Gallup girl climbs onstage with Kix Brooks

By John Christian Hopkins
Diné Bureau

Tashina Tohe of Gallup, dances with Kix Brooks when she was asked onstage at a Phoenix concert. Tohe, who now lives in Phoenix, was given the tickets by a friend and had a feeling she may get pulled onto stage. [Courtesy Photo]

WINDOW ROCK — Tashina Tohe recently got to do some boot scootin’ boogying with the country music duo Brooks & Dunn.

“I just had a feeling that I’d get pulled on stage,” Tohe said.
Routinely voted as country music’s top duo, Brooks & Dunn’s hits include, “My Maria,” “That Ain’t no Way to Go” and “Neon Moon.”

Tohe is from Gallup and now works in the Phoenix accounting office of ‘Spawn’ creator Todd McFarlane, where she sometimes has the radio on her desk tuned into a local country music station. A co-worker had an offer for complimentary tickets from an former boyfriend.

Since she wasn’t going to use them, she offered them to Tohe.

“I was like ‘Thanks for breaking up with him,’” Tohe laughed.

She went online and was able to purchase the complimentary tickets for $6 each. Of course, they weren’t the best seats in the house.

“We were way back in lawn chairs, but we figured we’d make the best of it and have fun,” Tohe said.

Tohe and her friend were in the refreshment line when one of Alan Jackson’s back-up singers stopped near them.

“She said ‘I’m gonna make your day,’ and I kind of had a feeling what was coming,” Tohe said. “She asked us if we’d like to sit in the front row. We were all hyped up. We had to agree not to pull Alan Jackson off the stage or anything.”

Not that it would be that easy to pull the 6’4” Jackson off of the stage anyway.

They were really enjoying the show, when Kix Brooks pulled Tohe on the stage during a performance of the duo’s hit song, “(Rock my World) Little Country Girl.”

She danced with Brooks in front of a sold-out crowd.

“I didn’t feel anything, I didn’t pay any attention to the crowd,” Tohe said. “I was in my own little world.”

Tohe grew up in Gallup, no stranger to country music and rodeos. Her favorite singer is Joe Nichols and — now — Brooks & Dunn.

“She loves to dance country,” her mom, Genevieve Jones said.

“I think it’s cool,” said Jones, who works for the Gallup office of the Navajo Program for Self Reliance.

John Christian Hopkins can be reached at hopkins1960@hotmail.com