Blake Shelton Tributes Troy Gentry With Acoustic ‘Over You’ Performance [WATCH]
On Wednesday night (Jan. 10), Blake Shelton co-hosted a benefit concert in honor of late Montgomery Gentry member Troy Gentry. Although the country superstar admitted that he hadn't planned on performing during the event, he found the perfect song for the occasion: "Over You," the song he wrote for his late brother and gave to his then-wife, Miranda Lambert.
On the Grand Ole Opry stage, Shelton accompanied his performance on an acoustic guitar, drawing the crowd to silence. Before starting the song, he shared with the audience a memory of playing "Over You" for Gentry, who had also lost a sibling.
"We were just playing songs back and forth ... Troy didn't know that the song was about my brother ... and it really hit him hard," Shelton recalled. "He wasn't crying or anything, but he was just beside himself a little bit."
Readers can press play above to watch a snippet of his performance. Flip through the photo gallery below to see photos from the evening.
Shelton, who co-hosted the benefit concert with SiriusXM DJ Storme Warren, dubbed C'Ya on the Flipside, knew Gentry and duo partner Eddie Montgomery for nearly two decades. When Shelton was just starting his career, the two acts shared a manager. "Montgomery Gentry, they were already famous," he remembered of that time, "and I wasn't s--t."
"There's so many stories I have with that guy and about that guy ... He was literally like a family member to me," Shelton said of Gentry. "And we didn't always get along. There was several times where we didn't talk for a while, and then there was a lot of times when it wasn't good when we were together."
The C'Ya on the Flipside concert helped to officially launch the new Troy Gentry Foundation. Created by Gentry's wife Angie and some friends, the non-profit organization will offer financial support to cancer research organizations, groups that assist military families and organizations that focus on music education. The evening's other performers included Jimmie Allen, Chris Janson, Dustin Lynch, Justin Moore, Craig Morgan, Jon Pardi, Rascal Flatts and more.
Gentry died at the age of 50 in a helicopter crash in Medford, N.J., on Sept. 8, 2017. He and Montgomery were scheduled to perform there that evening.
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