PRYOR, Okla. -- Five years after a helicopter crash killed two people and seriously injured the three founding members of Red Dirt music legend the
Red Dirt Rangers, its frontman finally faced his fears.
John Cooper, along with rowdy Red Dirt cohort Mike McClure and his drummer Eric Hansen, climbed aboard for a scenic helicopter ride. They cruised high over the Country Fever festival crowds just north of Pryor.
"Mike said, 'I'm buyin' and we're flyin!'" said Cooper. "So I went. We got in and at first I was really nervous.
"But once we got up there it was really calming," he said. "I've only flown three times, once I nearly died, the second time was on the way to the hospital after the crash. This time … I had a choice," he said, then smiled broadly.
Cooper is also working behind the scenes with a lot of bands over the weekend, in addition to his Saturday performance with the Red Dirt Rangers at 4:45 p.m. on the main stage, he said.
"We're all having a ball out here," said Cooper. "We rarely get to see each other like this."
From left, Jeremy Plato of Cross Canadian Ragweed, fiddler Randy Crouch and John Cooper from the Red Dirt Rangers pause to catch up on Saturday afternoon.
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