Luke Bryan Avoids Flubbing National Anthem By Keeping Lyrics On Hand

The national anthem is taught as commonly in grade schools as how to tie your shoes, how to name the fifty states, and how to accomplish rudimentary math. Unfortunately, while the shoe thing may stick due to daily practice, retaining all of the words to the national anthem is apparently more of a challenge. I’ve seen Lauren Alaina and Christina Aguilera both have trouble with the song in the past year, and Tuesday night country singer Luke Bryan nearly joined the ladies in flubbing the song at a sporting event.

Instead of mixing up the words like Aguilera, Bryan made both a simultaneously smart and foolish-looking decision: he wrote the lyrics on his hand so he could check them when he felt he was close to getting stuck. In the 2 minute video of his performance, you can see him glancing down on several occasions.

The whole thing probably would not have been too noticeable to fans and may not have really even been remarked upon had the 35-year-old country singer not later Tweeted to his fans to apologize for the event, stating he is always honored to be asked to sing the song.

According to the Washington Post, the singer was performing at the MLB All-Star game, which may have been a bit of a nerve-wracking experience, especially since Bryan was trying to time the song with a stealth bomber that was supposed to fly overhead. It’s hard to blame the man for knowing his potential weaknesses, but it’s still amazing to think about how many people don’t know the lyrics to the darn song.