Well, about 99.9% of the rumors about who would be performing for Fred’s appearance in Lawrenceburg turned out to be wrong. The only well-known performer that was there was John Rich, of Big & Rich. Lawrenceburg gospel group The Kellys was there. They started off the festivities after an hour or two of local high school marching bands regaled us with everything from America The Beautiful to the theme songs from Scooby-Doo and The Flintstones.

Photo update: I’ll have the photos I took up soon but they are nowhere near as good as what Bill Hobbs and Blake Wylie took. I was just using my wife’s digital point and shoot and wasn’t as close as I would have liked to have been.

Lawrenceburg Mayor Keith Durham was the emcee for most of the early part of the evening. John Rich took the stage sometime around 6-6:15 pm and played a couple of songs, including “Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy”, Johnny Cash’s “I Walk The Line” (the lyrics of which sometimes became: “because you’re mine, Fred walks the line”), Rocky Top and more. Some of the songs came because Fred was running a little late and I guess they needed John to stall.

Tennessee politicians were there as well to get us pumped up about Fred’s pending appearance. Van Hilleary was in attendance, though he didn’t speak on stage. Marsha Blackburn and Zach Wamp both spoke, and I think Zach was the most energetic speaker of the evening. There were a few times his voice almost rose to the level of Howard Dean’s famous speech that led to his meltdown in the 2004 presidential race…the speech that ended with that famous: “Yeeeaarrrrrrrghhh! or something like that. But Zach did good.

Former Tennessee Governor Winfield Dunn was also present, though he didn’t speak. Finally Howard Baker was brought up to speak and introduce Fred, though he too had to stall for time. Eventually he got tired of coming up with things to talk about and they showed Fred’s “The Hunt For Red November” video. Finally, the moment arrived. All eyes and heads were turned to the right of the stage as the caravan arrived. Fred Thompson was in the building….or the square at least.

Fred took the stage to wild applause and cheers. He gave a decent length speech, in which he was humble and appreciative of our support and detailed why he was running for President. I’ve already typed too much for now so I won’t go into the details. After the speech he made his way through the massive crowd and I tried to get close enough to shake his hand or get him to sign my Fred Thompson 2008 hat, but people were shoving and pushing so much to get close to him that I just didn’t do it. I did get close enough to him as he passed that I could have reached out and touched his shoulder, but I forgot to take a photo from that close. Some blogger I am!

All in all, a fun evening and even if you don’t like Fred (I DO!!!), it was something to experience. He could become President, and then I can say I was there and I was 3 feet from him.