Sara Evans has had a huge career in country music, but the country star felt like she could have blown her big chance at fame and fortune when she flubbed an audition for one of Nashville's biggest movers and shakers.

In the late 1990s, Evans was just another young Nashville singer looking for a major label break. She was excited to get a shot from RCA, one of the biggest labels in the music business, but her audition just didn't go the way she had pictured.

"This is just a story that goes to show that you never know what the day's gonna bring," Evans tells Taste of Country with a laugh. "I got an opportunity to go in and sing three songs in front of Joe Galante, and it was just him and another person in there, and me and my guitar player. And I forgot the words on one of the songs, and just sort of blanked."

The singer admits she was "really young and extremely nervous," and thinking about too many other things during the song, but her story wound up having a more than happy ending.

"He knew that I was nervous, but he saw through that, and loved my voice, and called me later that afternoon and offered me a seven-album record deal," she recalls. "He really did give me my big break, but it's so funny, because I could have missed it if not for him believing in me."

Evans went on to a career that has included Gold, Platinum and multi-Platinum albums, a long string of hit singles and six million albums sold. She's also a CMA award winner, and has taken home the ACM award for Female Vocalist of the Year.

She's helping others shoot for a special moment of their own on her current tour, during which she's teaming up with ABC, CMA and Astellas Pharma US, Inc., for the My Big Break sweepstakes. From now until Oct. 16, fans can enter to win a trip for two to Nashville, to see their favorite country music artists perform at the CMA Awards on Nov. 2, and take in the spectacle of the biggest night in country music.

"I just thought, how cool to be able to do a sweepstakes where we can give people a chance to experience the trip of a lifetime," she says. "That awards show and that whole experience is unbelievable, even as an artist. Even though I'm in the business and I've been behind the curtain and I've seen everything, it's so, so much fun. I just wanted to help give people their big break, in a sense, to win this trip and attend the CMA Awards."

For more information or to enter the sweepstakes, visit cmabigbreak.com.

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