VERO BEACH — No crowd Jake Owen has performed before ever loved him like the one assembled under a full moon on Saturday night, when he played at his alma mater, Vero Beach High School. This hometown hero made good on his promise to come back and play the concert originally scheduled for Dec. 10, which was canceled due to bad weather. Not only did Owen excite the crowd with his music, but he also asked his girlfriend to marry him.
To the delight of Owen and approximately 5,000 fans in the bleachers at the Citrus Bowl and on Billy Living Fields, she said yes.
The weather was perfect, breezy, dry, and comfortably cool. The diverse crowd had one thing in common – their love for local legend, Jake Owen, who might have been a professional golfer, were it not for an injury while at Florida State. Many in the crowd knew him and his family when he was growing up here in Vero.
“We were all supposed to come in December, for a girls’ night out,” said Barrier Island resident Karen O’Brien. “But then it was canceled because of the weather, and now we are right up front. We can see everything,” she laughed, showing off her newly purchased boots from Target.
One woman who wished to remain anonymous, laughingly referred to Owen as “cougar meat,” because of his good looks.
Central Beach residents Karen and Scott Davis, parents of toddlers, were enjoying a rare grown up night out.
“Many of my students take advantage of the after-school programs that the Jake Owen Foundation makes possible,” said Karen Davis, a third grade teacher at Rosewood Magnet.
Fans mingled and enjoyed the technicolor sunset before listening to Love and Theft, the warm up band.
When Owen hit the stage, his charisma and talent kept the crowd on their feet the entire concert. Asking that the spotlights be turned on the audience, so he could see who was there, Owen took a minute to reminisce.
“This is the same field I threw my hat in the air with 300 classmates on graduation day. I never in a million years thought I would be back here like this,” he said. “It’s a little bigger than what I’m used to, after playing on Sunday afternoons at Riverside.”
Vivian and Jenna Sarno, from Groton, Mass., were in Fort Pierce visiting Vivian Sarno’s parents, who mentioned that Owen was playing while they were visiting. Being huge fans, they got tickets.
“It was a fabulous show,” said Vivian Sarno. “It was so nice to see him in a hometown show. It was really sweet.”
After a bit more banter, Owen played the song that, according to him, “changed my life last summer,” and broke into “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” the title song from his most recent album, which sounded like a tribute to growing up in Vero, on a night like Saturday night.
Then he dazzled the crowd by getting down on his knee and asking his girlfriend, Lacey Buchanan, to marry him.
A huge hug and kiss from her, and a thunderous round of applause from the crowd were all the affirmation he needed.
