Country Mike Blog

Tragedy at Sugarland Concert in Indiana

Mike Sudhalter  |  August 14, 2011

Any time, you turn on the news, there's usually a tragedy somewhere in the world.

As a society, we often become immune to hearing bad news, but my first thought when I heard about a stage collapsing at the Indiana State Fair, resulting in the deaths of four concert-goers and injuries to dozens of others, I couldn't help but get teary-eyed.

They were at a concert, awaiting Sugarland, when most people thought that maybe there'd be some rain or a brief storm. A stage collapsing wasn't even fathomable.

I'd been to lots of concerts over the years, and even a few where the weather got dangerously bad.

In 2009 - on the opening night of the CMA Music Festival in Nashville - there storm and possibly even, tornado warnings, so fans had to wait in the concourse.

Nobody that I spoke to discussed the dangers of the storm. It just passed, and most of the artists entertained the fans until 2 a.m.

We were all very lucky.

There was also a time in 2004 when I was returning from a vacation in the country music resort destination of Branson, Missouri, and waited out a tornado in a Wal-Mart outside of Springfield, Mo.

The tornado tore right through the area, but thank God, it avoided us.

There's risk in everything - even something as simple as taking in a concert or going on a vacation.

Please join me in keeping these families in your thoughts and prayers as America mourns this tragedy.