The New 103.7 tailgate was an awesome time yesterday before the show. The Chris Lane band kicked things off, and we gave away backstage passes to several lucky fans! See our exclusive backstage interview with Luke plus awesome concert photos!

Rachel Farley kicked off the show last night, followed by Luke Bryan and then Jason Aldean. Verizon Wireless Amphitheater was absolutely packed for the sold-out show with some of Charlotte’s biggest country fans. Check out photos from the concert!

Before the show we headed backstage with Luke Bryan to talk about his career. To see the video from the interview, scroll to the bottom of this post! We know all things Luke Bryan are better with a visual.

He told us what an awesome year 2012 has been for him and how exciting a year of sold out shows has made him.

“I’ll forever look back on 2012, and I’ll always look back on it with a big old smile. It’s definitely the highlight or one of the biggest years of my life.”

Luke gave the credit to his fans for his booming year.

“It’s been country music fans sticking with me, you guys playing the music and being really blessed and finding some great songs to put out on the radio,” said Luke. “It’s been a great year. We certainly love the idea of coming back to town each year, and we’re a little bigger each year. So we’re loving the ride and having a blast!”

After recently releasing another new single, “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye,” Luke is continuing the sexy trend in his music. We asked him to talk a little bit about the idea behind the song.

“I always like to think of songs like that as the Conway Twitty side of me. Conway would always talk about sex and never say it, and that’s kind of what ‘Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye’ is. It’s obviously about a couple that are kinda on their way out, and they know they’re not meant for each other but they kinda have a good time in the sac together and they’re going to send it off on a good note.”

Finally, we wanted to make sure to ask him about his trusty hat, which seems to never leave his head.
The logo on Luke’s hat is actually that of fellow Buck Commander star Adam LaRoche’s ranch in Texas. According to Luke, the hat helps him avoid making enemies.

“For years, I’d do a show and I’d wear a Braves cap, but we’d be up in Cincinnati and I’d wear a Braves cap and people would be like ‘Boooo!’ and flippin’ me off, wantin’ to whoop my tail. So when I found this E3 hat, I was like nobody knows what it is, so I’m not going to go in some club and get my butt whooped over a hat that nobody knows about.”

-Alex Stegall, The New 103.7