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Hardy made it appear as though a family won VIP tickets, but the country artist had something better in mind.
Instead of just getting to go back stage, the family got a surprise reunion.
Hardy explains, in a video shared to Instagram:
“This guy’s name is Richard Kelly. Apparently he’s been overseas for like 400 days, so over a year, and hasn’t seen his family. And we’ve made his family think that they’ve won, like, a VIP thing where they get to hang out backstage, but little do they know, at the end of ‘Give Heaven Some Hell’ I’m gonna make a little speech about our military and that we’re honoring this family, and I’m gonna have them walk out to the front and wave to everybody and say, ‘you know, there’s a lot of people like this tonight that don’t get to see their families for, or — their loved ones that are in the military, for a long time.’ And then (someone) is gonna sneak him out and they’re gonna surprise them on stage and it’s gonna be awesome. And I’ve never been more nervous in my life to do anything.”
Of course, fans went wild in the emotional video as Kelly embraced his family after serving overseas for hundreds of days.
The video also drew praise from big-time country artists, including Thomas Rhett, Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert and others.
Watch the reunion here: