![]() The middle, Chase Puskar, is a 2020 University of Colorado grad in aerospace engineering/computer engineering who’s interning with NASA this summer. The oldest, Taylor Noelle, is a 2018 Belmont University grad who is now a local singer/songwriter. They are the parents of three highly talented children, each of whom was coached on the soccer field by dad when they were young. ![]() So as a kid, Esten made occasional trips to his favorite team’s locker room, where he met the likes of Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris and Mean Joe Greene.Įsten and his wife, Patty, are living the life these days. We shouldn’t really be surprised Esten loves sports, considering he spent his earliest years in Pittsburgh, where his dad - who played college football at William & Mary - was a business partner with former Steelers center Ray Mansfield. He’s performed pre-game gigs for the Titans at Nissan Stadium, sung plenty of intermission tunes for the Predators and twice performed inaugural renditions of the “Star Spangled Banner” - the first national anthem at the Nashville Sounds’ First Horizon Park and the first national anthem for a Nashville SC soccer game. Since then, he may have attended as many Music City sports events as I have. It started at least as far back as the Music City Bowl in 2013, when he sang the national anthem at Nissan Stadium prior to Ole Miss’ win over Georgia Tech. In addition to testing his knowledge of the mighty Renegades soccer team, I wanted to learn how Esten had become a fixture on the Nashville sports scene. But Esten was kind enough to grant me an interview on Memorial Day morning, and we had a great time chatting for close to an hour. I can’t be absolutely certain he recalled me prior to the invite. A mere eight years or so after the series started, I finally got around to reaching out to Esten last week. So when Esten rocketed to fame as “Deacon Claybourne,” star of the hit series “Nashville,” I figured it would be a great time for me to cash in on my very tenuous tie to a huge celebrity. I attended the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He went to William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va. He dated a girl up the street from me one year. I remember that we both attended a week-long session of Virginia Boys State of the American Legion one summer. I didn’t often see Esten after that season, as we attended different high schools and had different friends.
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