On Monday (Jan. 13), fans packed into Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium for the 5th Annual Bobby Bones & The Raging Idiots’ Million Dollar Show. The sold-out event featured performances from Brooks & Dunn, Kane Brown, Brett Young, Colbie Caillat, Lainey Wilson, Heath Sanders and Gone West as well as surprise guests Sam Hunt, Old Dominion, Foreigner, Sawyer Brown, Lindsay Ell and King Calaway.
The star-studded show raised a whopping $267,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, bringing Bones’ and The Bobby Bones Show total raised for the organization to over $14 million.
Prior to taking the stage, the multi-media personality sat down with Country Now backstage at the Ryman for an in-depth interview where he opened up about the event and what it means to have incredible artists like Brooks & Dunn agree to take part in it.
The American Idol mentor also explained why supporting St. Jude is so important to him, telling Country Now, “To me, being able to work with the kids of St. Jude, it’s a bit personal because at St. Jude you don’t have to pay a bill, and so when you go in, they take care of the travel to and from, the food, you know, all the treatment obviously.”
“When I was a kid,” he continued, “I didn’t fight cancer, but I had a lot of internal issues and I was in the hospital a long time. If it wasn’t for people, you know, stepping up and helping pay our bills, I don’t know that I would’ve got the care that I got then. So when I heard that there was a hospital that took care of kids, I started to get involved. But then, once I started to get involved, I started to go and actually see, you know, how positive of an atmosphere it is when it’s not a very positive thing happening.”
Bones credits his listeners, whom he affectionately refers to as the “B Team,” for helping to make the event a huge success every year.
“It’s just special to be here, and a lot of kids come every year to this and that’s why we do it every year,” he shared.
Watch the clip above for more with Bones, including details on his budding friendship with Ronnie Dunn and for a backstage tour of the Ryman.
Fans interested in making a donation to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital can visit thisshirtsaveslives.org to become a monthly donor.
