Brantley Gilbert does all he can to help the veteran community, and he credits Toby Keith for inspiring him to do so.
Fresh off the release of his latest album, Sins of the Father, the country singer sat down with us on the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast and talked to us about his very personal record, broke down his song “F***ed Me Up” that featured over 15 f-bombs, how the one feature on the album with Jelly Roll tackled homelessness, and how he feels that modern music consumption has hurt country’s storytelling.
Gilbert also talked to us about the challenges of splitting time on the road and with his family, how he’s gotten back into church, the importance of being open about mental health, and the work he does to help veterans and why he saw Toby Keith as such an inspiration
At this stage in his life, and after being plugged into the veteran community for quite some time, Gilbert says he has many veterans that confide in him. He’s made sure to better equip himself with resources that he can direct veterans towards in times of need, and says that he had a number of people throughout his life that made him want to help the veteran community specifically:
“Working in the veteran community is something I’m passionate about. My mom’s side of the family is a military family. One of my uncle’s was a Vietnam guy that came home and had some trouble. One of the guys I went to high school with that was a really close friend of mine, he came back from his second tour and he was in really bad shape.”
All of those examples “hitting home” inspired Gilbert to step up and step into a role where he helps the veteran community in whatever way that he can.
He tells us that, at one point, he decided he wanted to dedicate his platform to helping others, and says that spending time around Toby Keith really hammered that home for him:
“Toby Keith was out there doing God’s work. That dude, when I finally met him and got to know him and go on tour with him, and it was like, this guy isn’t doing this because it’s a good look. He’s doing it cause he wants to and I realized later on that he was doing it because he needed it. It was part of what made him tick.”
Slowly but surely, it’s become something that makes Gilbert tick as well.
The “Sins of the Father” singer went on to say that getting to know Toby Keith and spending time with him changed his life for the better. Gilbert described the late country icon’s generosity as contagious, and once he had been around the Big Dog Daddy enough, he wanted to be just like him:
“Toby is just someone where, I thought that guy hung the moon, and still do… I really looked up to him. And seeing that he wasn’t a spotlight-er, he was doing it because it mattered and he wanted to. It’s one of the things that made him who he was, and man, it was contagious.”
@whiskeyriff @Brantley Gilbert @Toby Keith #whiskeyriff #whiskeyriffraff ♬ original sound – Whiskey Riff
Gilbert’s efforts have led him to developing and fostering relationships with the veteran community, and figuring out ways he can actually help them versus just putting on benefit concerts. You can hear about all of that and more from Brantley Gilbert by checking out the interview on YouTube or making sure to download the podcast on Apple Podcasts by searching “Whiskey Riff Raff” or by clicking here.
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Cheers, y’all.