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Lee Brice Reveals Story Behind Garth Brooks Show

Seventeen Years Between Shows Changes Everything

Lee Brice saw his first Garth Brooks show when he was 17. And then 17 years later, on Saturday (Jan. 24), he saw his second Garth Brooks show.

But man, what a difference those 17 years made.

Brice told me the story behind his spontaneous duet with Brooks in Boston, so we could go a little deeper than the post-show tweets between the two country singers.

“You feel like working tonight?”

That’s what Brooks asked Brice when they were hanging out in his dressing room -- after the official meet-and-greet -- but before the show.

“I remember my jaw dropping and just starting at him. My brain started going 100 miles an hour. I thought, ‘There’s no way he’s asking me what he’s asking me,’” Brice recalled. “Then he goes, ‘You wanna sing "Memory" tonight?’”

“More Than a Memory” is a song Brice wrote when he was new to Nashville and Brooks cut for his 2007 album The Ultimate Hits. The song was Brice’s first No. 1 as a songwriter.

But since Brice hadn’t seen Brooks live in 17 years, he’d never seen Brooks sing his song live.

As fate would have it, though, Brice was in Boston for his own shows, so he told himself he was going to see Brooks.

“I just wanted to see the show, and hear my song," Brice said. "Already, I knew it was gonna be a magical night."

But after Brooks asked him if he wanted to join him onstage, Brice started getting a little nervous.

“I was in the fourth row, just watching the show," he explained. "And I get a text saying that someone would come get me after Trisha (Yearwood) did ‘She’s in Love With the Boy.’ So once they grabbed me and we start walking under the stage, my mouth goes completely dry. Completely. And next thing I know, (Brooks) is introducing me. I felt so humble to be up there, I wanted to just stand there and sing and be respectful. He came in on the second verse, then gave it back to me. And then it was over.”

Brice said that when he was leaving the concert, he was still in shock.

“I felt like it was this two-hour period of my life that was like a dream that went by too fast,” he said. “Garth was my hero growing up, so I’ll never get over that. Even more than being onstage with him, just being in his dressing room and him asking me, that is the moment I’ll never get over.”

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