Rodney Atkins to Salute Military Hero With Special Song

Rodney Atkins took a break from his current tour and jetted into Dallas, Texas, on Thursday, November 4, where he joined NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth to reveal details of Crown Royal's annual race to honor a special military hero.

For five years, Crown Royal, who sponsor the No. 17 car driven by Matt, have sponsored the "Your Name Here" 400 race which takes place in Richmond, Va. For the third year, the Crown Royal "Your Name Here" contest will award naming rights to a serviceman or servicewoman for the April 30, 2011, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series taking place at the Richmond International Raceway. Nominations will be accepted from now until November 30, and can be submitted here.

Rodney announced that he will perform a song at the Daytona International Speedway in February 2011 to reveal the winner of this year's "Your Name Here" program.

"It was really cool," Rodney excitedly tells The Boot. "Basically we made the announcement to bring awareness about this Crown Royal event. It cracks me up. The Crown Royal 'Your Name Goes Here' 400. [laughs] I get the fun part of the job of making the announcement. God bless those folks [in our military] for the sacrifices that they make. Crown Royal has been so classy about promoting drinking responsibly and bringing awareness and a way to say thank you to these troops."

The special song Rodney performs will continue the "your name here" theme, he says. "I'm going to put the person's name -- the winner -- in one of my songs at the Daytona race. I'm not sure which song yet. It could be any song. I might write a song for it, I don't know. It could be 'Farmer's Daughter,' or 'These Are My People.' We're going to perform in Daytona, and I'll probably just bring a guitar and play acoustic for that event to announce the winner. But then for the race in Richmond in April, we'll be doing a full show, full band, production, everything, probably the night before the race. It's going to be a blast. It's a great way to celebrate and say thank you to these servicemen and women. They called a couple of weeks ago to ask if I would be interested in being a part of it, and at the same time, we were putting a trip together for me and my band to go over to Iraq. This was kind of divine intervention the way this came in. We're planning on early next year to go. This will be my first trip over there. I've asked and asked and asked, so now they're going to finally let me go."

In addition to the formal announcement in Dallas, Crown Royal set up a special event to stuff special care packages to be sent overseas. Through a partnership with Operation Troop Aid, the packages were filled with various items from snacks to toiletries to be sent to service members in time for the holidays.

"Matt and I both wrote notes and helped stuff some of the bags," says Rodney. "I put some guitar picks in there."

Rodney notes that his participation in this project has been an enlightening experience. Although he didn't grown up in a military family, having been adopted, he can relate to some of the things military families go through.

"I work for the National Council for Adoption. I've come to realize, like with adoption, if you're not aware of it, if you don't see it ... or if you haven't been a part of it ... it kind of doesn't exist. It's something very worthwhile to bring awareness to. I've been to Camp Pendleton to the hospital. It kills me. When you've been in a hospital room, kids sitting there with bloody fatigues when they've lost a limb from some IED (Improvised Explosive Device) going off ... I've been in those rooms, and the first time those parents walk in and see their kids missing limbs with tears in their eyes, they're so proud and they're dying at the same time inside seeing their kids like this. That's a world that I was unaware of. They stay away from their kids a year at a time sometimes. They told me '[If You're] Going Through Hell,' is their song. It's a combat song they crank up and listen to. Two nights ago in Jacksonville, a soldier came up to me and gave me his dog tags, wanted me to have them as a thank-you. [He said] ''Going Through Hell' got me through hell.' It's the least I can do, [with] what they do for my family, to bring the awareness."