Lonestar invites local couple on stage to sing ‘I’m Already There’

Before Wednesday’s Lonestar concert, Paige Schmitt and David Chavis were listening to the band in their car when someone walked up. Chavis rolled down the window, and to their surprise, the stranger started singing along to the music.

It took them a moment to realize it was Lonestar’s lead singer, Richie McDonald, accompanied by drummer Keech Rainwater.

“It was so amazing,” Schmitt said.

The Powell couple was parked just outside the main gate at the Park County Fair, listening to Lonestar’s hit song, “I’m Already There.” McDonald asked why they liked it.

Schmitt told them it was her late mother’s favorite song.

“My mom passed away from a heart attack on my 18th birthday,” Schmitt said. “Ever since then, I’ve been listening to Lonestar, because I really do miss my mom.”

Chavis lost a friend who loved Lonestar, so the band’s music carries special meaning for him as well.

While chatting with the couple at their car, the band members asked Chavis and Schmitt where they were sitting at the concert.

“They said, ‘Well, you’re going to be sitting up closer,’” Chavis recalled. “So they got us to sit close to the sound booth and gave us free meet-and-greet passes.”

Schmitt is deaf — though cochlear implants allow her to hear some — and she likes to feel the vibrations of music.

Sitting in the sound booth, “If I wanted to turn up the music, all I had to do was bump him and say, ‘Turn it up,’” Schmitt said. “But it was perfectly fine … it was perfect right there.”

Lonestar had more surprises in store for Schmitt and Chavis.

Before playing “I’m Already There,” the band called the young couple onto the stage.

“I didn’t know what to do,” Schmitt recalled. “So I was like, I should go up there and be brave.”

As McDonald sang to the crowd at the Park County Fair, he shared his microphone with Schmitt and Chavis.

“I’ve always wanted to go up on the stage,” Schmitt said. “That was one of my dreams.”

As McDonald sang the words Schmitt knows so well, he handed his guitar pick to her. Later, Rainwater gave her drumsticks as another souvenir. Lonestar also gave them autographed T-shirts.

Fans captured video of Schmitt and Chavis on stage, so they have a digital keepsake — and proof that they sang “I’m Already There” with Lonestar.

“I called my sister and told her about it, and she didn’t believe me at all until she saw the video on Facebook,” Schmitt said.

For both Schmitt and Chavis, Lonestar’s performance at the Park County Fair was their first concert. It was one they won’t forget.

“I couldn’t sleep after all that happened,” Schmitt said. “It took me a while to calm down.”