adrian bellani hits up nashville!

Mark Wystrach and I backstage at our NBC Daytime after-hours party at the Wildhorse Saloon. We were about to go on to play a "Deal or no Deal" type of game with the audience and one of the prizes was literally the autographed shirts right off our backs!

It's great to be doing a blog on CosmoGIRl.com - looking forward to sharing my summer adventures with you all!

I just came home from what I like to call a "long, hectic, and surreal" weekend. I attended my first big fan event that was held during the CMA Music Festival in Nashville, Tennessee. Let me mention the fact that I have only been on "Passions" for six months and have participated in the Daytime Emmy Awards, the Alma Awards, and now the biggest fan event our show does. To be a newcomer and partake in all these events is very fulfilling. But it all goes back to my opening remark about how surreal this joy ride has been!

About a month and a half ago I was emailing back and forth with one of the show's publicists regarding the Daytime Emmys and she happened to mention Fan Fair in Nashville. I had no idea what type of event it was, but all my co-stars said it was the best fan weekend they had ever experienced. Fan Fair is basically a weekend long concert of the biggest country music artists. The NBC daytime actors get to introduce the bands to HUGE crowds, do autograph signing sessions at the local convention center and even put on our own show (where we display our own talents!) at the Wildhorse Saloon. Need I say more...

Our weekend's itinerary was four pages long. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. It was really weird to see something so organized - I even emailed it to my Dad so he could check it out. Very overwhelming to see that you have an interview here, autograph signing there, more interviews, more autographs - the list just kept going.

We arrived in Nashville Friday night and Heidi Mueller ("Kay") and I got to introduce Billy Currington at the concert at the Coliseum. We were on stage in front of 40,000 people! If I could pick another career, I would want to be a rock star. I can't even explain the rush you feel when 40,000 people are screaming at you. Wow!!!! We later went out on the town to check out the local scene, but kept it pretty tame considering we had to be up at 7 a.m. the next day!

I had the early call to the autograph signing and have to admit I was kind of nervous. It was my first formal autograph signing session and I didn't know what to expect from the fans. But it was great! Being an actor on a soap opera is tough because we rarely have time to go out and interact with our fans because we are always taping. It was so exciting to meet the fans, put a smile on their faces and take pictures with them. Doing that makes my job worthwhile. If it were up to me, I would do it everyday. If it weren't for the fans, we wouldn't have jobs, so it's important for us to show them our love and appreciation.

Saturday night we went on to have our annual after-hours party at the Wildhorse Saloon with special guests Montgomery Gentry. Not only did I get to see them perform live, but my co-stars and I sang their finale song with them! Can you believe that? We had about 2,000 fans there - it was exhilarating! Following the show we continued the party, but again, not too late since we had ANOTHER 7 a.m. call on Sunday. HA!

Our flight back to Los Angeles left around 4 p.m. on Sunday. Of course, we all had to be back at work the next day and had our scripts out during the flight to memorize lines. That only lasted a couple minutes though, since we were ALL asleep about 10 minutes after take-off. In the end it was a great weekend that I will never forget. Thanks to all the fans that came out to support us! Talk to you next time!

Ciao,
Adrian

COMMENTS