Hayden Panettiere’s ‘Nashville’ costar Charles Esten honors her with emotional Opry performance

GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA: Charles Esten paid tribute to his late 'Nashville' costar Hayden Panettiere during a performance at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville on August 22. The actor and musician dedicated his 2024 song 'Somewhere in the Sunshine' to Panettiere, who died at age 36 on August 16. 

He also recalled their first meeting and the kindness she showed him before they began working together on the ABC musical drama.

Charles Esten pays tribute to Hayden Panettiere’s kindness

Per fan-captured TikTok footage, Esten, described Panettiere’s death as a “terrible loss” and remembered her as a “bright, shining light of fireworks.” He called her a great friend who had been kind to him from the very beginning.

He recalled meeting Panettiere while auditioning for his future role as Deacon Claybourne on ‘Nashville.’ Panettiere listened as he performed a pair of scenes and songs during his first audition, after which he bumped into her “kind of hard.”

Esten remembered her listening at the door “just like Juliette Barnes would have.” He then revealed that the first scene he ever shot with Panettiere was at the Opry. During his August 22 performance, he dedicated ‘Somewhere in the Sunshine’ to her, while a selfie of the two appeared on the screen behind him.

Panettiere told Esten how “good” he was and gave him a round of applause. He recalled telling her that he and his family were big fans of ‘Heroes.’ Before leaving, he jokingly told her, “See you on set!” as she went into her audition.

At the time, Esten thought, “I was nowhere near landing this job.” A month later, however, he and Panettiere were starting on the show, and she told him, “I’ll see you on the set.” He later discovered that Panettiere had told the crew, “I don’t know who that guy is, but if you don’t hire him, you’re crazy.” 

He recalled, “She did that for me,” adding, “and that’s who she was.”

Lesley Vogel addresses her estrangement from Hayden Panettiere

In the wake of her death, Panettiere’s mother, Lesley Vogel addressed the distance between herself and her daughter. In a statement to Entertainment Tonight on August 20, Vogel insisted that their estrangement was not due to a lack of care or love.

“Although my daughter and I were estranged, it was not for lack of care or love,” Vogel told ET adding, “It was due to the involvement of a toxic individual who I believe led to her death.”

She did not identify the individual by name in that statement. Days earlier, however, she had publicly criticized Panettiere’s on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson while discussing her daughter’s death.

“This person in her life that we have been trying to get rid of for quite some time was with her at her death,” she told NBC News on August 18 adding, “And that was Brian Hickerson.”

She described Panettiere as “an amazingly talented person in so many departments” and discussed the challenges faced by young people who grow up in the entertainment industry. She said it was a struggle and a challenging industry, adding that it was not unusual for young people to “sadly find the wrong path.”

In her statement to ET, Vogel again referred to her daughter becoming involved with the “wrong person,” without explicitly identifying that person as Hickerson. “Hayden was a beautiful and talented young woman who unfortunately became involved with the wrong person, and although her family tried to extricate him from her life, we were unable to be successful,” she said.