Young Georgia Fan Who Refused to Sing ‘Rocky Top’ Gifted Tickets to Sugar Bowl

Nolan McGill made the college football world chuckle.

Nolan McGill will join his beloved Georgia Bulldogs in New Orleans. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Aside from existing as a perennial irritant to the SEC's 15 other fanbases, "Rocky Top" is one of Tennessee's 11(!) state songs, and, therefore, potential fodder for elementary school music students across the Volunteer State.

Here's the problem, though—not all Tennesseans are Volunteer fans. In December, a young Chattanooga, Tenn., Georgia fan named Nolan McGill achieved viral fame for hilariously refusing to sing "Rocky Top" during a school music program.

On Monday, McGill was rewarded for his conscientious objection. Fanatics gifted him tickets to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans—sending the Tinseltones, an Atlanta-based caroling group, to serenade him.

Take a look at the video here.

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“It’s just a bad song. I’m a Georgia fan,” McGill told Grace Raynor of The Athletic on Dec. 19. “Georgia’s just better than Tennessee.” He added that "you couldn’t pay me to sing that song.”

"Rocky Top," a bluegrass song recorded and released by the Osborne Brothers in 1967, is closely associated with the Volunteers, even more so than the school's actual fight song. Making up for McGill's earlier indignity, the Tinseltones serenaded the 11-year-old with "Glory, Glory"—the Bulldogs' fight song.

Then-No. 6 Georgia beat then-No. 15 Tennessee 44–41 in an overtime thriller back on Sept. 15.

The Bulldogs are set to face off against the Ole Miss Rebels in the Sugar Bowl on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET, with a spot in the College Football Playoff semifinal on the line.

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