Teutopolis Grade School third-grader Blakely Bowling attended the Brad Paisley concert at the Illinois State Fair this summer – her first concert – and left with a guitar pick, an autographed sign and an autographed electric guitar from the artist.
Bowling has been a lifelong fan of Paisley because of her mother, Kayla, who has been to at least eight of his concerts. Because Blakely and Paisley share a birthday, Kayla always told her that when she was old enough, Kayla would take her to one of Paisley’s concerts.
“The influence, I think, was more so me. So I have a long history of going to Brad Paisley concerts with my sister-in-law, Michelle, and when Blakey was old enough to kind of comprehend, I would always tell her, ‘One day, I will take you to one of his concerts because you guys share the same birthday,’” said Kayla. “Then, that finally came to fruition this year.”
To prepare for the Aug. 14 show, Blakely made a sign that read: “Your Birthday Buddy’s 1st Concert!! 10/26.” Blakely, her aunt, Michelle Gillespie, her uncle’s girlfriend, Kate Dunlap, and Kayla went to the concert together.
As they went through security, Blakely’s sign was confiscated due to its size. After security, the group made their way to the pre-access party tent which had trivia and concessions. That’s when Blakely had the idea to make another sign out of cardboard from an empty cardboard box that read the same message.
Halfway through the show, Paisley noticed Blakely’s sign and came over to her.
“He was playing the song, ‘We Dance,’ and he noticed my sign,” said Blakely. “He signed it, and he was like, ‘hang on,’ and then he signed his guitar, took it off and gave it to me.”
Paisley made her promise to learn how to play the guitar. He also gave her a guitar pick, and she gave him a light and royal blue loom friendship bracelet she had made for him.
One of the security guards offered to let Blakely store the guitar in his squad car for the remainder of the concert, but fans thought he was taking it away from her.
“Everyone was giving him a hard time because they thought he was taking my guitar back to give it to Brad Paisley, but he was taking it to his squad car so we wouldn’t have to hold it the rest of the concert,” said Blakely. “Everyone was being mean to him and stuff.”
After the show ended, the Bowling group made their way to the security guard’s squad car to get the guitar. Because there were fans following the group, they received a police escort back to their car. It felt like there was a spotlight on her.
“She felt like a little celebrity,” said Kayla. “He [the security guard] walked with us, and it was probably a good thing because she got a lot of attention walking through the fairgrounds.”
“There was so many ‘congratulations,’” said Bowling. “That was better than a meet-and-greet.”