The Power Of Music (The Original Draft)

Fan Fest

The next morning Bentley woke up to the sound of his alarm blaring in his ear. He rolled over to check his phone and saw that he had a text message from Raelynn. "I had fun last night and I hope you have safe travels today to the show rehearsals. I know we won't have much of a chance to speak to each other this weekend even though we will be in the same place at the same time. It's going to suck but keeping our relationship private is for the best. So good luck. See you around. Can't wait till this weekend is over." Raelynn's text read. Bentley just smiled as he got out the bed and went and jumped in the shower.

While Bentley was in the shower his parents were already downstairs in the kitchen making breakfast. The aroma of bacon filled the entire house making Bentley hungry. He quickly finished his shower and hurried down to get some bacon before his Dad ate it all.

As he entered the kitchen he saw his parents sitting at the table both with a plate of eggs, bacon, grits, and sausage. "Dad did you eat all the bacon or did you save me some." Bentley said jokingly. His father just laughed. "Yeah I saved you some bacon. Your Mom made me. Said you had a big day today and I better save you some, so I did." His dad responded with a chuckle. "Oh so you didn't save me any because you wanted to. Mom had to threaten you in order for you to leave me some. Gotcha." Bentley said laughing as he sat down at the table between his parents with his own plate of food.

When Bentley was finished eating he went back to his room to grab his thing to head out the door. On the way out the door he gave his Dad a hug as well as his Mom, but gave his mother a kiss on the cheek. "I love you son, please be careful. Let us know when you get there." His mom said as he walked out the door. Right as the door was shutting behind him he shouted back "I love you too and I will do."

After a few hours of driving Bentley finally met up with his team at the Hilton in uptown Charlotte where he parked his car and rode with them to the Bank of America Stadium. On the short ride over to the Bank of America Stadium Bentley started imagining would any of the Carolina Panthers be at the fan fest. Bentley had been a Carolina Panthers fan since as long as he could remember and now that he had the chance to perform at the Bank of America Stadium home of the Carolina Panthers he wondered would he get the chance to meet any of the players. "Hey guys, I know its offseason for the NFL but I was wondering, do you think David Tepper or any of the Carolina Panthers will be in attendance this weekend?" Bentley asked his team. The team laughed as all of them were fans of the LA Rams. "Man, I have no clue, it's a possibility." Bentley's manager said with a laugh. "Well I hope so. I'd be honored to meet them." Bentley said.

After the short drive to the Stadium Bentley and his team had arrived and were immediately met by the management staff for the event. The staff gave Bentley and the team a quick tour of the stadium. As the staff guided them out of one of the tunnels onto the field Bentley immediately saw the stage at the back of one of the end-zones. Everything looked like it had been set up perfectly. The staff then led them back out to the locker rooms which were to be used as dressing rooms prior to each performer set. That's where the staff left Bentley and his team so they could begin rehearsals.

"So Bentley, we have a few good artists show casing in this fan fest for you. Some of the artist, if we aren't careful with your set and set list could possibly upstage you and you don't want that since this is your event. We have a little over 24hours to prepare." Bentley's manager stated. Bentley just smiled because that's what he wanted to hear. He wanted to hear that his team had booked some good artist. It meant his fans would be getting their money worth and the reschedule for the final 8 shows would have been worth it. Also, it meant it was going to push him to bring his A game as well as debut some new music. "Mike, you know that's a good thing. I got something up my sleeve, new music." Bentley said to his manager Mike. "New music? When were you going to tell me you had new music?" Mike asked. Bentley just chuckled. "Man, I'm telling you now, coming home really helped with me come up with some new music. Yeah, the music I came up with isn't bangers that you'd play in a club its something new and the fans love new music." Mike just shook his head as he was scared that this plan Bentley had was going to fail. Mike didn't believe in taking too many risk; but Bentley did, after all a risk of pursuing music and posting it on social media platforms is what got Bentley this far with his career thus far. "Man I don't know if this is a great idea but you know what, something about you seems different. You seem more mature than I have seen you in the past few years. I don't know what these few days at home have done to you but I like it and with that being said I'm going to go out on a limb here at trust you with this. So don't let me down know." Mike said as he walked out the locker room to go do a lighting and sound check with the production team.