It will be tough for the Cadillac Black's frontman, Jaren Johnston, to top this year. In February, he scored his first chart-topping hit as a songwriter off his first outside cut with Keith Urban's 'You Gonna Fly.' Then, his band released their self-titled debut album and toured with the likes of Eric Church, Dierks Bentley, Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top. Now, he is engaged to his longtime girlfriend, Evyn Mustoe.

While performing with ZZ Top last week (Wednesday, Sept. 12) for a sold-out crowd at the Beacon Theater in New York City, Johnston figured it was the perfect set up to ask Mustoe -- a Creative Manager at ASCAP in Nashville -- to be his wife.

"I knew I had a couple of days there," Johnston tells Taste of Country exclusively. "The next night I was doing a CMA writers round with Dierks Bentley, Jim Beavers and Bob DiPiero. I thought it would be good timing because we'd have a couple of nights in New York City."

"She flew up that day, and I literally got three songs into the show," Johnston continues, sharing that the band was getting ready to launch into 'Tennessee Mojo' when he popped the question. "I looked over side-stage where she was standing, and I said, 'This song goes out to my beautiful girlfriend of 10 and a half years ... she still flies up and sees me play. We always said when we'd get married we would get tattoo rings, but screw it.'  My drummer threw me the box with the ring, and I had her come out onstage. I dropped to one knee and asked her to marry me."

Mustoe said yes to Johnston's big question as the entire theater rose to their feet, giving the newly engaged couple a standing ovation. "She didn’t see it coming at all," the frontman reveals. "She was completely surprised."

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