goes on, relating that eventually, the woman says, “Hey Willis, let’s go up there and do a duet.” Vince tells the crowd he responded, “Baby, you couldn’t get me up there to sing in front of people for a million dollars.” But that’s NOT how his tale ends.
Vince Gill’s Storytelling Has His Audience Mesmerized
As Vince Gill continues to weave his funny story for his audience, he tells them his bar mate continues to try to convince him to sing with her, but he keeps refusing.
But finally, Vince gives in. “It’s getting close to closing time,” Vince tells the crowd. “I finally looked at her and said, ‘Alright baby, let’s go do that duet.’ She said, ‘atta boy Willis, c’mon!’ And we go up there and get up on the stage, and everybody in the club is our crew, our band guys, and they know what’s going on. So they’re all laughing..”
Vince tells the audience the pair picked a Motown duet, “And I started singing the first verse,” he relates, “I’m singing way out of tune, the wrong notes and just, it’s God-awful. And everybody’s laughing at us, and she’s, like, crushed. She sings, and she’s ok, but not great. And then I sing the second verse even worse than the first. And the whole place is on the floor and they’re just crying, laughing.”
Vince Gill’s Hilarious Story Has a Plot Twist
But then Vince Gill surprises his audience with a plot twist!
“We had one more verse,” Vince tells the audience. “The last verse, I went like Stevie Wonder on her, you know? I started doing all these falsetto runs and all these licks. And her mouth hit the floor,” Vince tells the laughing crowd.
Vince says as the pair left the stage, his duet partner told him, “Once you wasn’t so nervous, you got a little bit better up there.” Vince laughs as he tells how he came clean, telling the woman, “I gotta be honest with you. I’ve just been messing with you all night long. I’m actually a fairly well-known country music singer from Nashville.” His new friend replied, “That’s where I knew you from! You’re that Alan Jackson boy ain’t you?” as the crowd falls apart with laughter.
“I just said ‘yep’,” Vince says, but then brings the story home. “That sweet girl, she’s been coming to see me ever since, for 35 years, and she still calls me Willis.”
Vince Gill Celebrates 50 Years In Music With Solo Tour
Vince Gill’s summer solo tour celebrating 50 years in music continues through mid-August. A number of his upcoming shows are already sold out.
The tour will wrap up in August. Vince will spend four nights on the stage at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, considered “the Mother Church of Country Music.”
Gill will perform shows in his Las Vegas residency at The Sphere in September, October and November. Then he’ll return to the Ryman with his wife, Christian singer Amy Grant, for their yearly Christmas shows there.
You can find tour dates and tickets for Gill’s solo tour, his Las Vegas residency and his Christmas shows with Amy Grant here.
Comments
Vince Gill Goes Incognito for Hilarious Karaoke Performance