Parmalee Say Acoustic Show on Navy Battleship Was ‘Coolest Gig We’ve Ever Done’ [Watch]

Parmalee sat down with Taste of Country’s Billy Dukes at the 2015 Country Jam in Colorado last week and talked about their recent Navy tour, where the band performed in six different countries for the troops. The highlight, they said, was getting flown in a helicopter from an aircraft carrier outside Iran to a battleship and performing an intimate acoustic show for those troops.

“The troops out there were amazing,” recalled Parmalee frontman Matt Thomas. “We got to play a show on the back deck of that battleship at night, in the middle of the Arabian Gulf, shut all the generators off, complete silence, just us, like this, just acoustic guitars — it was the coolest gig we’ve ever done."

The band went on to say that though they were “right in the middle of it,” they felt safe the whole time they were there, and “well taken care of.”

On a lighter note, the band then got to answer a fan-submitted question chosen randomly out of what Dukes dubbed the "magic mug.” Their question asked if they had ever injured themselves on stage. Bassist Barry Knox admitted he had twisted his ankle once jumping down from what he says their crew calls “ego risers,” small stages on which the band members stand to pump up the crowd.

Parmalee released their fourth single from their major label debut album, Feels Like Carolina, "Already Callin’ You Mine," in February 2015, and rocked the Country Jam stage in Grand Junction, Colorado June 20.

Highlights from Country Jam 2015