HostJolene: And you are still very involved with ETAN?
Neal McCoy: Yes Ma’am, very involved. Just finished our 11th year. We’ve raised a lot of money. Just over $3.5 Million and we will continue to do ETAN as long as they continue to allow us to do it in East Texas. I tend to think that’s going to be a long time. We have a lot of people involved, we have a lot of corporations and individuals that have become fond of it and they look forward to it every year. It’s like an annual thing and we take donations through the year and it takes a while anytime you start a new foundation. People are on the outside saying, well I wonder how long they’re going to be around. Maybe a year maybe two. But now that we’ve been around this long and they’ve seen some of the work we’ve done with some of these families a lot more people are getting involved with it so hopefully we can continue to that as long as we live.
HostJolene: Now you just need to grow your hair again so you can auction it off again. *laughing*
Neal McCoy: Shoot, it won’t grow. It’s growing in.
HostJolene: Growing in? Meeting in the middle?
Neal McCoy: Amen! I hear ya! *laughing*
HostJolene: How about a live project? We’d talked about that as well. Is it something that is still in the back of your mind?
Neal McCoy: Well from a live album standpoint yeah, but not anytime soon. We did record a live DVD at a festival in Wisconsin last summer and it is about a month or two from coming out. I think it is something that is going to be a lot of fun for a lot of people to watch that have never been to a show of ours. Maybe they can pick it up and at least see what some of the hoopla is about that they’ve heard about.
HostJolene: I know you’re pressed for time, but do you have anything you’d like to say to the fans?
Neal McCoy: Thank you! We’ve had fans that have supported us for years. We’ve been around a long time. We know we’re starting to gain new fans again with “Billy’s Got His Beer Goggles On” and stuff like that so we’re getting some of the younger people back. But really the ones, and we love them and want more of those, but the ones that have been our base have been these fans that started listening to us years ago and have continued to not only buy our product but come to shows and continue to spread the word by word of mouth by telling their friends, their cousins their moms, their dads hey you ought to go see him. We really enjoy him and you’ll like him and you ought to pick up his album. And that is why we’ve done as well as we have through all of these years is because of our fan support, so we sure want to tell them thank you very much. And we think we’re fixing to start, well we’ve already started in that upswing again and we want everyone there with us.
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