KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — For the first time ever, Kelsea Ballerini is performing at the Food City Center in her hometown of Knoxville for her one-night-only "Homecoming Show."
As a way to pay homage to her hometown and where she grew up, she offered Central High School students free tickets to her upcoming show.
"I was pretty surprised that she's giving every single - because some students haven't been ever been to a concert in their lives," freshman Warren Cagle said. "And this could be like, their first concert ever could be like a one-time thing, but I think it's awesome what she's doing for us and how inspiring it is."
Warren said it was nice to see a person who attended his school make it big.
"I think it's pretty inspiring, like to everyone at the school," Cagle said. "She's a role model to everyone and everyone at Central loves her."
Warren's mother, Amanda Cagle, is the assistant principal at Central High School, but before she was the assistant principal, she was a teacher. She said she had Kelsea in her homeroom/advisory class.
She said Kelsea was a good student.
"I can say that Kelsea is just a very giving person, just a very loving giving person," Amanda said.
Amanda said Kelsea always shows up for Knoxville.
"She has done so much for our community, between writing a song that will always be ingrained at Central High School with half of my hometown, to having the red and black tour, which goes to our high school colors, to having a surprise concert, and our gym, and then now of course, this just is the icing on the cake with being able to supply tickets, not only for all of our students and staff, but for a guest of their choosing to come to her very first arena tour."
And Amanda isn't the only teacher to sing Kelsea's praises. Beckye Thomas, the former choral director at Central High School, also said Kelsea was a good student.
"She was such a sweetie," Thomas said. "Never, you know, like, thinking that she was better than everyone. She was just a normal, good, and always so kind and polite. And just, I can't say enough because she was just a sweetheart."
Thomas said she's proud of who Kelsea is today.
"She's brilliant," Thomas said. "And she's savvy. She's creative. She's beautiful. She's got her act together and obviously isn't become quite a star. And then just makes me really happy. It makes me so happy. And over the years, she's has included me in several things, which was just incredible."
In Kelsea's music video, "Half of My Hometown," she featured Gibbs Drive in part of it, which is where she grew up. Monty Howard, the co-chair of the Historic Gibbs Drive Neighborhood Association, said the Gibbs community is close.
"Her song was such a great song," Howard said. "And then it was about Knoxville and maybe even our community and Fountain City in particular. You know, there a lot of people on Gibbs Drive that knew her or maybe had kids that went to school with her. It's just really cool. To see somebody one of our own, make it big."
He said his own home was featured in the video and people still recognize it to this day.
"We had people last night at Halloween that were trick or treating that would go 'Hey, is that the house that was in the Kelsea Ballerini video?' and we're like, 'Yeah, that's the one.' And sometimes people will stop and take pictures of it. So I mean, still still gets a lot of attention."
Both Kelsea and the Food City Center say the concert has been sold out since Sept. 15, the day tickets went up for sale.
Ticketmaster, however, has tickets on sale starting at about $107.