Luke Bryan made his final appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show as the iconic host wraps up her long-running talk show. Bryan and Ellen DeGeneres talked about everything from the ”panic attack” the country artist experienced during his first time on the show, to American Idol, to gambling — and, of course, beer.
By the end of their conversation, Bryan offered a heartfelt “thank you” to DeGeneres, but switched gears: “…I gotta have some fun though, real quick. Because I’ve never been on this show where you didn’t serve me beer. You’ve always done really good at that.” Noting Diddy’s vodka venture, Bryan thought, “there’s things for me to strive for, so I figured — I made my own beer.”
That moment was a long way from Bryan’s first memory of DeGeneres’ show, when he hosted her red carped ahead of the Country Music Association awards. It was the night of Bryan’s first-ever performance on the awards show, and he was “freaking out. …I didn’t realize that so much pressure was on me until I could not breathe in the limo.” His wife, Caroline, told him he was having a panic attack, though Bryan admits that being “a country person,” he denied it. He said DeGeneres’ producers were “on the phone freaking out because I’m late” to host the red carpet. Luckily, he got “my ducks in a row” because he “hugged a bunch of whiskey — do what you can in the moment — and then I did the red carpet. I got through it.”
Watch the full interview clip here: