COLUMBIA — South Carolina’s heartbreaking loss to LSU during the 2024 football season continues to ring sour notes for Gamecock fans more than a year later. What some may not remember are the far-more-pleasing pre-game notes of the national anthem, as sung by South Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers.

While singing before a nationally televised football game might be considered the high point of Weathers’ singing career, the 69-year-old fourth-generation farmer , who grew up on a dairy farm in Bowman, has garnered plenty of lesser-profile singing gigs over the years.

Weathers began his musical odyssey when his mother urged him to sing in his church choir. He honed his vocal skills at church for years, but still had no formal singing lessons. Years later, after he had a fa

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