Photo: Getty Images
Trisha Yearwood is getting ready to bring her second annual concert supporting breast cancer awareness to a larger venue this weekend.
Yearwood teamed up with Susan G. Komen to host the Band As One Nashville Concert for the Cure: Trisha Yearwood & Friends show on Sunday (March 22). This year’s event is switching from the historic Ryman Auditorium to the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee, accommodating a larger audience this year. The lineup will also include Reba McEntire, Charles Kelley, The Band Loula, Ashley McBryde, Lukas Nelson, Rissi Palmer, War & Treaty, Hailey Whitters and others.
“I'm thrilled [to return for another year of Band As One Nashville Concert for the Cure: Trisha Yearwood & Friends],” Yearwood told iHeartCountry before she took the stage for an invite-only preview of her tour last month. “When we did the first one, they raised so much more money than they thought they were going to that first year, last year. And it just went so well. And the feeling was so good just that you're there and you're seeing great music and a variety of different kinds of music, but also, you're raising money for a good cause that affects all of us. There's not anybody that if you haven't been through it yourself that doesn't have a family member or a friend, we're all affected. And I think everybody in that room that night at the Ryman felt that. So, it was just a really special environment, so hopefully we can create that again. I know we can. …I said that night, ‘I hope this becomes an annual thing,’ and here we are.”
Before taking the stage at the Country Music Hall of Fame for a tour preview last month, Yearwood said in a Q&A that hosting the event was “a no-brainer.” She shared that she’d lost her mother to breast cancer, and she’s been involved with Susan G. Komen and breast cancer awareness “for years.”
“It is just a reminder of how lucky we are. It's also a reminder of how hard people are working to find new ways to treat cancer, breast cancer in particular,” Yearwood said during the Q&A at the Hall of Fame. “And there were women in my life who were saved by drugs created after I lost my mom that probably would've helped her. So, her story helps the next person, and you just leave there after that night knowing that you've done something good. You've raised some money and you've gotten to hear a lot. And you pretty much won't ask anybody… If their schedule's open, they're going to be there because everybody's been affected by it. You are not going to meet anybody that doesn't have a mom or a sister or a husband affected by breast cancer.” — McEntire, for example, said in a statement earlier this month that she’s “seen how breast cancer impacts families, friends, and communities,” and she’s “honored” to join the lineup — “So, I'm just proud to be a part of it.”
“Let’s band together to help end breast cancer forever,” Yearwood shared in a caption on Instagram on Wednesday (March 18). Band As One Nashville Concert for the Cure: Trisha Yearwood & Friends will take place Sunday (March 22) at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee.