Ben Earle of The Shires has recalled the stark warning BBC DJ Bob Harris delivered before the duo's first trip to Nashville, more than a decade ago.
"He said to us before our first trip to Nashville, 'the guy delivering your pizza will be a better musician than you'," Ben told the Mirror in an exclusive interview.
At the time, the comment stung. "I took it very personally!" Ben admitted, with Crissie Rhodes laughing beside him. But he soon grasped the point: "He was basically saying that the talent there is incredible, and you've got to learn, and just when you get there, just be open and just learn as much as you can."
Nashville's Everyman Musicians
Over a decade later, Ben still regards Nashville as "the most magical place". The warning has never left him. "I always think about that whenever I jump in an Uber in Nashville or speaking to someone behind a bar or whatever, or someone who's serving you in a restaurant. I'm always like, 'they could be the next Luke Combs or the next Lainey Wilson or something' and it really is that kind of place."
From Studio Albums to Hyde Park
The Shires, made up of Ben and Crissie, have since released six studio albums, including hits like Getaway Car and Daddy's Little Girl. Their recent Hyde Park set drew a huge crowd on a bumper day of country music that featured Zac Brown Band before Garth Brooks closed the show.
"To see the amount of people that had turned up for us was incredible," Crissie said. "It was just like a sea of people. We got everybody line dancing with us as well, which was really cool."
Stage Fright and Support
Ben admitted that his stage fright often worsened with the size of the venue. "Generally, the bigger the stage, the more anxious I would feel," he said. "And because of that, looking back at some of the memories of some of the shows, some of them I can't remember at all."
He credits Crissie for her support and for introducing him to people who helped him prepare for performances. Crissie said Ben's anxiety was never visible to the audience. "You would never sense Ben's anxiety at all on stage," she said. "Like he would be like kind of falling apart, but no one else could witness it. Nobody else knew that was going on. I could kind of look over and be like, 'Oh yeah,' and then, you know, he'd just storm it out all the time."
New Album Bonfire and UK Country Boom
The pair are now gearing up for a string of headline shows, including a performance at Gateshead's The Glasshouse on the banks of the River Tyne. Fans can expect their best-known tunes alongside tracks from their new album, Bonfire, their first in four years.
The duo believe the album arrives as country music in the UK is booming. "I think people want more, like, authenticity," Crissie said. "I think with so much AI stuff going on, I think people just want real life, and I think that's what country has always brought."
She added: "It's for the working people, it's for genuine people that are just living their daily lives. And I feel like it was kind of laughed upon for such a long time, because often people thought it was like about just divorces and their dogs and stuff like back in the day. But it's it's it's so universal now, and I think it crosses all of the generations as well."
