Jason McCoy, Brett Kissel share Dolly Parton stories in Saskatoon

The Canadian Country Music Awards are bringing some of country music’s top artists to the Saskatchewan Prairies this weekend.

Singer Jason McCoy shared that he had the chance to meet Dolly Parton years ago with his former band, The Road Hammers — but missed it.

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During an interview on 92.9 The Grid, he shared that the band had been rehearsing in Nashville at SIR, a place where lots of bands practise, from bar bands to icons.

McCoy said, as it turned out, there was an icon in the next room that day — Parton.

“We didn’t know that,” he said.

The group finished rehearsing and loaded their gear into their van. They realized one of their bandmates — “the quiet Beatle,” Chris, as McCoy described him — was missing.

The group’s other members started texting their bandmate to find out where he was. They walked back into SIR to look for him and couldn’t find him. About 15 minutes later, Chris returned with a “big grin on his face,” McCoy recalled.

He told the group he’d met someone, then held up his phone.

“He got to meet Dolly Parton. She invited him into the rehearsal spot. They were hanging and talking,” McCoy said.

“I’m like, dude, you have a cell phone. You have friends. We’re waiting in the van.

“Of all the Hammers, he’s the only one who ever got to meet Dolly,” McCoy lamented. “He’s got some great memories of that.”

Brent Kissel opened up while in Saskatoon about being an emotional man.

“I’ve got four beautiful kids, but the minute I had my (two) girls,” Kissel said.

“I don’t think I’d cried once in my life, and then now that I’m a dad, you know, to these girls, I’m crying when I watch Frozen. I’m crying when I watch all these Disney movies,” he said, calling himself a “big softy.”

Morning host Locker on The Grid referenced an interview in which Kissel had shared a story about Parton and himself and had become emotional while sharing it.

“I’ve suppressed my feelings for many many years, especially because I grew up on a farm,” he explained.

“Like my grandpa, ‘Rub some dirt on it and get back to work,’” he said.

He said, however, it can be good to have a “bit of a release” sometimes.

“It hit me hard when Dolly Parton died because she was such an incredible figure for country music,” he shared. “She did so many wonderful things and I thought she was going to live forever.”

He said it’s sad because he’s sentimental and said this is the closing of a chapter.

“All of our heroes are going. It’s inevitable, and that’s okay. You know they’re in heaven and they’re watching down on us,” Kissel said.

— with files from 92.9 The Grid