Faith Hill Opens Up About Forgetting Words To National Anthem While Performing At Playoff Game

In the wake of the announcement that Mickey Guyton will be performing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl February 13,  country music star and actress Faith Hill is speaking out to talk about how singing the national anthem at this event is both a huge honor and extremely scary at the same time.

Hill Talks Singing National Anthem At Super Bowl

Fox News reported that during an interview with late night host Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night, Hill recounted being asked to sing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl in 2000, when the Tennessee Titans took on the St. Louis Rams.

“Singing the national anthem for the Super Bowl was terrifying,” Hill recalled. “However, when I sang it, the Tennessee Titans happened to make it to the Super Bowl that same year. And I had accepted the honor, I was asked, and I said, ‘Oh, my gosh, yes.’ And I was like what did I just do? It’s terrifying.”

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While Hill’s performance of the National Anthem went well on that occasion, she admitted that she once forgot the words to the patriotic tune when she was about to perform it at another sporting event earlier in her career. 

‘This Happened To Me Before’

“It’s one of those songs you know so well and you think ‘I’ll never forget the lyrics.’ This happened to me before. It was at a playoff game many years prior. I was singing at a Dallas playoff game, the beginning of my career, and I was asked to sing the national anthem, playoff game,” she explained.

“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?'” Hill added.

Things only got worse when the guard also drew a blank, which left Hill scrambling as she took the stage. Luckily for her, she came up with a bright idea just in the nick of time.

“I’m just going to sing ‘Amazing Grace,’ because they’ll forgive me for that,” she said. 

Thankfully, it didn’t come to that, because the words to the National Anthem suddenly came back to Hill just as it was time for her to open her mouth to perform.

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Check out Hill’s full interview with Colbert in which she tells this story below.

Hill’s Advice For Guyton

When asked if she has any advice for Guyton going into her Super Bowl performance, Hill said, “I am such a huge fan and supporter and she is going to slay it.”

Hill then concluded the interview by looking directly into the camera and saying with a laugh, “Mickey, the first word is ‘Oh.’”

Here’s hoping that Guyton remembers that on her big day!

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