Country star Luke Bryan surprises SLO County teen hit by car: ‘I was in total shock’

A San Luis Obispo County teen who’s recovering after being hit by a car got a special surprise recently — an up-close encounter with one of her favorite country music stars.

Templeton resident Addyson Nixon, 15; her brother Parker Nixon, 9, and their mom, Sami Nixon, were grabbing a quick bite to eat at Pig Iron restaurant in Templeton on July 23 when country singer Luke Bryan surprised her.

“He just sat at our table and talked to us like we were friends,” Addyson Nixon later told The Tribune.

“I was just in total shock,” Nixon recalled. “I started bawling my eyes out. It’s rare for me to cry a lot, but he just walked up to me and I was just so happy that I cried.”

Nixon said she had no idea that Bryan would be at the restaurant that day — and neither did her mom.

It was Pig Iron co-owner Taylor Odenwald who organized the meet-up between Nixon and Bryan, who was performing a concert at the California Mid-State Fair in Paso Robles that night.

After the restaurant’s general manager called him saying that Bryan had booked a lunch reservation on July 23, Odenwald went to the restaurant.

Odenwald and his wife then ran into Nixon and her mom at Pig Iron.

SLO County teen hit by car makes steady recovery

Nixon was walking her dog across Las Tablas Road in Templeton in May when she was struck by a car.

According to a Gofundme page, Nixon initially suffered fractures to her neck and hip along with bleeding and swelling to her brain.

“As long as we are careful, Addy’s brain will completely heal along with her multiple body injuries,” Sami Nixon posted to the Gofundme page on July 20.

Although she still wears a neck brace, her recovery is going well, Addyson Nixon said.

“There’s just some things that even a week ago I couldn’t do, but can do now,” she said, such as being cleared by doctors to walk again.

“I just started taking lots of steps and it’s been getting easier and easier.”

Nixon said she’s looking forward to having her neck brace removed in about a month and hopefully returning to school in the fall.

Nixon also shared that she looks forward to eventually being able to cheer with her school team again.

“I’m just looking at the future instead of looking back at the past,” she said.

Luke Bryan arranges special California Mid-State Fair seats

Like many people in Templeton, Odenwald is familiar with Nixon’s journey to recovery and knew she was a fan of Bryan.

“We thought what better way to brighten her day than to at least ask Luke Bryan to say hi,” Odenwald said.

According to Odenwald, the platinum-selling singer behind “Play It Again,” “Drunk on You” and “That’s My Kind of Night” was immediately on board and even asked if Nixon had tickets to his sold-out Mid-State Fair concert that night.

Sami Nixon had purchased pit section tickets for her and her daughter before the May crash but worried that the concert might be too dangerous for Addyson to attend.

So Bryan arranged for Addyson Nixon and her mom to sit in the “front of house” near the sound and lights crew, Sami Nixon said.

“We were in an enclosed spot where nobody could really get to us,” Nixon said. “Once we got to our spots I finally felt that Addy was safe.”

Addyson Nixon said that the concert was very fun, adding that the best part was seeing her family friends’ excitement when they found out where she and her mom were seated.

After attending the concert, Addyson Nixon said, “I feel so blessed with all the people that I have in my life and all the things that just keep happening to me.”

“I’m just trying to get better as soon as I can and do everything that I would have been doing before,” she said.