Ask any sports fan what would a dream of theirs would be, and you probably get the answer to see their team win the championship. Add to that, watching a game in person and getting to meet some legendary athletes, and you’re living the dream…just like Ryan Hurd. Ryan who is known as a great songwriter and singer of “Love In A Bar” is also a huge Nashville Predators fan, who are now just 2 wins away from claiming a Stanley Cup championship. Ryan, like any fan, has been through a lot with his favorite team, “I’m a huge Nashville Predators fan. I’ve been going to the games for a lot of years and I’ve seen so many playoff losses, and seen three iterations of uniform. Now we’re all gold which I used to hate and now I love it. It looks so great on the ice and looks so great in the arena.” Ryan got to see the Preds in their gold unis win live in person when he got invited to Game 4 in Nashville thanks to his girlfriend…who just happens to be fellow country music superstar Maren Morris. Ryan shares “Maren got invited to sit with the commissioner, Gary Bettman. Maren has been getting into hockey stuff because I’m so into it. Her first ever game was last year. She got to go to a playoff game. She’s like, ‘This is fun!’ This year she went to a couple of games with me and then we got asked to go to Game 4 by the commissioner of the NHL because she was tweeting from London. She said, ‘Its 2 A.M in London but we’re still listening to the Preds on the radio’ and the NHL saw that and they invited her to come sit with the commissioner Gary Bettman in his suite for Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals.” That would have been amazing enough, but then Ryan continued to have an amazing night when two sports legends ended up in the same room as him, of course Maren wasn’t as impressed, “They had some food and stuff and I get a drink and all of a sudden I’m looking at the door and Wayne Gretzky walks in my jaw drops and Maren goes, ‘are you okay?’ and I said, ‘I think I’m going to throw up’. I said okay. Then she goes ‘Who is that?’ and I said ‘Do you know who Wayne Gretzky is?’ and she said ‘no’. I turn around and Charles Barkley is standing there and I said ‘Do you know who Charles Barkley is?’ and she said ‘He was in space jam!’ I said ‘yea he was!’ (laugh)” But it didn’t just stop there, through Maren’s urging Ryan worked up the courage to ask Charles Barkley for a picture, “So we got to watch the game and Charles was so nice and he was shaking hands with everybody and the people he was sitting by were talking to him and he was waiving the towel and when the game was over he walked up to every person in the suite and shook their hands and said ‘very nice to see you’ just saying good bye to every single person in the suite because he’s a nice guy, and I said ‘Mr. Barkley,’ I don’t like to ask for pictures from people, I don’t know it’s just strange for me and I said, ‘Can I please take a photo with you? Can my girlfriend take it?” because Maren said ‘you’ve got to get a photo with Charles Barkley.’ And He’s like, ‘okay’ and he took a picture with me and it was so cool.” So, Monday night, Ryan Hurd got to see his team win Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals while hanging out in hockey commissioner Gary Betteman’s suite with his girlfriend Maren Morris, and legend Wayne Gretzky, plus getting his picture with Charles Barkley…not a bad night for Ryan, or Nashville “it was such a cool night for Nashville and it’s so cool to see the city get recognized as a fun place and as a cool sports town and this is just such a great place to live and I’m really proud to call this my home.” By the way–for the photographic evidence of Ryan meeting Charles…check out the picture below.

  Ryan Hurd shares the story of how he got to see the Nashville Predators play Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals in person thanks to Maren Morris. (:50)
“I’m a huge Nashville Predators fan. I’ve been going to the games for a lot of years and I’ve seen so many playoff losses and seen three iterations of uniform. Now we’re all gold which I used to hate and now I love it. It looks so great on the ice and looks so great in the arena. Maren got invited to sit with the commissioner, Gary Bettman. Maren has been getting into hockey stuff because I’m so into it. Her first ever game was last year. She got to go to a playoff game. She’s like, ‘This is fun!’ This year she went to a couple of games with me and then we got asked to go to game 4 by the commissioner of the NHL because she was tweeting from London. She said, ‘Its 2 A.M in London but we’re still listening to the Preds on the radio’ and the NHL saw that and they invited her to come sit with the commissioner Gary Bettman in his suite for Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals.”

  Ryan Hurd explains how he got his picture taken with Charles Barkley. (1:36)
‘They had some food and stuff and I get a drink and all of a sudden I’m looking at the door and Wayne Gretzky walks in my jaw drops and Maren goes, ‘are you okay?’ and I said, ‘I think I’m going to throw up’. I said okay. Then she goes ‘Who is that?’ and I said ‘Do you know who Wayne Gretzky is?’ and she said ‘no’. I turn around and Charles Barkley is standing there and I said ‘Do you know who Charles Barkley is?’ and she said ‘He was in space jam!’ I said ‘yea he was!’ (laugh) So we got to watch the game and Charles was so nice and he was shaking hands with everybody and the people he was sitting by were talking to him and he was waiving the towel and when the game was over he walked up to every person in the suite and shook their hands and said ‘very nice to see you’ just saying good bye to every single person in the suite because he’s a nice guy, and I said ‘Mr. Barkley,’ I don’t like to ask for pictures from people, I don’t know it’s just strange for me and I said, ‘Can I please take a photo with you? Can my girlfriend take it?” because Maren said ‘you’ve got to get a photo with Charles Barkley.’ And He’s like, ‘okay’ and he took a picture with me and it was so cool. He was so nice and it was such a cool night for Nashville and it’s so cool to see the city get recognized as a fun place and as a cool sports town and this is just such a great place to live and I’m really proud to call this my home and I think it’s cool that people like Charles Barkley want to come to Nashville to see a hockey game because they heard it’s amazing and it was amazing. He walked away knowing this is a great place to be, to live, to watch sports, to see music, it’s such an amazing town. I’m proud of it.”