Scott Hamilton and Friends Show Set for Sunday at Bridgestone Arena

Scott Hamilton doesn't do anything half-heartedly.
Does that include his event coming up on Sunday evening in Nashville? Well, let's just say it may be his best one yet.
For the third consecutive year,
Bridgestone Arena will host Scott Hamilton & Friends
, benefiting the
Scott Hamilton CARES Foundation
and cancer research. Complete with world-class figure skating and live music from an all-star lineup, the show has become so much more than just a night of entertainment and fundraising.

"We know that cancer affects everyone," Hamilton, an Olympic Gold medalist and cancer survivor, said. "The statistics are alarming, so we want to make sure that we present an event that includes everyone. We are a fundraiser and we are trying to make a difference in the cancer community. Nowhere else in North America can you see this cast anywhere. It's remarkable what we've been able to assemble."
That star-studded group includes Hamilton and nine-time Grammy Award winner Sheryl Crow as hosts, with appearances from acts like Brothers Osborne and Florida Georgia Line. Combine those live performances with on-ice routines from Gold Medal winners Tessa Virtue, Scott Moir, Meryl Davis and Charlie White - just to name a few - and it's a show only someone like Hamilton could pull off.
"When you see the combination together of music and skating, it's a perfect marriage, it's a perfect blend, it's a perfect sensory experience," Hamilton said. "Live music has its own identity… but when you see these skaters and what they can do and you see the effortless nature of doing something impossible right in front to you, its extraordinary."
Speaking of extraordinary, Hamilton is rather remarkable himself.
A survivor of testicular cancer and three brain tumors, the four-time world and U.S. Champion, though small in stature, is a giant in Nashville.
The
Scott Hamilton Skating Academy
, run out of the Predators' Ford Ice Center, hosts one of the most successful learn-to-skate programs in the country. Combine that with his fandom for the Preds, his foundation's charitable endeavors and his overall zest for life, Hamilton has helped to make Music City not only a hub for hockey in the Southeast, but ice skating in general.

Launched in 2014, his CARES Foundation, which stands for Cancer Alliance for Research, Education and Survivorship, seeks to be a neutral convener between organizations, researchers, academic scientists, drug developers and others to advance new treatments.
With fundraisers like the one that will take place at Bridgestone Arena on Sunday, Hamilton believes the day when they'll no longer be needed is on the horizon.
"I'm here as a product of chemotherapy, and I can't wait until it no longer exists," Hamilton said. "I'm not being hypocritical - I'm grateful that I had a treatment option - but I know that the way I was treated in a matter of years will be so outdated if we all come together and fund the research that made that possible… Now, the science is light years ahead of the money, so we really need to make a difference in that regard."
Make no mistake about it - the show about to take place in the coming days is unlike anything else in the world, and the tangible impact it could have toward the greater good is worth the price of admission in itself.
Throw in some of the biggest stars in the music and skating worlds, and it's exactly the kind of celebration one might expect from a man with an infectious aura of positivity.
That's just what Hamilton does.
"As we're able to fund research, now we have people that can stand up and say, 'Due to the money raised here, at this event and with the research that it funded, I'm alive - and not only am alive, but I have a much better quality of life,'" Hamilton explained. "I'm excited about how far we've come, and the people that have partnered with us and the fact that that continues to grow as well.
"And we're just getting started."