American Idol Finalist, Phil Stacey, to Serve as Grand Marshal for 56th Annual Nashville Christmas Parade Hosted by Piedmont Natural Gas

Phil Stacey, best remembered for his performance of Keith Urban's "Where The Blacktop Ends" during American Idol's Country Week in Season 6, said, "It was my chance to sing music I could really relate to, that drew on who I am and what I'd grown up around." His performance impressed even the normally critical Simon Cowell, who acknowledged that theKentucky-born singer had at last displayed his true identity in convincing style.

Phil Stacey's path toward American Idol and his country music career began in a childhood molded by two equally strong influences. The first was the ministry, which had shaped both sides of his family for generations. Both of Phil's grandfathers were pastors and his father devoted his life to ministry, pastoring churches inKentucky,Ohio andKansas. The other was music. Growing up in a pastor's home, most of the music the family listened to at home was Southern and Contemporary gospel. "The exception," Stacey says, "was when my parents would bring in a country record and it would usually be a heritage thing, playing something by artists like Hank Williams Sr." The combination gave Phil an early, lifelong love of country and gospel that would be supplemented by the pop and rock influences he picked up later in life.

Then September 11, 2001 happened, galvanizing the country and changing Phil Stacey's life. "I wanted to support the effort against terror," he says simply. "I was always proud of my dad, who was a veteran and fought in Vietnam." Stacey enlisted in the Navy, a path that ultimately led him to auditioning for American Idol and becoming a top 6 finalist during Season 6. Phil participated in that season's 55-city Idol tour, at the end of which he received an honorable discharge from the Navy -- and immediately re-enlisted in the Naval Reserves.

Talking about his singing, Phil says, "I feel my job as a singer is part of my job as a human being. I'm supposed to be touching other people's lives, doing the best I can to be a positive force in the world."

Tim Greenhouse, Regional Executive for Piedmont Natural Gas inNashville, commented on Phil Stacey's role as Grand Marshal for this year's parade, "We're very excited to have Phil serve as our Grand Marshal. His story and his passion for family and music make him the perfect fit for our Parade."

Piedmont Natural Gas will be making a $1,000 donation to the MaryEllen Locher Foundation, an organization committed to helping families who have been impacted by breast cancer, in honor of Stacey's participation as Grand Marshal.

About Piedmont Natural Gas

Piedmont Natural Gas is an energy services company primarily engaged in the distribution of natural gas to more than one million residential, commercial and industrial utility customers inNorth Carolina,South Carolina andTennessee, including 62,000 customers served by municipalities who are wholesale customers. Our subsidiaries are invested in joint venture, energy-related businesses, including unregulated retail natural gas marketing, interstate natural gas storage and intrastate natural gas transportation. Additional information aboutPiedmont is available on the Internet at http://www.piedmontng.com .

SOURCE Piedmont Natural Gas

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