KEY POINTS

  • Faith Hill was asked to sing the national anthem at a Dallas Cowboys game
  • Five-time Grammy winner asked the guard the first word of "Star-Spangled Banner"
  • Hill recalled the experience on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert"

Faith Hill revealed that she once forgot the lyrics of "Star-Spangled Banner" when she was asked to sing at a football game in the early years of her career.

In her appearance on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" on Tuesday, the five-time Grammy-winning musician admitted that when she asked to sing the national anthem at a Dallas Cowboys playoff, she forgot the opening lines.

"It's one of those songs you know so well and you think, 'I'll never forget the lyrics,'" she explained. "This happened to me before. It was at a playoff game many years prior. I was singing at a Dallas playoff game, the beginning of my career ... and I'm walking out to the center of the field with this very generous guard, this woman that was walking me out, and I say to her, 'Would you happen to know just the first word of the national anthem?'"

Colbert and the audience erupted into laughter as the host formed a circle in his hand signifying the word “Oh.”

“All I need is the first word,” Hill continued. “And she said, ‘seriously?’ We were walking hand in hand and I said, ‘seriously.’ She said, ‘Oh my, honey, I don’t know.”

Hill had told herself that she will just sing “Amazing Grace” if she does not remember the words that time. But luckily, she was able to remember the words and did not need to resort to her back up plan.

The “It Matters To Me” artist also told Colbert that singing the “Star-Spangled Banner” brought her “the most extraordinary pressure ever” as she recalled her experience singing it again at the Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000.

“Singing the national anthem for the Super Bowl was terrifying. However, when I sang it, Tennessee Titans happened to make it to the Super Bowl that same year. I was asked and I said oh my gosh, yes and I was like ‘What did I just do?’,” she told Colbert.

The “1883” star said the presence of her favorite team, the Tennessee Titans was calming, but she did rehearse in the public restroom with a boom box before she walked out to the field to sing the national anthem.

Faith Hill
Faith Hill is pictured attending the 51st annual CMA Awards on Nov. 8, 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee. Michael Loccisano/Getty Images