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The Super Bowl is around the corner, and Faith Hill is rooting for her fellow country artist. Mickey Guyton announced that she would perform the National Anthem at Super Bowl LVI, gushing that she was “shook,” “grateful” and “praise dancing.”
During her appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Hill applauded Guyton and gushed: “Amazing artist. I have not met her, but I am such a huge fan and supporter, and she is going to slay it. She’s gonna slay it.”
Hill cheered for Guyton after recalling her own experience singing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl in 2000. The “Mississippi Girl” singer recalled feeling an “extraordinary amount of pressure,” and called it “terrifying” to sing at the Super Bowl. But she credits the Tennessee Titans with keeping her calm: “Honestly, the Tennessee Titans were playing in this particular Super Bowl, and that calmed me because I was so proud of our team. But I did spend a lot of time in the restroom just rehearsing. Seriously, I did, with a boom box. Literally, a boom box in the public restroom before I walked out. I walked from the public restroom out to the field and sang the National Anthem.”
Hill explained that nerves, at least in part, stemmed from forgetting the lyrics to the anthem earlier in her career. She reflected:
“…It’s one of those songs that you know so well, and you think, ‘I’ll never forget the lyrics,’ (but) it’s happened to me before. It was at a playoff game many years prior (to the Super Bowl in 2000). I was singing at a Dallas playoff game, the beginning of my career, and I was asked to sing the National Anthem (at the) playoff game. And I’m walking out to the center of the field with this very generous guard, this woman that was walking me out. And I say to her — and this is televised — ‘would you happen to know just the first word of the National Anthem? All I need is the first word.’ The ‘O.’ And she said, ‘Seriously?’ And we’re walking hand in hand, (and) I said “I’m serious. I’m very serious.’ She said, ‘Oh my, honey, I don’t know.’”
Hill admitted that she was so nervous that she nearly sang “Amazing Grace” instead, because “they’ll forgive me for that.” But luckily, she didn’t have to. Colbert had one word of encouragement for Guyton after hearing Hill’s story: “Mickey, the first word is ‘O.’” Watch Hill’s interview on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert here: