Nashville Floods Put a Hurtin' on Country Stars

By PopEater Staff Posted May 6th 2010 07:20AM

Just because you're rich, famous and (probably) have a whole closet just for cowboy hats doesn't shield you from flood waters, as many country stars have sadly learned this week in Nashville. Among the bigger names to make their troubles known are Dierks Bentley (pictured, left) and Kenny Chesney, who have been updating fans with photos from their homes.

Chesney's 40-acre waterfront property has been inundated with water and he made sure news networks could see the devastation, telling his Twitter followers on Wednesday, "Sending Anderson Cooper footage of my house under water for tonight. TN is a mess. You need to see it."

JoDee Messina returned to her Franklin, TN, home to find "as much water in [the] house as in the pool," she said on Twitter. "Thank God for our neighbors letting us borrow pump. Thx to franklin police 4 getting us home."

The country music community is leading the charge to rebuild Music City after the devastating storms over the weekend. Vince Gill is hosting a telethon on the local NBC affiliate to benefit the Red Cross, Salvation Army and Second Harvest Food Bank.

Keith Urban lives in the area with his wife, Nicole Kidman, and their daughter. He told CNN, "Nashville is a community of great spirit."

"I went through this in Australia in 1974. I was very young, but we had this kind of 100-year flood in my city, and it's just unfathomable," Urban said. "It's possible that as much as I haven't lost what everybody else has, I've probably lost all of my road equipment, and all my guitars, and amp and everything."

The floods have taken out Soundcheck Nashville, a storage rental hub, where an estimated 1,000 musicians and business owners house their gear.

Brad Paisley's stuff is waterlogged.

"On the positive side, everyone is safe," he tweeted. "On the negative ... I think all my road guitar gear, amps, effects, are under 3 ft of river."

The storage facility is full of classroom-sized "lockers" used to store gear.

Friends say Vince Gill may have lost most of his entire guitar collection, including irreplaceable vintage pieces with historic value. A tractor-trailer full of LeAnn Rimes' road gear is also probably under 3½ to 8 feet of water.

"Omg, I've been in tears for the last hour. I love you Nashville!" Rimes said Wednesday on, yes, her Twitter feed.

Tags: Kenny Chesney, nashville flood

Comments

(5)

Thursday 06 May

By Alan Baute

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I feel for all of you down there in the flood area, love is on your side.

By diana

see what happenes when brooks n dunns calls it quits and brad sings about water no wonder why everyone wants to go to heaven thanks kenny! [ha]but on a real note thank god everyone is safe and hope all of us fans will pull together and do what we can to help out.

By Donna

I am not so concerned about the country 'stars' in Nashville.
I am praying for the people of Nashville. Its the working guy that needs the prayers. Its the average 'Joe' that will be out of work for a while. The country singers will be just fine, now and in the end.
My prayers are with everyone that has been flooded out, or hit hard in their wallets.
And thank God for Vince Gill, hosting a telethon to help the red cross. More of the country singers could do the same...

By Barb

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You got that right. Many have lost material things but they all have their lives and each other. With faith in GOD he will see all of them thru and make them stronger.

By Rod

My prayers are to everyone hurt by the flooding, stars or not. The stars will be fine financially, sure, but even they can be hurt by the loss of things with sentimental value that cannot be replaced.

I don't really care for the headline, "puts a hurtin" seems to be making light of their losses.

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