Luke Bryan Picture From 1995 Wedding

I was raised in Albany, Georgia. A city that touches the Albany City limits is Leesburgh, Georgia. That is where Luke Bryan is from. I have heard a lot of Luke Bryan stories. I had left Albany a long time before Luke came along. Here is a pic of Luke Bryan from 1995 and the story that goes with it.

I do recognize a lot of the street names and places in the songs that Luke writes and know some people who know him. This story is about such a person. I knew him as Jack O'Brian. He was the morning show host at WALG (Albany, Georgia) when I started my radio career there back in 1978. He was a phenomenal jock ... as a matter of fact he was so good that I would not even talk in the hour of my show before his because I did not want to be compared to him. This story takes place several years later in 1995.

Jack's real name is Jim Smith and this happened at his daughter's wedding. Jim had a then little know guy named Luke Bryan sing "Keeper of the Stars" and Jim himself played steel for background. Who knew that Luke Bryan would blow up. The picture above is Luke and Jims wife back in 1995. Yep ... Luke Bryan 19 years ago.