Pride performed during the CBS broadcast from Houston’s Rice Stadium, which culminated with the Miami Dolphins defeating the Minnesota Vikings to win a second straight NFL championship. Up to that point, marching bands and trumpet players typically performed the national anthem, with popular vocalists becoming a more common occurrence by the ’80s.
Though mainstream acts like Vicki Carr (she sang “America the Beautiful,” not the national anthem) soon became fixtures of Super Bowl pregame broadcasts, Pride was the only country singer to do the honors until Garth Brooks got the call in 1993.
A year after Brooks sang the national anthem (and Michael Jackson made the halftime show must-see TV), The Judds, Clint Black, Travis Tritt and Tanya Tucker brought the Rockin’ Country Sunday halftime show to Super Bowl XXVIII. They weren’t the first country acts to play the halftime show: fiddler Doug Kershaw became that trivia question’s answer in 1990.
Country superstars appearing at the Super Bowl has become more common in the 21st century. Faith Hill’s national anthem performance at Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000 was followed by Shania Twain‘s 2003 halftime show appearance and national anthem gigs for Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, The Chicks, Luke Bryan and the duo of Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton.
When asked about his halftime show experience, Black questioned why more Nashville stars do not appear during the year’s most-watched sporting event.
