Home Free will be on the 2024 Country Music Cruise! The five-man group is part of an all-star lineup, which includes Tracy Lawrence, Clint Black, Neal McCoy, Joe Nichols, Shenandoah, Darryl Worley, Billy Dean and more.
“Home Free started doing cruises. At least that’s how I met Home Free,” Austin Brown tells Everything Nash. “So we love cruises. I probably did somewhere close to, I would imagine, 15 cruises with the guys. And I know that they did much more than that.”
Although their busy touring schedule doesn’t leave time for much cruising now, Rob Lundquist fondly remembers Home Free’s early years, when they spent a lot of their time on a ship.
“Those cruise gigs were the best, because you would get on in the middle of one cruise, perform for that audience, and then you’d leave in the middle of another cruise,” he reflects. “And that would just be in the one week. And so, those gigs were just the best. It was like a vacation, with a couple of performances that were super awesome. But I’m really, really excited for this one. We’ve never done just a straight-up country music cruise before. And the fact that we have all these artists that we get to be along with, like Clint Black and Tracy Lawrence and Neal McCoy and Shenandoah. It’s a crazy lineup. So we are very, very stoked.”
Adam Rupp, the only remaining founding member of Home Free, has sweet recollections of Home Free’s early years, which included plenty of time on cruise ships, as well. Before Lundquist, Brown, Tim Foust or Adam Chance joined Home Free, Rupp was already making music full-time with the all-vocal group, spending months at sea performing.
“We started our first cruise in 2007, and it was four months in Alaska and then we did a second one on Norwegian Cruise lines that was like two months,” Rupp recalls. “Rob was on that one, in the Northeast. And then we went to a guest entertainer role and we just did Royal Caribbean ships, one after another, just bang, bang, bang. That’s where we met Austin. So we’re very familiar with cruising. We love the lifestyle. It’s a great time, and I’m super excited that this worked out, that we were able to go back on a cruise again.”
Performances aside, Home Free — known almost as much for their fierce loyalty to their fans as their stunning vocal abilities — is also eager to spend time with so many fellow country music, and Home Free, fans.
“It is going to be a very unique experience that is unlike any other thing that you would ever experience, if you came to see us at a show on land or at a concert,” Rupp shares. “Because it’s gonna be multiple events that are going to be occurring while on the ship, where you get to experience stuff with us in different ways instead of just the show. The show’s gonna be great, of course, but there’s an intimacy that is unlike anything else that you would experience on land or at a concert venue, because obviously, we’re all together on the ship.
“Now, we still want our privacy. Don’t get me wrong on that,” he adds with a laugh. “But you’ll see us just walking around. We’ll be passing by each other from time to time, and we’ll be out and about. So you’ll be able to interact in a different way.”
The Country Music Cruise sets sail on January 20 from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. It will travel to Grand Turk, Key West and Half Moon Cay, before returning on January 27. Cabins are on sale now. Use the code EverythingNash for an exclusive low rate! More information can be found at CountryMusicCruise.com.
Home Free is currently on their Road Sweet Road Tour. Their So Long Dixie album was released in November. Find music and tour dates at HomeFreeMusic.com.
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