ATLANTA — Many musicians who head to Nashville with dreams of

• WHAT: Lynyrd Skynyrd, Steve Richard concert • WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Sunday • WHERE: Wild Adventures Theme Park, 3766 Old Clyattville Road, Valdosta • INFORMATION: Call (229) 219-7080

country superstardom dancing in their heads come home destitute and defeated, chewed up and spit out by the harsh reality that only a lucky few make it in the music industry.

Blakely native Kyle Everson left for Music City a year and a half ago — Nov. 14, 2006, to be exact — with a dream that had nothing to do with platinum records or his face plastered on the cover of music magazines. And heading into Sunday’s gig opening for Southern rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd at Wild Adventures Theme Park in Valdosta, Everson’s doing quite fine, thank you.

“It’s a special kind of person that gets up there in front of the crowd,” Everson said before a recent performance here. “Those folks tick a little differently than the rest of us.

“I came to Nashville to become a session musician, not in some attempt to find fame and fortune. That I’ve been able to leave my day job and do what I love for a living is quite fine by me.”

Everson, 24, plays dobro and electric guitar for the “eight to 10 accounts” he works with on a regular basis, but his primary instrument is the pedal steel guitar. That’s what he’ll be playing Sunday in support of Steve Richard, who is opening for Skynyrd.

“Right now, I look at myself as being in an ‘entry-level’ position,” he said. “I’m learning more about music, more about my instrument, every day while I’m playing with several people in the industry. The show with Lynyrd Skynyrd is the biggest I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of, and I think sometimes the breaks you get in this industry come from shows like this.”

With the encouragement of his uncle, Cliff Starr, Everson picked up a guitar and started playing when he was a pre-teen. He played drums in bands throughout high school and college, and when he graduated from Auburn University with a degree in finance, Everson faced a decision that confronts many young musicians.

“I was offered a job by State Farm Insurance in Atlanta, but I had this idea in the back of my mind that I wanted to move to Nashville,” he said. “I made the move, found a job selling insurance in Nashville but when I started thinking about that 8:30-to-5 reality, I just quit the job on blind faith.

“I started working on my music and got a job as a valet. I was at that job for three weeks when I had an audition. I was offered the job, and it turned out to be lucrative enough for me to quit my day job. So I consider myself ahead of the game.”

The artists who regularly utilize Everson’s skills are “mostly country or country influenced.” He’s been involved in recording sessions with two artists and plays live shows an average of three nights a week.

Everson lists the Byrds’ “Sweethearts of the Rodeo,” which is considered the first “country-rock” album, and former Allman Brothers Band guitarist Duane Allman as primary influences. In addition to Sunday’s gig with Skynyrd, he’s also played with an artist who opened 26 dates for country great Junior Brown, who plays a hybrid six-string/steel instrument he’s dubbed the “guit-steel.”

“People talk about ‘making it,’ but there are different degrees to that,” Everson said. “I’m doing what I love to do full-time, and when I have downtime my ‘job’ is working on my music. I’m doing what I came to Nashville to do, so that freedom is a blessing to me.

“It may sound clich{‘e}, but I look at my career like you do fitness where it’s not about the destination but the journey.”

From tiny Blakely to sharing the stage with the likes of Junior Brown and Lynyrd Skynyrd ... that’s a journey most music lovers would gladly take.