Dale Earnhardt Jr. isn’t just a NASCAR legend — he’s a pop culture persona in his own right. Over the years, his world has often crossed paths with music and entertainment, leading to some lasting friendships. Rockstar Edwin McCain is one of those friends, and in a recent podcast episode, Earnhardt told a laugh-out-loud story involving McCain, with the singer there to hear it all over again.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Relives Hilarious Blunder With Edwin McCain on Podcast
Earnhardt admitted on his podcast that he once mistakenly asked McCain to perform a song that didn’t even belong to him.
“One of my most embarrassing moments, I have been embarrassed by this!,” the NASCAR Hall of Famer recalled the moment on ‘The Dale Jr. Download.’
Plot Twist: That wasn't Edwin McCain's song. 😂🎶
🎙️ The @DaleJr Download pic.twitter.com/7qLAo1LiFy
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“I asked you (McCain) to come here and play for our company. At the end of the year, we have a little party, and I asked you to come, and do that. I knew you might, because you were such great friends with everybody.
“You show up, and we are upstairs, and you said ‘Hey, anything you want me to play tonight?’
“You remember what I asked you to play?” Earnhardt asked McCain.
“100%,” McCain replied with a smile. “Here’s the thing,” he continued.
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“It’s not your fault. No, it’s not! Because Napster mislabeled the song. You’re like, ‘Hey, you did this really great cover of ‘In Your Eyes’ by Peter Gabriel.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s Jeffrey Gaines that does that.’”
“Is it insulting at all that I confuse the two?,” Earnhardt asked. But, McCain was quick to blame Napster for the mix-up.
“No, because it was mislabeled on Napster for a million years. I still play that song as a cover. I played it at the end of the Jammer Show because I knew you were there.
Long before Spotify and Apple Music dominated music streaming, Napster broke new ground as the first major player in the space. While it was a game-changer, it wasn’t perfect. As McCain joked on the Dale Jr. Download, some of Napster’s biggest blunders were so common that they actually ended up reshaping live shows.
“The Napster mislabel thing got so out of hand, Shawn Mullins and I were mislabeled so bad. I had like these 20-year-old girls just angry that I am not playing ‘Rockabye’ at the show,” McCain revealed.
“You know, I’m sorry you bought the wrong concert tickets. But then, I was like, this is disappointing, these girls. They’re genuinely … .they showed up to hear one song and then find out that they’re not gonna get to hear that song and I’m like, ‘You know what! I’m not going to let that go down that way.’
“I called Shawn, and I was like, ‘Hey, I’m going to start playing Rockabye.’ He’s like, ‘Good! I’m gonna start playing ‘I’ll Be’. He was having the exact same problem.”
Edwin McCain is a familiar figure in the NASCAR world thanks to his passion for stock-car racing. A close friend of Dale Jr., he’s made multiple appearances on the Dale Jr. Download and even performed the national anthem ahead of the 2019 Southern 500 at Darlington.