Country singer Phil Vassar returns to Tucson for U of A tailgate

“I literally used to fall asleep in the booth,” said the 41-year-old, who moved to Tucson four years ago with her husband, University of Arizona Athletic Department Chief Operating Officer Derek van der Merwe. “I’ve known Phil forever.”

So it wasn’t a big ask for the singer, who has 10 No. 1 hits to his credit, including “Just Another Day In Paradise,” when Paris proposed that he play the UA tailgate at last year’s first home football game.

“They were like, ‘We want to do a tailgate.’ I was like, ‘Let’s do it,’” Vassar said during a phone call in late August from his home in Nashville.

Paris also arranged for Vassar and his band to play a benefit concert at The Maverick for the Lapan Sunshine Foundation, where she is the director of strategic development.

“We raised a bunch of money and it was such a great time,” said Paris, who met Vassar when her stepfather was Vassar’s track coach at James Madison University. Her stepdad later played with Vassar at the Courtyard Cafe.

The tailgate concert and benefit were so successful that Vassar is returning this year to do it all over again. He will perform the benefit on Thursday, Sept. 8, at the Maverick and the tailgate concert on the UA Mall on Saturday before the game.

“I’ll tell you what, we’re excited,” said the 60-year-old Vassar, the father of two girls. “We had so much fun and I love coming to Tucson. I love the area and the saguaros and hiking. I love the desert.”

Vassar and Paris, who played college softball and then went on to coach softball at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee, have kept in touch throughout her life, she said. She said she had been flirting with the idea of having him play last year’s home opener to welcome fans back to football after the pandemic and when she proposed it to her husband and Athletic Director Dave Heeke, the pair were on board.

Vassar said it was a no-brainer for him, as well.

“We had so much fun,” he said. “We got to go to the game and hang out on the sidelines. We went to the tailgates. I’m talking some serous tailgaters. These guys have some nice rigs. I could live in this tailgate. It’s unreal.”

Vassar said he and his band, which hits the road for a Christmas tour with Deanna Carter in late November, plan to stick around for Saturday’s home opener against SEC powerhouse Mississippi State.

“It’s going to be a good game,” he predicted. “You’ve got a great coach and I think he can turn this thing. … We’re really pulling for the football team. It’s a lot of fun.”

After his Lapan benefit last year, Vassar donated his piano, drums and backline equipment to the foundation, which supports college scholarships for students of Wakefield Middle School on Tucson’s south side.

This year, the foundation is loaning him those instruments for his twin Tucson concerts.