Tickets are now on sale for Songs for Service, a concert organized by country music star Rodney Atkins for Sept. 11, 2020, to benefit MTSU's Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center and Operation Song.
Set for MTSU's historic Murphy Center Complex in Murfreesboro, the event was announced earlier this week during Operation Song's Veterans Day performance at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and the website, SongsForService.org, is now available to process ticket sales and share event updates.
Operation Song is a nonprofit that pairs active-duty military, veterans and their family members with professional songwriters to tell their stories musically, while the Daniels Center is MTSU's one-stop resource for student veterans and their families. Both will share proceeds from next year's concert.
Atkins announced at MTSU on Sept. 11 that he intended Songs for Service to be a multi-artist collaboration that will honor active-duty troops, members of the Guard and Reserve, veterans and first responders.
Grammy winner and country music legend Randy Travis has become the first artist to announce he will join Atkins for the Murphy Center event. Atkins said he will announce more great artists for Songs for Service "as we get closer to showtime."
Tickets start at $29.99 for bleacher seats; $39.99 for bowl seats; $49.50 for court-side seats; and $59.50 for floor seats. Special VIP seats are available at $200.
A special $15 rate is available for MTSU students, active military, veterans, active Guard and Reserves and active first responders.
Atkins also announced that 95.5 NASH ICON will be the radio sponsor for Songs for Service and will help promote the event.
Songs for Service sprang from a visit by Atkins to the MTSU campus for a ceremony recognizing the sacrifices of troops and first responders during and after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon.
At the ceremony, Atkins told retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Huber, MTSU's senior adviser for veterans and leadership initiatives, that he wanted to support the university's outreach to student veterans and military-dependent students.
"We are deeply appreciative of Rodney's patriotism and devotion to those who wear the uniforms in service to our country," Huber said. "His support of our troops, and those who have served, including and beyond this event has been exemplary."
Since opening in 2015, the Daniels Center, named for Country Music Hall of Famer Charlie Daniels and his wife, Hazel, has worked to assist active-duty military, veterans, and family members transition from military to college, then from college to a career. It is the largest and most comprehensive center of its kind in Tennessee higher education.
Among the programs supported by the Daniels Center is Operation Song. MTSU's College of Media and Entertainment has also co-sponsored and lent faculty aid to several Operation Song activities, the most recent sessions held on campus in late October.
Photo: MTSU veterans adviser and retired Lt. Gen. Keith M. Huber, left, shakes hands with country music entertainer Rodney Atkins after the musician’s announcement of a Sept. 11, 2020, concert in Murphy Center to commemorate Daniels Veterans Center’s 9/11 Remembrance activities in 2020. They attended this year’s 9/11 ceremony in the Miller Education Center atrium. (MTSU file photo by J. Intintoli)
