Dove Awards Red Carpet Greeting from Danny Gokey

I had wanted to plan a trip to visit a good friend in Alabama. When we discovered that Danny Gokey was nominated for New Artist of the Year at the upcoming Dove Awards, just two hours from her home…. you can guess what happened!

I really expected Danny to get an invite to perform and Darla loved attending the 2013 Dove Awards in Atlanta. We decided this would be a great excursion and the impetus I needed to book my flight!

And as providence would have it, the Dove Awards announced that Danny would be a performer. Soon after that, he received a second nomination, for Song of the Year!

It was meant to be! Would our luck carry over to a win or two??

The day of the awards was a beautiful, sunny day. We arrived on the Lipscomb College Campus, immediately found free parking and a college shuttle that dropped us near the venue! Yes, I said FREE parking and shuttle.

We had plenty of time to grab an outside patio table and watch artists being dropped off for the VIP events and Red Carpet.

I saw Danny’s tweet about driving to the Doves and we knew it would be soon! But no sign of him in the arriving artists by us. Then we heard the crowd getting excited and found that many artists (including Danny and Leyicet ) were starting their red carpet interview rounds.

Unfortunately, spectators were roped a good 10 feet behind the long row of media taking pictures and video. But with a little maneuvering, and some very polite fans, we were able to catch some photos. Halfway up his interview line, there was a break in the media and Danny spotted me taking his photo. I got a nice little shout out from Danny and a wave from Leyicet. When this happened an older gentleman and his wife stopped me and asked me “Do you know Danny Gokey?” What to say?? I said yes and that I co-moderated his fan website. Of course I then plugged Dannygokeynews.com. He showed me Danny’s book and asked if I could get it signed? We spoke a few more minutes and I told Roy and Shirley that if I saw an opportunity I would try…. But that I did NOT have media credentials and didn’t know if I could even get to speak to Danny.

Over the next 15 minutes, Danny and Leyicet did lots of interviews! Unfortunately we were too far away to hear the questions or more than a few words of his responses.

As Danny and Leyicet exited the Red Carpet, a number of people stopped them….and I saw it might not work for me to get a closer picture or anything else. But I then saw them confer and heard my name! Danny, Leyicet and his manager, Penny, headed OUR way!!

We exchanged pleasantries. And I asked if  I could take a picture of the two of them.  I even moved them to get better lighting for my photos. I was very happy I had a chance to get an unobstructed photo.

Danny asked me, “Do you want to do an interview?”

I told Danny that I didn’t have media credentials. He said ” Let’s do the interview right here”.

If I didn’t have a witness, none of you would believe that my mind went blank and I told Danny I didn’t expect an interview and I didn’t have a single question to ask him!!

I think Danny was shocked.  Jan doesn’t have ANY questions to ask Danny Gokey?

If I would have had even 5 minutes to think,  I would have 5, 10, 15 questions to ask!  I just didn’t expect to see Danny up close and especially to have a chance to ask him anything!

Danny offered to do a shout out to his fans at Dannygokeynews.com.  I thought that was a nice idea.  I fumbled around and pointed my camera at Danny and Leyicet.

Danny thanked his fans for all our support and encouraged everyone to visit DGNews for the latest news. He was very complimentary and animated in his praise.

And my camera malfunctioned.

Thankfully, photo extraordinaire, Darla took rapid fire photos and we produced this substitute video. Trust us, Danny loves us at DannyGokeyNews!

And the gentleman with the book? After Danny completed the shout out, I looked through the crowd to see if I could grab Roy’s book and shove it in front of Danny. Roy was nowhere to be found.

I hope Roy gets his chance to meet Danny and tell him how much his story meant to him.

While Danny didn’t win this year at the Dove Awards, I would imagine this taste of success will drive our competitive guy to dig even deeper for album #3!