The Babes Crash the CMA's

On November 11, 2007, The Babes were at the CMA's.

Yes, The Babes have been at the CMA's the past two years…and we haven't paid a cent to get in! Of course, there is a small catch for this perk.

Here in Nashville we've got an organization called Audience Company, which is owned and operated by Suzzane Skinner and Zach Roberts. Audience Company is in the business of providing seat fillers to fill unpurchased or abandoned seats for televised events.

The deal is that if you attend the smaller events (new artist record releases and such) you just might get invited to go to some bigger events…like the CMA's! Most events are first come first seated…and there are no guarantees you'll get in.

You must be willing to sit wherever you're needed…and if the person whose seat you're filling shows up at some point during the show you may be moved…or possibly lose your seat completely.

We have not yet lost our seats, but we have had to stand in line in cold weather for long periods of time, which isn't a whole lot of fun. But, we almost always make new friends while we're waiting!

At the CMA's this year we were sure we'd get right in as we had the year before. Unfortunately, this year there were a whole lot more people who knew about our little secret!

So…when the tickets arrived, we were disappointed to learn that we probably would not get in. There were only 250 tickets, and we were standing at around the 350 mark!

We were told there was a slim chance of getting more tickets, but there were no guarantees and they could not tell us how long it would be before we would know for sure…but we were welcome to stick it out in line just in case.

We held our ground. As time went on the line grew shorter, and more and more people chose to seek warmth in local clubs…or home.

As is often the case, our persistence paid off. About 30 minutes into the show we were informed that there were, in fact, additional seats. The "house" had decided to hand out tickets that had not yet been claimed.

We were in! We were seated just after Brad Paisley's performance of "Online." And yes, we were in the nosebleed section…but we were there!

Where were you?

--Mel