Collin Raye became one of the very first artists to host a live concert over the weekend, since the coronavirus pandemic forced everyone to remain socially distanced, when he performed in front of approximately 4000 people in Cedar City, Utah. The show, put on in partnership with the Utah Business Revival, was not only a way for people to enjoy great music, but also allowed small business owners to set up booths as well, something Collin was happy to support.

“I was asked to come out and perform by an old friend of mine named Eric Moutsos, who I’ve known for years,” Collin told Everything Nash. “He lives out there; he had started this group called the Utah Business Revival, and it had grown to about 12,000 people. Basically it was about, let’s get back to work. Let’s get back to work, let’s get these businesses back open again.

“He’s known me and he knows that I’ve always had a really strong presence in Utah, and have a lot of friends out there, and a great fan base out there,” he added. “He thought that I would be the right guy to be the entertainment for it. So he asked me to do it, and I thought it was a great idea.”

Collin’s concert was originally supposed to happen on May 30, although the date and location both had to be altered from the original plan, because of restrictions due to COVID-19. Through all of the changes, Collin remained steadfast in his resolve to perform, even though some were opposed to the show because of safety issues.

“We still drew through thousands of people, and it was wonderful,” Collin said. “And people did come from the Salt Lake area. People came up from Las Vegas, that area. When I agreed to do it, maybe I’m just dumb, but I didn’t really think that it would be that controversial, but it was. I think by waiting a couple of weeks and changing locations like that, we didn’t get any pushback on it at all. All the comments were great. ‘We loved it,’ and ‘Thank you for doing it,'” and things like that.

“I’ve heard so many comments from people who were talking about their mental health, how deep a depression they had been in for weeks, and they lost their job,'” he continued. “And they just thought, ‘Well, what am I going to do? What am I going to do?’ The comments were like, ‘I felt all that lifted from me during the concert.’ That’s what we were there for. That’s what we were trying to do. Music is a strong force. It’s a very healing force. That was really, really evident there.”

Collin knew not everyone would agree with his decision to perform, but he felt compelled to make a statement for those who are struggling because of the economic impact of COVID-19.

“I think so many people, not everybody, but so many people are, are at the point where they go, ‘Let’s live. Let’s get back to living again.’ Primarily getting back to work. The financial damage to families has been pretty severe. People are losing their life savings and losing businesses that they spent decades building. I think a lot of people are just over it. They’re just tired of it. I’ll take my chances. Let’s just get back out there and live.”

One person who agreed with Collin’s stance was Food Network star Guy Fieri, who attended the show as a fan, and ended up introducing the singer before his show.

“It was last minute,” Collin recounted. “My manager just told me, ‘You’re never going to guess who’s coming to the show.’ Like everybody, I just think he’s one of the coolest people on TV, and love all of his shows. It was literally that morning, I think it was Saturday morning when we found that he was going to be there. He came with a group of about 10 people. Apparently, they had been camping. They were at the campsite, not too far from there. and heard about the concert. He was a fan and just wanted to be there. He actually introduced me on stage that night, and it was the best introduction that I’ve ever had.”

Collin has several more shows on the calendar over the next few months. Find dates at CollinRaye.com.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Absolute Publicity / Marc Reynolds