Nashville Radio: Bones & Friends Raise $2M For St. Jude

Photo Courtesy of WSIX

Over the past three years, iHeartMedia radio personality Bobby Bones raised roughly $3.8 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. In one surprise-filled, star-studded evening at the Ryman Auditorium, he added $2 million more on Monday night, according to The Tennessean.

Bones braved a nasty case of the flu to host his second Bobby Bones & The Raging Idiots’ Million Dollar Show for St. Jude. This year’s lineup included The Band Perry, Rascal Flatts, Sam Hunt and Caitlyn Smith. Then Bones delighted the sold-out audience with unannounced performances from Brothers Osborne, Thomas Rhett and Garth Brooks. While the Million Dollar Show is viewed as a celebration of past fundraising success more than an opportunity to collect more dollars, Brooks presented Bones with a $2 million check for the hospital on stage.

"What I love is this paycheck isn't going to you, and I know that's what you love about it, too," Brooks said as he handed Bones the oversized check.

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The men sang "Friends in Low Places" together as the audience sang along.

Bones held the first Million Dollar Show in 2015 to mark $1 million raised for the hospital. He had such a good time, he opted to make it an annual event. As happened with the inaugural event, when the first headlining artist signed on, others followed. This year, Hunt and The Band Perry led the way.

“What’s great about the artists in Nashville is I can just call them,” Bones said. “We did it last year and it was so great and we got to raise money and awareness, and a lot of times awareness is more important. We always want there to be some sort of surprise in the show. It’s a lot of fun, and I wasn’t going to miss it. I may pass out on stage, but I wasn’t going to miss the show.”

Before Bones moved to Nashville in 2013 to launch "The Bobby Bones Show" in the morning drive time spot on WSIX 97.9 FM The Big 8, the Arkansas native thought St. Jude was “just a hospital in Memphis.” Then he visited the facility. Bones was badly injured in a fall as a child and spent many weeks in a hospital recuperating. The care and effort he saw the staff at St. Jude dedicate to not only medical breakthroughs but also to making sure patients and families had the highest quality of life resonated with him.

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