Billboard & MLB Talk to Country’s Biggest Stars Ahead of MLB Speedway Classic | Billboard News

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Billboard and MLB teamed up in Nashville at CMA Fest 2025 to talk with country’s biggest stars about new music, their favorite baseball memories and the upcoming MLB Speedway Classic, happening on Aug. 2 at the Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee.

Alana Springsteen: When you start getting the major league teams coming in, like, you know, you’re doing something, right? 

Tetris Kelly: There’s nothing more American than baseball and country music, which is why Billboard and MLB teamed up to cover this year’s CMA Fest. 

Dylan Gossett: This is not like, just because I’m here, but we play MLB The Show all the time. 

Interviewer1: Come on. 

Dylan Gossett:

We have this-

Tetris Kelly:

You know, country’s hottest stars love themselves some baseball. 

Alana Springsteen:

I started singing when I was really young, and the anthem was one of the first songs I learned to sing when I was nine years old. Yeah, at Wrigley Field, I got to sing the national anthem, and I don’t think I understood in that moment the gravity of it.

Interviewer 1: I bet. 

Alana Springsteen: But it felt so special.

Interviewer 2: Your first pitch, crushed it at the White Sox game. 

Dylan Gossett: Most nervous I’ve ever been. 

Interviewer 2: Do you black out when you went out there? Because I did too.

Dylan Gossett: For sure. Just kind of closed my eyes and just did it. 

Interviewer 2: It sailed right over the plate. 

Dylan Gossett: Yeah. 

Interviewer 2: So when you, when you actually, when you saw it go over the plate, were you just like, sigh of relief? 

Dylan Gossett: Oh, yeah. Kind of want to do it again. 

Tetris Kelly: Well, we definitely talked about new and upcoming music. 

Alana Springsteen: This record is just me peeling back the layers and going, “This is who I am. Like, like it or leave it.”

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