The Story Of Taylor Swift In North Augusta

Let me tell you the story of Taylor Swift in North Augusta. Now I know after reading that sentence a lot of y'all are thinking "When was Taylor in North Augusta?!" Well relax, it wasn't recently, but she has been here. And not only was she here, she visited one of North Augusta's biggest landmarks. Here is everything that went down that day.

The date was Thursday, June 23rd 2006. Around this time we started hearing about this new artist named Taylor Swift and how she had a new song called "Tim McGraw" coming out. As is typical with new artists, the record label wanted radio to meet her. So her label at the time, Big Machine Records, set up the visit.

Usually artists come by and visit us at the radio station. Unfortunately, Taylor had several other stations to visit that day, and by the time she made it here, the station was going to be closed. I was with the late General Zach, and we were doing a live broadcast at a flooring store in North Augusta. Well Zach told Taylor's record rep that they should just come by our broadcast and we could meet her there. And that's how Taylor ended up in North Augusta.

The story doesn't end with Taylor visiting us at a live Kicks99 on location broadcast. Well it kind of does for me. I got the chance to meet and talk with Taylor there, and she was so incredibly nice, and so was her mom, who was with her. But I had to go to another event. Well General Zach took Taylor, her mom and her record rep to The Sno-Cap in North Augusta for dinner.

However, Taylor didn't just eat at the Sno-Cap, she performed as well and signed autographs for the people who were there. Unfortunately this was the last time Taylor would visit the CSRA. But maybe one day, she'll come back through.

These are stories I love sharing. I've been doing this for almost 22 years now, and it's cool to be able to tell stories about when the biggest stars in the world were just starting out.

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Let's look back at some of Taylor's biggest country videos.

As Taylor Swift, recently named Time's Person Of The Year, continues to dominate the music world on her 34th birthday (12/13), we like to recall that her incredible career started in Nashville as a country singer.

Taylor is also dominating the world of sports talk as her 34th year begins, and her romance with Travis Kelce is the topic of many football stories. Her attendance at his games with the Kansas City Cheifs has become somewhat of a Taylor Swift spotting for stadium fans and on TV, whose cameras often show her during televised NFL games where she cheers on her boyfriend.

It was a country music award and a video award, which Swift won her very first honor in 2007, getting CMT's "Breakthrough Video of the Year" award for her work on the video "Tim McGraw." She was nominated against Jason Aldean's "Amarillo Sky," Kellie Pickler's "Red High Heels," and The Wreckers (a duo featuring Michelle Branch) "Leave The Pieces."

At the time, she told us backstage after her win that she missed her prom for the CMT Awards. She offered, "I am so, so happy about everything that has gone down this past year. I think it's OK to miss prom for this. I think I'm going to stare at this award every single day and say, 'I think it's OK to miss prom.' I love this."

Big winners at the 2007 CMT Music Awards were Carrie Underwood for Female Video of the Year for "Before He Cheats," Group Video of the Year went to Rascal Flatts for "What Hurts The Most," and CMT favorite Kenny Chesney won Male Video of the Year for "You Save Me."

Music videos have always been a big deal in Swift's career, even in her early country music years, when she started to direct for the first time in 2010. As we celebrate all things Taylor today (12/13), along with all the other millions of "Swifties," we focus on five of what we believe are her best country music videos.

Taylor wrote this song with her frequent co-writer at the time, Liz Rose, while Swift was a freshman at Hendersonville High School, north of Nashville. Swift said at the time that she conceived the idea for the song in math class noting that she was "sitting there, and started humming this melody." Rose said Swift showed up at her after-school job, writing songs for Sony/ATV Music, "with the idea and the melody, knowing exactly what she wanted."

The music video for the song was filmed at the former home of Johnny and June Carter-Cash, which burned down the following year. This video also won Taylor her first-ever award from CMT in 2007.

Swift chose football player Justin Sandy (former Tennessee Titan) to portray her ex-boyfriend in the video, saying at the time that he had a "classic and suspiciously" perfect demeanor; she described him as "real life Ken." This video also guest-stars Taylor's backup band and real-life high school friend Abigail Anderson.

Actor Lucas Till, whom Swift met while on set of Hannah Montana: The Movie in April 2008, portrays the male lead in this video. Filming took place within two days in Gallatin and Hendersonville in Nashville. Taylor portrays two different characters in this video: a blonde and a brunette. Both characters are going after the same guy in the mini-film.

This is the first video in which Swift, along with Roman White (director on many of her early videos), acts as a director. Taylor Swift chose her friend Jaclyn Jarrett, the daughter of professional wrestler Jeff Jarrett, to play the younger version of herself in the video. Kyra Angle, the daughter of professional wrestler Kurt Angle, also appeared in the music video.

Swift wrote this song in response to a critic who was a bit hard on her. At the time, the critic chastised her after her performance at the 2010 GRAMMY Awards, where she sang off-key. After that GRAMMY performance, other critics said her performance was "weak." The music video was shot over two days in Los Angeles, with the Orpheum Theatre as its backdrop.