Who's got two thumbs and a guilty pleasure for roses, bachelor's and epic romantic dates in exotic locations??? Apparently me and oh, roughly 10 million other people. 🌹 🌹 🌹

A couple years back my managers asked me if I had any happy songs to pitch to the Bachelor. I was like "ummm do you know who you're talking to?" My record was titled "Get Drunk and Cry" after all... Not so big on the HAPPY tunes.

But I sat down with a couple of great guys and amazing songwriters, Dean Dillon (who wrote basically every George Straight song you know and love) and Jim "Moose" Brown (another great songwriter and famous session piano player) to attempt this happy song thing. We wrote the song "All I Wanna Be" that day and I loved it immediately. It was sweet, whimsical and just really lovely. I played it for my team and we decided to record it right away. It was the last song we added to the record and wow, am I glad we did!

Right before Thanksgiving, a year and a half after writing "All I Wanna Be" my manager called to tell me that I was being considered to perform on the premier episode of ABC's new show "Bachelor Winter Games". And honestly, at first I didn't think that much about it. See, in this industry, amazing opportunities come around a lot. Frequently. However, they almost never pan out. So you kinda of... stop getting your hopes up. You always want to think positive but if you let yourself get your heart crushed every time someone says no to you, well lets just say I'd like to keep what little bit of this broken heart I have left! So you start to protect yourself.

But a week later I was told that it was down between me and another artist for the performance slot. And so I couldn't help it, I started to get my hopes up. And while I was home with my family for Thanksgiving I got the final news that they had picked me!!! Ummm... SO. COOL.

So the band and I packed up our gear and headed up to Manchester, Vermont! We spent two days there and it was so much fun. The first day we did a little sound check on stage and the whole production was just wild. They already had all the cameras and rigs set up and I gotta say it was a little overwhelming. I've done a good bit of TV stuff before but this was a HUGE production set up. It was amazing to get a behind the scenes of how a show like the Bachelor is filmed.

We got up super early the next day to get ready for the big performance! I was SO thrilled that I got approval to bring my hair and makeup girl, Marz Collins, with me. She is the only gal that I trust 100% to always get me looking my best! We had a pretty early call time and filmed one time through the song without any people there. This was to get all the close up shots of the band and I. Originally, we had been told we'd be able to do the song as many times as we wanted until we felt like we got the perfect take. BUT they were worried about rain. So we got one take. ONE. 😳 And we didn't know we only got one take until after the first (and only) take. Ya know... one try on a performance that will be seen by potentially ten million people...

But we rolled with it! And we knew we'd get more takes with all the people and contestants there so we still felt good about it. Also at this point we thought we'd get to do the song many more times. Ohhhh that's a sweet thought. 😏 So we sat for a couple hours while they shot a different part of the episode and then it was time for the big parade! They were having a Winter Games Opening Ceremony going down the beautiful small town Main Street. And at the end of the parade was a big ole stage with the band and I playing "All I Wanna Be". It was absolutely wild hearing Chris Harrison introduce me. Surreal. (Also, his eyes are SO blue in person. And his spray tan was 👌.)

But at the end of the song they shot off these giant confetti machines and confetti went everywhere and the band and I looked at each other like... "welp." Definitely not getting another chance on the song! Can't exactly put confetti back into the machines. I was not super psyched about our performance. It was sooo cold out so our instruments didn't want to stay in perfect tune, Wes' monitor got knocked over by a camera guy so he couldn't hear anything and there were a hundred other factors that are out of your control when you perform live on TV. But! What a great lesson to learn. No matter what from now on, anytime there is a camera on us we'll know to give it 100% our all because there are no practice runs.

And just like that! It was over. It all happened so fast. I managed to snap a pic with Chris Harrison but they whisked the contestants away so fast that I barely even got to see who was there! All I remember was a sea of spray tans and all the contestants being in these white jumpsuits, a la Winter Olympics. But we had the best time and the good news is...

I finally get to talk about it! I haven't been allowed to say anything but the episode is airing one week from today so I get to finally make the announcement! You guys have to tune in to see how it all turns out! I cannot wait! It will be on ABC Tuesday, Feb 13th 8:00-10:00 p.m. EST.

See you there!!! 🌹 🌹 🌹

All my 💖,

Ruthie

Performing on the Bachelor!