Country star Aaron Tippin (right) hikes a ride to AirVenture with air show pilot Matt Younkin.

Aaron Tippin was always planning to come to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2010. He just didn't expect to fly in with an air show performer.

The country music star was on the road this week to Cheyenne, Wyoming, for a performance when his tour bus had engine trouble in Kansas. He was able to make the show by renting a pickup truck for the gear and a car for the band. But without the bus he didn't have any way to get to Oshkosh.

So like any good pilot, he decided to hitchhike.

"I called Steve Brown with the Confederate Air Force and said, 'Is there any way you can get me to Oshkosh?'" Tippen said.

Doug Rosenthal, a senior pilot with the CAF, knew Matt Younkin was doing a show in Idaho and would be flying right over Cheyenne on his way to Oshkosh where he will be performing this week. So Doug called Matt and said, "You've got to pick Aaron up."

Aaron, an experienced pilot and owner of several planes, including a J-3 Cub, Stearman, Helio Courier, and a Cessna 182, got to jump a ride with Matt in his black and red Twin Beech 18. They landed Monday night at 6:30.

"When you roll up on the ramp in that thing people turn their heads," Aaron said. "Matt's the hero; I was just a passenger."

Tippin's next full show is Saturday in Bluffton, Iowa, but he'll also perform his song, "Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Fly," at the Women in Aviation International breakfast Friday morning.