This country music star is excited to be playing for the military

Country music superstar Chris Young has released two platinum albums, been inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, and has nine number 1 hits. He's on his Raised On Country Tour right now, and he took some time to talk about what it's like to visit with Navy working dogs, to see so many vets and service members on his tour after his sister's time in the Marines, and to have a tour sponsor in USAA that can help him get in touch with more military audiences.

Young picked the cities for the tour for the standard reasons, but he's gotten to enjoy some little perks and experiences at military stops. Like when, two weeks ago, he got to hang out with dog handlers at Naval Base San Diego.

"There are so many markets where we're going to go that are pretty large military markets as far as bases," he said, "and, you know, we're able to do the things like we did in San Diego on the naval base the other day."

"We knew there were going to be a bunch of partnership opportunities like that [with USAA] and I just have a big love and respect for the military," he said. "So anytime you get a tour sponsor where you know, everything already lines up on its own, it's a pretty incredible thing."

He isn't new to the military experience, though. Young's sister was a West Coast Marine who worked on helicopters. And she married another Marine. Seeing his sibling's sacrifices deepened his respect for the military.

"I remember that I would see, first-hand, about the amount of time that people are going out. She and I have always been really, really, really close and so when you go months at a time, sometimes, without being able to see somebody because their travel versus what you're doing to travel and anything else I think you understand it in a different way I guess."

It's his sister's and his brother-in-law's military service that he thinks of when he's performing "The Dashboard," a song about two brothers when one is sent to war and leaves his truck behind. For anyone who hasn't heard it, we won't give away the ending, but it's not the ending made typical by "Riding with Private Malone."

Young didn't write "The Dashboard," but he connected with it when he heard it.

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"That song, buddy of mine Monty Criswell wrote it, and I just thought it was so different from the way I had heard other songs written even along the same line, topically, just the way he handled that song and made it something really, really special and anytime that I've played I always use the chance to reference my sister because obviously, she's a Marine so I get a chance to nod to her and my brother-in-law when I sing that song and I always make sure to say something about them."

For Young, who has gotten a kick out of playing for troops since he was at bases like Fort Bliss before his first record contract, it's nice to get back in front of them. But as his fame has grown and technology has advanced, he's found better ways of recognizing vets and service members in huge venues.

A partner company makes these "armbands where we've been able to ask people prior to the show, we go, 'Hey have you or has anyone in your family served?' And then we can actually light up their armbands for a song and kind of call them out say thank you that way ... which is pretty cool."

For Young, that made USAA agreeing to come as tour sponsor perfect. He already loved the military and liked to take time during shows to raise them up, so having a sponsor whose customer base is almost exclusively military families let everything sync up.

"I'm already totally all in on and any chance that I get to say thank you in multiple different ways to military, that's something that's been important to me my entire career. [Partnering with USAA] is just going to be awesome. It's just going to work so I think it's one of things that just happened."

And that partnership has already helped Chris Young take part in multiple events. He played a small concert for military and family members at the NFL Draft back in April and then got to visit the working dogs at San Diego this August. (If you watch the NFL Draft video, you might recognize WATM's own Augie Dannehl who helped host.)

If you're interested in seeing when Chris is coming to your town, check out his tour calendar here.