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2010 Sprint Sound & Speed Transcript: Irvan And Hope
An interview with Ernie Irvan and Mallory Hope...
NASCAR Communications  |  Posted January 09, 2010   Nashville, TN
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. signs autographs at the 2010 Sprint Sound & Speed event. (Photo: www.soundandspeed.org)

KERRY THARP: Good morning. If I can have your attention please, we'll get started with our media availabilities for the 2010 Sprint Sound & Speed presented by SunTrust here at Nashville, Tennessee. Maybe a little chilly on the outside, but certainly warm on the inside. We're pleased to have everyone here today. It's kind of a great way for us to combine two very, very passionate fan bases and industries, and that's NASCAR and country music. Certainly benefit two great causes, The Victory Junction Camp and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. We appreciate your attendance here today and are glad to have you here.

Up on our podium to my immediate left is Ernie Irvan. Ernie was named one of NASCAR's greatest drivers in 1998. He is the 1991 Daytona 500 winner. 313 career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. He went to Victory Lane 15 times. Ernie, welcome to Nashville, thank you for being here.

Photos: 2010 Sprint Sound and Speed in Nashville

ERNIE IRVAN: Thank you.

At this time I'm going to turn it over to Holly.

HOLLY: In the middle we have Mallory Hope. By the time she was a sophomore in high school, Mallory was performing 150 shows a year. Her determination was so intense that her family pulled up stakes from Georgia and moved to Music City when she was 17. She finished her education as a home-schooled student when en route to signing a sound publishing contract and recording more than 500 demos as a Music Row session singer.

Last November at age 21 Mallory signed a recording contract with MCA Records. Her new single Blossom in the Dust will be coming in February.

KERRY THARP: We'll start here with Ernie. Tell us about your involvement here with Sprint Sound & Speed and why you like coming here. I think you've been here several times.

ERNIE IRVAN: I like coming here trying to meet the country-western singers. I'm going to take her and we're going to go ARCA racing. We're looking at that. She's going to outdo all the other females that are starting to run ARCA. So we're going to do that. I mean, I think a lot of people are going to be able to start watching her.

HOLLY: Mallory, tell us about how you got signed to MCA Records.

MALLORY HOPE: I have a really great team behind me. We got together and decided it was time we went to Music Row, met a few different record labels. I felt like I had the song ready and the record written already. I walked in and played for MCA and Luke Lewis, the president, and knew in my heart that's where I was supposed to be. They signed me to a record deal.

We put a song out in August, that went to 36 on Billboard or 40 on Billboard, somewhere right there. We are getting ready right now to release a new song in February called Blossom in the Dust. My whole album I got to co-write 10 of the 11 songs. When you get the album, if you want to know about my life in Georgia, every song has a story, so I can't wait for y'all to hear it.

Q. Mallory, how old were you when you started singing and you knew you wanted to be a singer? I find it more interesting. I know Ernie. We want to know about Mallory.

MALLORY HOPE: My parents are standing right there. This is my first event like this, so I'm sweating a little bit. I'm not going to lie. But I started singing when I was two and three. I knew that this is what I wanted to do when I was nine. We came up to Nashville. I sang at the Nashville Palace with a house band. On the two-hour drive back home to Georgia, I told my parents that no matter what happens, you know, this is what I want to do. I want to quit cheerleading, sports, all that stuff, be a singer and songwriter.

Actually I taught myself how to yodel on the way home. I had seen somebody yodel when I came up here. I drove my parents nuts. I figured it out by the time I got home, didn't I? I've been singing my whole life.

Q. Mallory, we've known each other a very long while.

MALLORY HOPE: We have.

Q. You are the only successful artist to come out of NACMA. You must be very proud about that.

MALLORY HOPE: NACMA is a really great organization. It's something I started doing when I was 13 or 14. I joined the Country Music and Gospel Association in Georgia, which turned into the NACMA association. Every March all these kids that were in the music business would come and compete with each other and meet and learn and grow. So for like five years I did that.

The NACMA association is really great for kids who want to follow a dream of doing music. So I love it. I'm glad that I did that because it put me on stage and let me meet a lot of other musicians. It's a great organization.
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