Carrie Underwood: Grateful For ‘So Many Things’

Carrie Underwood is always making food from her garden and creating homemade meals for her two sons and husband near Nashville. So this Thanksgiving, she will more than be in the kitchen preparing a huge meal for her family.

While, like most of us, she will be eating a great meal, she told us recently that she doesn't have many traditions on Thanksgiving. Carrie said, "We don't have too many set-in-stone Thanksgiving traditions. I find myself a lot of times working on or around Thanksgiving or unable to get home or whatever. We try to be together, but sometimes that just doesn't work out."

Underwood added, "But yeah, I think it's just about we eat. I eat a lot every year on Thanksgiving. I never skip that tradition. But yeah, that's the gist of it, and I'm kind of lucky. I get two Thanksgivings because I also get to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with my husband's family, so if I don't hit one, I'll definitely be able to get the other one."

As for what the superstar is grateful for? That's a no-brainer. She told us, "I am grateful for so many things this Thanksgiving. I think the thing I'm most grateful for, though, is family. I mean, that's what it's all about, and that's what this life is all about."

Carrie concluded, "I'm blessed to have two incredible boys that I get to take care of and that love on me daily, and they're just giant blessings in my life, and of course, my extended family, as well. That's what this time of year's all about – getting together and just realizing how blessed we all are."

Underwood has a song that talks about how thankful she is for her hometown, which is Checotah, Oklahoma. The song from her 2012 album, Blown Away, is called "Thank God For Hometowns."

This week, we are celebrating drummers with the marking of National Hug A Drummer Day. To celebrate, we dug up some country music stars of today who play the drums and do it quite well.

National Hug A Drummer Day is marked each year to honor the drummer who often takes a backseat in bands and helps the star of the show shine.

Let's look at some country music stars that, once in a while, head back to play the drums.

During Thomas' high-energy show, he steps back to play a drum solo. Before Rhett learned to play the guitar and started writing some of country music's best songs, he studied drums in college in Nashville, where he started a band with his college buddies, the High Heeled Flip Flops, which he describes as "punk rock." Thomas said that his music education began with drums, which is why he's such a big supporter of the CMA Foundation, which helps schools and music education all over the country.

Chris sits at the drums most nights in his live show, taking over for his band drummer, and his skills are pretty impressive. Not only does Janson dabble on the drums with a solo each night in concert, but he also plays a mean harmonica strapped on his neck as he also plays guitar. In June, Chris released his first album project for BMLG called The Outlaw Side Of Me. The Grand Ole Opry member had two previous albums released on other Nashville labels.

In her 2022/2023 "Demin and Rhinetones" tour, Carrie showed off her impressive drumming skills during the section of her show that pays homage to the rock and roll greats like Gun N' Roses. When she played the show in Lexington in October of last year (2022), after the show, she told me backstage that her drumming was "off" that night, although it seemed perfect to me. It made me realize that she was striving for perfection, even in a drum solo she learned for the show.

Keith adds drumming to his many skills. In his 2023 Las Vegas residency at Planet Hollywood, he shows off some serious drum moves. Urban is, of course, best known as a guitar player and even created his own banjo/guitar hybrid that he calls a "Ganjo.' He is one of Nashville's most gifted musicians and has worked on many country albums in the studio before he released his solo Nashville debut in 1999. While he isn't known as a drummer, with his drumming skills, we do believe he should get a hug on this special day.

Luke is a transplant from the world of acting and plays Kayce Dutton in the popular show Yellowstone, which stars Kevin Costner and, in part of Season Five, featured Lainey Wilson in her first acting role as a country singer named Abby. In interviewing Grimes last month, we learned that before acting and before his country music dreams started, he was a drummer in a church band as a kid, and his father was the pastor. Drums also influenced who he listened to. He told us, "I have a pretty eclectic range of influences because I started as a drummer, and some bands that have the best drummers don't have the best songwriters."

While Luke does not yet play a drum solo in his live performances, he did his first live show in April of 2023.