Dumb Blonde - Dumb Blonde Podcast: Craig Morgan

Episode Date: March 12, 2026

Throwback Thursday (Originally aired: 11/30/25)Bunnie sits down with country music legend Craig Morgan for a powerful, emotional, and unexpectedly uplifting conversation. Craig opens up about his journey from growing up in Kingston Springs to serving in the Army and attending the elite Korean Ranger School—experiences that shaped the man and the musician he would become.He shares intimate memories of his humble beginnings, his first hunting trip with his mom, and the moment he realized music was his calling. Craig also reflects deeply on his faith, the loss of his son, and the resilience that carried him forward, along with the unwavering support of his wife, Karen, throughout their 37-year marriage.Craig reveals the incredible story behind his viral hit “The Father, My Son.” Written spontaneously at 4:30 AM and never meant for anyone to hear, the song took on a life of its own after he recorded it with Sonya Isaacs—eventually skyrocketing to number one on iTunes across all genres and landing him appearances on Ellen and Fox & Friends.From family and faith to farming, hunting, and the unexpected twists of his career, Craig’s humility and gratitude shine through in every story he shares. This is Craig Morgan like you’ve never heard him before.Craig Morgan: WebsiteWatch Full Episodes & More: YouTubeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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with Shopify today. Sign up for your $1 per month's trial today at Shopify.com slash bunny. Go to Shopify.com slash bUN-in-I-e. That's Shopify.com slash bunny. Is this thing on? Hello, babies. Welcome back to another episode of Dunblonde. I have a Tennessee legend sitting on my couch today and I couldn't be more ecstatic about it. Mr. Craig Morgan, how you doing? I'm good. Not legend, but good. I love how humble you are, but honestly, you are a legend. Like the things that you've accomplished, the life you've lived when I was studying you last night, my husband was so excited. He's like, do you want me to write the podcast for you? I was like, no. He's like, you don't understand. And he was like telling me all these like little

cool stories and we called loba and loba told us a couple cool stories and it was just really cool to learn about you and the man that you are and you're just a you're a beautiful soul i'm just a blessed individual and you know you guys know you may not know but we love you we love jelly i love that i tell people every night on stage i tell the story about him telling the story about almost home on the opera and i tell him go look at that and i talk about how to you when he told that story, he was talking about what that song meant to him and everything, but what he didn't know and what both of y'all continued to do today is when he was telling that story, he was moving me.

You know, somebody who has been doing this for a while, and he just, it motivated, it excited me to see that we have such good spirits in our people, in our human race, in spite of our history. Right. And I love that. I love that neither one of you have shot away from that. And I think both of you are such an inspiration. And I say that every night.

And I bad mouth anybody, not bad mouth, but I will protect and stand up for the both of you until the day I'm gone. Thank you. I believe y'all are doing good things for not only yourself but other people. And I'm not just saying that. No, I appreciate that. Again, go look at my shows. I say it every night. No, we appreciate you so much.

And the love is returned. Like, we love you and your wife so much. I think your wife is just a badass if I'm allowed to say that. I think she's amazing. She's a badass. And has stood behind you. And I love that she's from Texas too because I'm from Texas. I love that.

Oh, my God. If I hear one more Texas thing. You Texas girls. But they do make them pretty down there. Listen, we're proud of where we come from, okay? Yes, you are. But let's talk about you. So I was really surprised to learn that you grew up in Kingston Springs.

I did. I was born in a general hospital in Nashville. That's crazy. Like you're a lifer. Yeah, graduated from Cheatham County High School, went to MTSU before I joined the Army. Yeah, that's amazing. Growing up here, do you think Nashville is completely different than the Nashville that you grew up in? Oh, it's two different worlds.

For me, anyway. Which one do you prefer? I mean, there's wonderful aspects about both. I'll be honest. You know, I'm not that guy that's so set in my ways that I'm not willing to accept, you know, technologies, advancements and all these things. things. Right. But I absolutely love, love, love my privacy and the woods and nature, so much so that, you know, we bought a place in Alaska. We live up there during the winter. What part?

I'm about halfway between Anchorage and Fairbanks. I'm nine miles from the closest road. There's no road to get to me. You can't ride a four-wheeler or drive a vehicle, wheeled vehicle, to where I'm at. That's amazing. And actually, Jay and I, whenever we were kind of like rekindling our marriage, we went to Alaska and we were driving to Fairbair. I seen. Yes, and we were driving to Fairbanks. And when we were driving to Fairbanks, we got to see the Northern Lights flash in front of us.

Did y'all see them? We didn't. They could see them. I couldn't see them. Oh, I got pictures. It was absolutely amazing. Do you get to see them in Alaska also all the time? Yes, regularly.

Is that not like that? So when you drove, y'all drove from Anchorage to Fairbanks? Yes. And we went to the springs that were out there. Yes. A hot springs. It is beautiful out there, though, like Alaska. But when you drove up there.

You drove by my place almost. Okay. So, because there's only one highway goes up there. What made you pick Alaska? I'd been going up there for years. Back when I was in the Army,

I would make trips up there because of the installations and visit doing my job and then moving forward fishing and hunting and stuff like that. And I've always just loved, I mean, it's the last frontier. Yeah.

I love, I'm a survival guy. I love putting myself to the test and the limits and always thought, man, someday I'd like to be able to have my own place where I build my own cabin with my own hands kind of thing. Yeah. And so I just finally made the jump, you know, and did it. Like, that's amazing. And I think it's so beautiful out there. I think we'll probably end up, you know, in Montana somewhere, like getting a chunk of land to just hide away from everybody once we're ready to retire to. I think retiring in isolation is the best thing that you can do for your soul.

I agree. Yeah. I think you need that. Even like right now, where we're, we're at we're working uh i do a lot of shows but when i go up there i my son we have a business up there we ended up turning it into a bit of a business uh but he his philosophy that we talk about is sometimes you need to disconnect to reconnect i love that and it's true you get up there man you separate yourself from all of these things that separate us from each other and you find yourself coming back together in a way that you can't hear I love that, and I'm going to take that with me. And I'm going to tell everybody that, like, you have to disconnect to reconnect.

Like, that makes so much. Hashtag Jerry Lake. Yeah. I love it. So doing research on you, I read that your mom used to take you hunting. Yes. Okay. Where was dad?

Was he in the picture? Or was this? Oh, yeah. Okay. My parents, actually, my parents were married for most of my young life. They divorced when I was 18, but I was already, you know, 18. Right. going into college, you know, I have younger siblings that affected differently.

Obviously, they were younger. But they were together the whole time. My dad worked, and he did hunt, and I would hunt with my dead some. Okay. But my very first hunt was with my mom. That is so savage because the only reason why I asked where your dad was is because normally you talk about hunting with your dad, but to hear hunting with your mom, I was like, dude, that's straight savage.

Like, that's so cool. I mean, and she was, both my parents were both employed. They, you know, we, they were both the hunter-gatherer. They both did, I mean, their roles were very equal for the most part. They both did the work. They both cooked. They both did everything around the house. I mean, my dad was kind of the fix-it guy, you know, and my mom was the, she did most of the cooking and stuff.

My mom, I can remember going into house and they're not being any food. I was not a wealthy child at all. Right. We were lower middle class at best. But I can remember coming in for school going, there ain't shit in here to eat. And I'm starving to death. And my mom would come in and cook dinner and he'd be like, where did this come from? You know, but she was able to make stuff out of nothing.

That is so cool. It was cool. Can you take me on that first hunting trip? Or like, what about your first kill? Did you just ask me to take you on your first hunting trip? Well, I mean, I would like for you to take me on my first hunting trip. Oh, God. April, I'm taking you turkey hunting.

It's going to change your life. Oh, my gosh. I'm so scared. I don't know if I could hurt a little animal, but I'll go. You don't even have to shoot it. I want you to experience the interaction between a male gobbler, a mature male gobbler. And it is one of the most unbelievable things because when you go turkey hunting, it's a lot like elk hunting, except, you know, they're obviously a lot of smaller animal. Right.

But there's an interaction that takes place that defies nature. Because what normally happens, and I'm going way into detail. No, I love it. When they're running or when they're in heat, so to speak, it's in the spring. So when they're wanting to breathe, the goblers will set up in the tree in the morning and I know you've heard turkeys gobble, right? Yeah, absolutely. You do it so good.

What they're doing is they're telling all the hens, I'm over here. Oh, come and get it. Come and get it. And so what we do is we go over and set up on the ground and we pretend like we're the prettiest girl in the neighborhood and try to piss him off so bad that he's willing to leave his harem and come to us. And so when you do that, you've caused him to do something that he doesn't normally do. And when he comes in, he does this thing called spitting and drumming.

He goes, and when he does it, the vibrato, you can freaking fill it in your body. You'll be sitting, I'm not, shitting you. You'll be sitting there and you hear that and you feel the, and you, it's like a Harley Davidson racking off way in the distance. Oh, wow. I'm coming. I'm coming with you. It's a life-changing experience.

I'll probably end up bringing him home with me, but I will definitely... Oh, no, you're going to bring him home, you're going to bring him home mounted. Oh, no! All right, we'll think about it, but I'm definitely... We have to go. We're going to put some lead in the head. That would be so fun to even vlog that. But then you have the best meat that you've ever eat in your life.

It's grain, it's not grain-fed, corn fed, it's grass-fed. It eats insects. It's a wild animal. You know, the butterball turkey that you buy in the store? That turkey is about 12 weeks old. in order for a wild turkey to get that same size, it takes about two years. Wow. That's the difference.

Wow. So it's just all the stuff that they're feeding. It's all natural. And I'm a huge, like I'm a huge, huge food freak. Yeah. Like I'm a big faster. My wife and I ate one meal a day. Oh, you guys do the omad.

It's called one meal a day. Yeah, that's what it's called. I literally just have a fast app. And I only do that because if I feel like I'm a little hungry, I look at my app and go, it's only been 16 hours. I can wait too much. hours, you know. What's the longest fast you've ever done? Like, I want to say maybe 48 or 50 hours. How do you feel after, you know, the first 24 hours? Better than I felt after I ate.

Super clear, super just never, never better. Never better. I run every day. In fact, this week, I'm doing an 18 mile road march with a 25 pound rucks at in under four and a half hours. Craig, that's insane. And I'm 61. I was just about to say, for somebody your age to be as witty and sharp and in shape as you, you're like a different breed. Well, anybody can do it, though. You think? There's no question. What's the secret?

You've got to have the mental capacity. You've got to have the intestinal fortitude to tell yourself. We've been lied to our whole lives. Yeah. We truly have. Yes. And I think if you need encouragement, or I call it assistance, you call it whatever you want, whether it be the ozim. or any of that stuff to get you on the right path.

I encourage anybody to at least get there. That's why I talk about jelly all the time. He's such an inspiration. Yeah. Because that's hard. It's hard. He fasts. He fasts a lot.

But it's hard for anyone to lose weight, but it's really hard when you have so much weight to lose. Oh, yeah. It takes so much work. It took two years. A lot of people think that it happened overnight because they don't see him every day. But look at him two years later. And I can see him healthy. I see him running around.

Yeah. I remember two or three years ago when he would walk out on the stage and be out of breath. Yeah. And so I just love him. I love him. I talk about him all the time. Yeah. I love that.

But I believe in fasting. Yes. I believe in prayer. I'm a big believer. I'm not a great Christian, but I'm a big believer. No. Do you think the fasting helps you with your prayer and your spirituality? I would say my prayer helps me with my fasting.

Oh, gotcha. But what happens? The only reason fasting came about that Christ or the Christian community integrated or started fasting was so that when you had a desire for something, whatever it may be, you're fasting from, instead of going to that, you go to prayer. That's what fasting was really all about. It wasn't about losing weight. Losing weight is a byproduct of the spiritual gain that you get.

Yeah, absolutely. But, I mean, honestly, for me, it's the health. You know, both spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally, everything, the better your body is, the better all those other things are going to be. I tell people that all the time. But understand that none of those things are going to progress without pain. Right. Whether it be hunger, whether it be heartache in your mental, you know, life or love life, whatever.

How do you keep your joints and your muscles? and all of that from, you know, like age, take, I know, I'm in my 40s and I can feel it sometimes. So I know like when I exercise. Yeah, just exercise every day. And I'm not a, I don't go to the gym every day. In fact, I very, very seldom ever go to the gym. My wife kind of jokes about it.

She's like, well, you should go to the gym and work on your abs, you know. I'm like, no, I do work out. I work outside. Yeah. Like, come spend the day with me and then tell me I need to go to the gym. Yeah. Come spend the day with me. And then you'll be like, man.

I hurt more from working today. I mean, we ran two miles of fence day before, yesterday, before I went into town to do the opera. Barbed wire fence, you know, I got cows. We do all the same. But a person who works like that and does that physical labor. Yeah. You know, and you're picking up logs and it's, you know,

kind of like deadlifting a little bit here and there. And if you do enough logs, you know. Listen, I did my first farm work about six months ago. We even filmed it. And I couldn't believe it. I was like, no, I burned like 4,000 calories that day. I was like, no wonder farmers are hot, dude, because they're like, they're out here just, you know, shovel and stuff, hey, everything.

Like, it was crazy. So I have a newfound respect for the farm life because I'm doing it now. It's a hard life. No, it is. It's a very physically demanding life. But so rewarding. Very. Yeah, like it's so rewarding.

Yeah. So let's talk about your military career because, you know, at 18, you enlisted into the, the U.S. Army and you became an emergency medical technician. I had listened to you on Tracy Lawrence's podcast, and you tell this story about eating a live chicken with all of your friends because you guys were in some sort of like... We were in the Korean Ranger School. Yes.

Can you tell me that story, please? Yeah, so in the Korean Ranger School, there's a two-week portion of that nine-week course. I think it was actually 10 days where you go through. a P-O-W encampment scenario. Right. So you've basically been captured and they place you in the camp and your objective is to escape from the P-O-W camp.

That's what you're told. And all you know, you don't know anything except the experience that you're encountering right then and you have a location as to your safe house, the place you're trying to get to. Right. So if you do get outside of the camp, you've got to get to there. But what you don't know is all of these little communities that you're running through, all of those local Korean people are paid good bunny if they turn you in. So if they see someone from the camp, I mean, they're literally, they do patrols to look for people

trying to get out of the camp so that they can get rewarded. Wow. And we escaped. Myself, two other Americans, one other American and two Katusas, which weren't Korean Army, they were, what they call Korean augmentation to the United States Army. So they're Korean nationals that work in the U.S. Army that are stationed in Korea. So they're assigned to my unit, even though they're Koreans. Right. But instead of going through the Korean Army programs, they go through the U.S. Army programs so that we have that international relationship thing

happening. But we escaped and we got out. Well, we're running literally, we weren't too yards from the little encampment. And we realized at this point that people were following us and they were trying to turn us in. So I told them that we can't stop. And it was about two miles from where we were. Now, mind you, we probably hadn't eaten in four or five days. The only thing we had eaten was bugs that we caught and the rice that grew up through the pens that we were being kept in.

What kind of bugs were you guys eating? Anything that flew in there died. Really? Just anything. I couldn't even tell you the stuff that I. Oh, my goodness. And I can tell you, like, it seemed like it tasted good. I just remember it tasting good.

Because you're so hungry. So hungry. Oh, my God. And you did physical activity for two hours every morning and two hours every evening. So they just absolutely drained you. Yeah. And on no food. I mean, of course.

You're just tapped out. And they were extremely abusive to the Koreans, even the katuses. Yeah. Like if we would be doing push-ups, they would come and push us over and kick us over. but they would, at a full kick, kick the katushes in the stomach and lift them up off the ground. Oh, my gosh. And those guys would land on their hands and feet and just keep doing push-ups like nothing happened. This is like something out of a movie.

It was. It was just like the movie. The whole time, that's what I kept thinking. It's like one of damn Vietnam movies. Yeah. I mean, we even had the pajamas in the whole bit. Oh, my gosh. And we were disgraced, you know, they acted like they hated us as Americans.

Anyway, back to the story. We're running through and we come across these chickens and one of the katusa's yanked. the chicken up. He grabbed it. And we just kept running. And while we were running, he was plucking this chicken. And he would hand it over in each of us, and we were trying to get this chicken. Finally, one of them got its neck wrung. But I promise you, before that chicken's heart stopped beaten, we were all taking chews out of it. Oh, my gosh. And it was good. You are just, I could sit here and listen to you talk all day, and these stories are insane.

At 18, you know, enlisting into the Army, where was your heart at with that? And what encouraged you to do that. When I first went in? Yes, sir. You know, honestly, I grew up in Kingston Springs, and I kind of, I was, you know, in college, that first year of college, I was actually not even in college yet. I was at Texas, TSU. Okay.

I mean, I guess it's college. I was going to EMT school. And I just felt like, you know, I was drinking and doing the normal 17, 18-year-old thing, you know. but I seen all these advertisements. I remember saying be all you can be, you know, go to other places. And at the time I was a volunteer fireman at the fire department.

So I think there was always something in me that wanted to do other things. And I love helping people. And I'm not saying it, it sounds super cheesy when you say it. No, it doesn't. But, I mean, it really does. To me it does. When I say that it sounds like you're going, oh, you know, I love helping people. No, not at all.

That's where your heart is. That's your spirit. But I love, I really enjoy helping people. Yeah. I mean, and, you know, being on the fire department, I always felt like, you know, you felt heroic. You felt like that night, you know, and it made, you always thought, I always thought the girls would think it was cooler, you know. Most firefighters are really hot, though. So I've seen all those commercials and I thought it'd be an opportunity for me to go do something else and, you know, maybe get some of college money.

You know, like I said, we weren't. You know, we weren't wealthy by any means. We didn't have a lot of money. So I thought I'd get free college money and free hunting clothes, too. So it'll all be, it's a win-win. Take me into that boot camp, because the Army boot camp is wild. Like, how were you, were you just like, what did I do, like the first week that you were there? Honestly, it was like you said earlier.

The whole scenario, when I recognize it now, at the same time I see myself sitting in the barbed chair. I remember movies of when the, you know, where the guys were in the barbuchar getting, you know, that really does happen. Wow. Oh, God, I know he just cut my freaking head. Had to. I got to be bleeding right now. Yeah. That's what it felt like. And you can't show any emotion. No, no, you just sit there and get your haircut. Yeah. And I remember, I was, I went to the basic and AIT, which is your advanced individual training, which is your job training. Under one program at Fortill, Oklahoma. And I remember when you're going through reception, when you first get there, there's a drill sergeant comes in. He's not nice, but he's not like over the top. Get the fog over.

You know, he's like, all right. It's not like you see in the movies. Right. Today, there's parts of it. You don't get to that part until later. Oh, they save it. They got the introduction part first. Hey, today you're getting haircut. You're going to get your TA 50 issue. You're going to do this. You go this tomorrow. Your drill sergeant for your unit, for your training unit will be picking you up. And you go through all these motions and you're thinking, and I remember thinking, it's not that bad. It's really not that bad. And then we finished up in our drill sergeants for our training unit show up. And that's where the movie started. Just like, what is wrong with you? You know, and at this point in my life, I had never shaved not one time. I just didn't have any

facial hair. Yeah. I didn't have to shave. So every morning, they told everybody you had to shave, You had to brush your teeth. I mean, it was like teaching a 12-year-old. They made sure you did everything. Well, I wouldn't shave because I didn't need to shave. Yeah. I didn't have no hair. Yeah.

You know, and I'll never forget this drill sergeant come running up to me in formation. And my real last name is Greer, you know. And he said, Greer, did you shave this morning? There was no hair in your razor. I said, drill sergeant, I do not have. I didn't ask if you had any, I asked if you shaved. I said, and he had my razor. And I said, no, drill sergeant.

And he took that damn razor and he scraped it on that concrete sidewalk. And he said, shave. Oh, my gosh. No. Oh, yeah. I shaved. Nothing but skin came off. Oh, no.

I caught myself like eight or ten times and stood there and bled in formation. Oh, my God. And if you don't do it, you get punished, right? I mean, you know, yeah, back then it was different. Right. You know, back then, I'll be honest. And I'm, yeah, I'll just be honest. It was different back then.

Yeah. Well, they were making, you know, our new Secretary of War said it in a speech recently. We do ugly things in the military. Yeah. And you've got to be prepared both mentally, physically, and every aspect to be able to do those ugly things to bad people that want to hurt Americans. Yes, absolutely. And that's what I remember feeling that then as a, you know, 19-year-old kid going,

gosh, man, this is what, this could happen, you know. I could be in Vietnam and somebody would make me shave with a bad razor. You know, you just don't know what's going to happen. No, that's crazy just to even have to go through that at such a young age. What would you say was the defining moment in the Army that changed you for the rest of your life? Probably Panama in 1989 during the conflict. There were things that happened there that made me realize. you know, we don't control things

and no matter how good you are at what you do, there's things that affect it that are beyond your control. Right. And you get us in combat, and any veteran that's experienced any form of combat at all, I think would attest to this.

You have a sense of appreciation for life so much so that you are not scared to die. And you don't even know But for me the whole time, all I can remember, even in Panama, 1989, thinking, what I am doing will prevent people at home from ever having to do anything like this again. Right. When we were in Iraq, all of our soldiers that were there would tell you, what was happening there prevented that thing from happening there, happening at home.

Right. And then September 11th, you know. That was, you know, and that was as big an event as that was in our country. Yeah. That's minuscule to what they have planned or what they would love to do to us as Americans. Yeah, absolutely. And I just want to say thank you for your service too and for everything that you've been through. It's the greatest privilege of my life, greatest honor.

Thank you so much for it. So while you were in the Army, though, is when you kind of started writing music, because didn't you write a song about Panama, actually, that was in some of your lyrics. I remember hearing a song where you talk about losing your brother in the war. and I mean like your brother that was in the army and you know you just go on this journey with it. What inspired you to start writing music while you're out there? Was that an outlet to channel all the trauma that you were going through? I want to be real careful.

I don't want to identify it as trauma. Okay. Gotcha. And I'm not going to say that it wasn't. Right. I get it. I may be in a bit of denial. Right.

It's okay. It's okay. But for me, I don't know that music was an outlet as much as it was a way for me. to communicate with other people. In groups like this, I do really well. I don't like the big 60,000. When we do those shows, I'm nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chair.

I can't hardly stand it. You would never know that. But smaller groups, I love that. And I love talking to people. I love hearing people's thoughts. and I love affecting people's attitudes. I love having the ability to make someone who might be feeling like absolute shit that day smile.

Yes. Or I love knowing that I can make someone think of something special and they tear up. And that's what music did for me. It gave me that. And in the Army, when you had time down, for me it was just a way to kill some time. You know, I wasn't a songwriter then.

I was writing songs. but I wasn't really a songwriter. I don't think I really started really writing songs until I came back home and started writing regularly and with great writers and understood the schematics behind writing. The art. Yeah, the art form. And once you, I think it's a gift.

I do believe that. I think anybody who writes has a special gift, but that doesn't make them great songwriters. They have to perfect that gift, you know, and you have to work at that gift. And I think that could be said with any gift that God gives us. No matter what your gift is, you should work at that and be grateful for it and use that gift for the betterment of others.

Absolutely. Do you remember the very first song that you wrote while you were away? Did you write when you were younger at all? Yes, I did. My dad moved to Texas once for a job, a company he did, and I went down there with him for a summer. And I remember sitting around the guitar, literally did it just to impress the girls. There was a couple girls and so I thought it was cool. But I don't even really remember that

first song. Yeah. One of the first songs that I remember writing was the one I wrote when I was in airborne school. And the government had, Congress had passed a bill allowing the test platoon. The test platoon were the first jump ever to jump in the United States Army. Hence the name test platoon. First guys ever to parachute out of an airplane. Yeah. So they're They were coming to the airborne. While I was going through Airborne school, they were going to do the banquet at Fort Benning, Georgia. And so I was calling Cadence pretty regular.

You know, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And we'd be running, you know, C-130 rolling down a strip. Y'all've seen people right. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And the whole potency. See, it repeats. Yeah. I was doing that.

And one of the guys come up and said, one of the instructors said, hey, you do a great job at Cadence. They just passed this deal. Congress, the 82nd Airborne Choirs come and they need more cadence callers. You're going to do that. Like, I didn't have a choice. He's like, you're going to do it. I'm like, cool.

So every evening when we would get finished with Airborne School, I would go to my room and pick up my guitar. And I literally ask everybody, what's the test platoon? We did our research, and I found out that Red King was a man who was the first enlisted man ever to jump out of an airplane. And he talked about it. And his story, he landed on his, ass and he that was the big thing i jumped out of the plane and i landed right on my ass and live to tell

it yeah and and so there was all these great stories so i sat in the barracks one night and i just started playing this don't boom bum bum bum bum and so i wrote this song hey um hey red let me see where you're at hey red because he was going to be at the banquet let me see where you're at They said you were the first enlisted man to jump. Tell me, did you really land on your wrong, Mr. Red? So I played that for the instructors, and they went, The colonel needs to hear this. I'm not making this shit out, y'all.

This is my life. This is how dumb my life has been. That's not dumb. This is so much lore, Craig. You have no idea. This is awesome. So the commander comes down. This is a colonel, and I'm, you know, this little private.

And he says, private grue. let me hear this thing the song we're writing so I played for him he said I want you to come to the White House every evening after class or every day after your task are completed and work on this song you're going to sing this at this banquet I'm like Roger they said the 8 second airborne choir is going back you up they're going to come in and I mean I'm nobody y'all I'm not in the army I was going to be a pair trooper that's all I wanted to do is jump by a plane and be in the army and kill bad guys and and I'm doing this but

again this is God this is the way God does stuff man. He'll get you even when you don't think he wants to be a part of it, you know. I know he's been working on me and my husband unexpectedly. I go up there and I write this song and I sing it at the Test Patoon Banquet. And the 82nd Airborne Choir comes marching in. Boom, boom, boom, boom.

And they sing it and I play the song. A cassette tape of that song is in the museum in Fort Benning, Georgia. Oh, that's amazing. But I was in the Army and I didn't think nothing about music then. I was just doing that to get over. Yeah. I mean, because every time, instead of having to stand in line to go up to the tower to do my 250-foot

tower jump, they'd put me in the front of the line. I would go do my jump, front of the line, do my jump that day, do my ex-stuff I had to do, and then I would go set up to White House and work on this song like I was something special. But you were. You had a talent, and God was using you to bring a smile to those soldiers' faces. What was special about all of that that no one would consider special except for us was my parents couldn't be there when I graduated. You know, they both worked, which wasn't a big deal.

You know, I didn't feel bad about it. It ain't like I was the one guy soldier over there like this, you know. I didn't really care. Back then they did what they called blood wings. When you got your wings, they would stick them right there and then they pound them in your chest. I mean, the little needle is only about quarter inch, but they would pound them in your chest. It was a, you know, a badge of honor, so to speak. Yeah.

My parents couldn't be there. And since I did that, Red King, who was the first enlisted man ever to jump out of an airplane and Colonel Leonard B. Scott, who wrote the book about Vietnam, Charlie Mike, who was the commander of the airborne school, gave me my blood wings. Oh, my gosh. So it was like full circle. That is so awesome. Again, even then when that happened, I thought, yeah, whatever, the commander and some old guy gave me my wing.

And then you look back and go, my God, man, you know. Yeah. You think about the first guy who ever jumped out of an airplane with a parachute gave me my blood wings. That's insanity. Yeah, it's pretty cool. That's so cool. Can we talk about what on earth made you want to become a paratrooper? I am scared of heights.

You get me in a plane and try to push me out of there. I'm clawing my way back in. What was it like jumping out of a plane for your first time? I don't remember much. I had a migraine so bad I couldn't see. Oh, gosh. My eyes were closed for most of the jump. Everybody says your first jumps a night jump, no matter what time of day you do.

Because you're like, oh, kid. You're like, oh, my goodness. There's static line jumps. So you're basically following the guy in front of you, and then you step off the aircraft and the wind blows, you know, your drawers up your ass. And then your parachute opens, you know, and then you just fall to the ground. Oh, my goodness. Do what they call it, dynamite PLF, parachute landing fall, land on the balsy feet,

calf, size, buttocks, and push up muscle, all five muscles. So you basically just fall down and get back up. pick your shit up and run. Craig, you're so cool. I don't even think you realize how cool you are. No, I'm not cool. No, you're so freaking cool. I promise you. I'm not cool. Ask Karen. I love Karen and we're going to talk about her. Actually, let's, we'll fast forward and talk about her and then we'll circle back to your faith because I was going to talk about your faith next, but let's talk about Karen because she seems to keep you in check. Can you take me? You got no idea. Yeah. I love the fact that you said that Karen doesn't like any of your music or

listen to any of your music. I'm the same way with my husband. Like I am the same way, but I have called all of his hits, all of his number one hits. I'm like, she's the opposite. Yeah, I heard you say that. And I think that's home. If my wife likes him, I'm going, oh, shit, I don't know if we should record this. I love that though. I feel like that's a good balance with a musician and his wife is like, you don't want somebody who's like, yes, yes, yes to everything. You want somebody who's like, you can do better, you know, because I feel like it pushes you. Take me on the journey of you meeting Karen and how you guys Matt. I was stationed at Fort Campbell at the time. Unbeknownst to me, she was looking at

going in the Army, but she was in Tennessee visiting her mother, who was married to a gentleman that my mom knew. They worked together. Right. And my mom said, and I just got out of her relationship. And my mom said, I got this girl, you're going to love her. And I'm like, I ain't got time

to meet no girl. I'm killing bad guys, man. And we're freaking on our game. I mean, at that point, I was you know a young e5 and just life was i was smoking it i was doing great things i felt like this hang up time um and my mom one day i went to see my mom she said i'm over here at this address in dixon and i go over there and lo and behold it's karen's mom's house and and my mom said go in there and meet karen she's in and i'm like oh my gosh she doesn't set this shit up and i fell for it and i remember a step around the corner going yep she's cute I could do this.

I love that, though. But even then, I wasn't really looking for a relationship, but I thought, you know, I'd love to maybe get to know her a little bit. Maybe we can date. I mean, I was really just wanting to, you know, watch a movie with her. Right. Call it what you want. Now, hold on, Craig.

Say Netflix and chill. Say Netflix and chill. And you wanted to Netflix and chill. Yeah, I wanted Netflix and chill. What was it about Karen that made you after you guys had started dating and you guys Netflix and chilled, what was it about her that made you say, you know what,

this is the one that I want to spend my life with. She had confidence. I loved her confidence. But I also, she had a, I got to be careful. She had a maternal error about her. She had this beautiful,

you know, you can just see a person who cares for people. Yes. She had that. And you could see it. I could sense it. I mean,

I'm going to tell you, we only day, for a few months before we got married. Aw. That was 37 years ago. We've been married 37 years. That's so awesome. It's been like 20 of the best years in my life.

Oh my gosh. I love that. Jay, I love 37 years, but only 20 have been good. I'm like, oh, I love that. That's a good ratio.

Jay and I got married a month after we met, and we've been together going on 10 years. I love it. I feel like those work. I feel like those work. We grew up together. Literally. And that's what I was just about to say is like,

you guys married. so young. What was that like growing up? Like, you guys have been through everything. She has. You know, we learned a lot together. There were, there's struggles just like with any relationship. Yeah. But, you know, we, for us, it was a commitment. And we said, and she knew she was marrying a soldier. Yes. So she was prepared for that. There were times that situations and things happened that I don't think she was prepared for. When I was in Panama, a unmar, or, a marked government vehicle pulled up at, she was with,

she stayed with her dad while I was in Panama, and a army vehicle pulled up to the house and she would not answer the door. She just knew that they were there to tell her that, you know, I had not made it, that I had died. Oh my gosh. But she lived through that experience.

I mean, you know, I didn't die, obviously. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But for her to be standing in that house. Oh, I can imagine. think the man that I love has died and they're here to tell me. You know, that's, I mean, yeah, that's, I couldn't imagine that. Yeah. And, you know, think about the women and men that have been in that position that had to

answer that door and that did receive that message. No. I mean, it's heartbreaking. But anyway, I say all that to say, she's, she's confident. She's not, she's a beautiful lady. She's very ladylike, but she can get dirty ass Texas on. you quick, too, you know, and just be mean as shit. I feel like you like that, though.

I love our relationship. And we've learned how to argue. You have to learn how to argue, yes. You've got to know how to argue. Yes. I think it's okay. It's okay to disagree. It's even okay to, I don't want to use the word fight because it leads to the

connotation that, you know, you're physically doing something. Oh, yeah. No. Sometimes you've got to fight stuff out a little bit. Right. And we've learned how to do that, you know. We've seen this thing where this woman says she comes into the door and she's like, I'm 50%.

Yeah. So you got to pick up the other 50% today. Or I'm 20%. I'm in no mood for your shit. So you got to be 80% on the good side. I love that. I'm going to start using that with my husband. When we're really pissy, we'll both look at each other.

And it's happened to cuff town where we both go, I'm 20%. And then you laugh and you go, okay, let's calm it down and let's figure this out. I love that. You've said that Karen has never told you no when it comes to your big dreams. What's an example of a moment where her faith in you changed the course of you guys's life? This business right here. When I was at Fort Polk, Louisiana, I'll never forget, and I had 10 and a half years. I was over the halfway mark in the Army. So in nine and a half years, I would have retired, and she and I would have lived semi-comfortably. You know, not the military retirement is the best there is, but at least you have some guarantees, you know.

And I, without sounding sexist or anything, I think a woman that marries a man, stability is a big part of that relationship for her. You want to feel safe and you want to feel safe. You know, you want a bit of a fail safe. And that, I was her fail safe. And I'll never forget coming in the door and telling it, sitting down with and going, I talked to the commander today and I think I am going to go try this music thing. and and she was like okay what does this entail what are we doing like we're going to move to

Nashville uh that that's when I told I'm going to stay in the reserves and if it don't work in a year or two I'll come right back into active duty I don't lose my rank I don't lose in any time and service and we're kind of just pick up where we left off and and I'll retire and I said chances are it's not going to work anyway but I agree with the colonel when I thought damn I should try it you know And she's like, all right, let's go. At least we'll be home. You'll be close to home. I mean, she was very supportive.

Now, if you ask her now, she'll go, oh, I cried for a month. You know, because she hated it when we left the Army. We had such a wonderful life. Not that we don't have a wonderful life now, but, you know, at that job in particular. Yeah, it was like a scheduled, you know, you knew what to expect. Yeah. The only problem with that job, which is the problem, and that's not a problem. It's the reality of being in the military is it, it ends.

Any minute you can get the phone call and you're gone. Right. And there were times in our life when I was at Fort Bragg, the phone would ring and I'd walk out the door and I'd say, I don't know where I'm going and I don't know when or if I'll be back. I love you. And that's it. And she might not see me for 24 or hear from me for 24 hours.

It might be seven or 14 days. You know, you just don't know. You've got to be a strong woman to be able to handle that. But shout out to the colonel who encouraged you to chase your dreams. Like that's really cool too. It was very cool. to this day he and his wife his wife back when we had fan clubs was the first president of my fan club i love that you've had a ton of full circle moments still still to this day there's some

they're like parents to us oh my goodness we love them to death but he i'll never forget he set me down and he said look here i think if you stay in the army you will be the sergeant major of the army someday if you decide you want that i believe you have the you will you could do that you have everything in order. He said, but I also thank you have a very special gift that you should at least try. And he's the one told me, go in the reserves. If it don't work, you come back, you don't lose nothing.

And I'll see you. I love that. I love that. Because in those moments when you're making a huge decision like that, it's so good to have somebody give you like not only the pat on the back to be like it's going to be okay, but also the encouragement. Yeah, and the honest advice. And the honest advice, yes. So let's talk about this

music career. In 2000, you released your debut album Craig Morgan on Atlantic Records. Take me on that journey. It was awesome. First record deal. I was literally in Nashville writing. Finished up a writing session and was headed back.

And I got a phone call from a guy named Brian Schweitzer. And he said, hey, I'm Brian Schweitzer with Atlantic Records. I just got a song. And in my head, I'm going, and I said, what's the song? And he told me, and I knew that I'd pitched that song to John Michael. And I thought, shit, I'm getting John Michael cut. This is awesome, you know, because he was on fire. Yeah.

I'm like, this is going to be great. I could use a good cut, you know. The money would be great. And he said, yeah, can you come by the office? And I said, yeah. And he said, where are you? I said, I'm in town. And I was actually on Interstate 40 almost to Charlotte.

And I cut across the interstate. I had an old Jeep. I cut across the interstate. My Jeep. I went back. And I was there in like 12 minutes. And I went upstairs. And he and Al Cooley were sitting there.

there. And he said, man, we love this song. He said, would you, do you have something else that you've written? I said, yeah. And again, this whole time I'm going, I'm getting a freaking John Michael cut. They want more songs. I mean, this is awesome. You know, finally. And he says, would you sing something? I had this song called Everywhere I go. And he said, I said, I need a guitar. And he goes, yeah, we'll get your guitar. He said, just sing it. I'm like, well, it's really a piano song. You know, and so at this point, I'm going, this is really, it's getting weird.

You know, I'm not sure why they're asking me to sing a song that they've never heard and they, you know, I wanted to say, did you like the other song for John, but I just didn't know what was going on. So I started singing this song, Everywhere I go, you're going my way. In the dark of night and the light of day. And he said, stop.

He said, I want to offer you a record deal. I swear to God. And I went, all right? Yes, sir. He said, can we get a letter of intent to your manager? And I said, yes, sir. He said, well, here's my number. Give it to your manager, call me.

I said, Roger, no problem. I'm still in the Army. Right. And so I go out and I'll get my Jeep and I call Phil, Bill Billy. Yeah. And I said, Phil. I just left Atlantic Records and they went to offer me a record, and he said, shit, that's awesome, dude.

Because, you know, we were writing together and playing together a little bit. And he said, and I said, they asked me my manager. I don't have no manager. He said, well, we better find one. That was my next question. I was going to be like, who is your manager? I didn't have one. So we spent like four hours talking to everybody we knew.

And finally they hooked me up with this person, Christy Fortner. And so I said, hey, I need a manager and I need it tomorrow. And she said, yeah, I'm on board. And she came on board as my manager for quite some time that first year or so. and all I did that first year that was in like October in January my first single came out called Paradise that you alluded to

which is odd because when I wrote that song I didn't want people I didn't want my buddies in the military to think I was trying to take advantage of my military career to have success in the music business so I didn't want to write about my military but you know I just wrote the song and they loved it

and they thought it would be a good single and so we did it anyway and yeah so I did that for a year but I didn't do any shows right like real shows for 12 months all I did was radio shows back then and that's kind of the way to get in though yeah back then it was the only way to get it right we didn't have TikTok Instagram Twitter Facebook we didn't have none of that stuff you literally have to go I tell a lot of people this in the country realm especially I've sent it with my husband you have to court the radio. That's exactly right. Quoting is the word. Yes.

We would court them and by courting them, it meant me and my guitar player would go to the radio station the morning. They would bring in a bunch of listeners. Their record label would pay to feed all those listeners. I would play for all those listeners. And they would kind of read the room and see how it went. I did that for a year. O'Rear. A year. There was times when Phil and I would leave Dixon and head, he tells the story better than I do. He says we were in my Ojeet and we're head to airport. And he said, we got the Bellevue and my Jeep started jumping. And he said, I looked at him and went, oh, shit, I'm out of gas.

I said, you got any money? He said, I ain't got no money. I said, shit, me neither. We were literally hoping to make it to the airport to get our per diem from the record label so that we would have gas money to get home. Oh, my goodness. I mean, that's how. We both had other jobs in between doing this radio shit.

And I was doing the radio stuff every, I mean, every week. Yeah. It was just nonstop. And I'm not complaining. I'm bragging. It was the best thing that happened to me. It's hard work and people don't realize that. But it gave me so much, it gave me a great deal of passion for our industry. And I love, you know, it is the music business. Right. And I learned a lot about the business side of it. And I made a lot of friends. I met people that otherwise never would have met. Yes. And radio friends, you know, but, but that's what we did. Tell me about the first time that you heard your song on the radio.

And Dixon on WDKN, a little AM station. I had taken it in and played it for them. And they put it on before the record label even sent it out to have it, you know, to start working it. Yeah. And I just, you know what I remember thinking? I remember thinking, God, I hope KDF and WSM and everybody else sit down and plays it. Yeah. Because I don't think that many people listen to WDKN.

Did you feel like at that moment that you had made it or were you like, I have more work to do? I'll be honest with you, money. I've never felt like, I never felt like I made it until 2008. Wow. And I had three top, three number ones at that point. What was the pivotal moment that made you feel like to me? When they said, would you like to be a member of the grand old Opry? And when I saw that it took eight years for you to be inducted into the grand old

Opry, I was like, that's amazing, you know, because some people, it takes longer, some people it was shorter. But like that, I don't know, I just feel like for you, hard work has always been a testament of your journey and it showed you know eight years of work in your butt off in this industry and they finally were like come see you know come be a part of the circle i'll be honest when they asked though when the opera asked i mean it it hadn't got to a point where i was you know telling the man's like have i done some i didn't i wasn't aggravated that i wasn't asked to be a member right i was more concerned that i had done something that would prevent me from becoming a member so you were kind

of stressing like why is it taking so long right it wasn't you know i deserve this because Because I never felt like that. Even today when I step in that circle, it's like it's one of the most humbling experiences. I'm so grateful for it. But I always felt like I had done something that would prevent them from asking me. Because I had the hits. I was touring. I was, you know, doing all of those things.

Also. You're a Tennessee boy also. Yes, and I'm from Tennessee. You know what I mean? Everything. But, again, it was God's time, not mine. Right. And when it did happen, it was an amazing thing.

Yeah, so. Do you feel like being in the military helped you handle the pressure of the success of being in the music industry? No question. Yeah. No question. Absolutely. I was a very hard driving NCO. I would pay money right now to have some of my guys from my teams sit down here and talk to you because they would tell you, you know, yeah, he tried to kill me.

He made me do 300 pushups because I told him my shoulder hurt. you know I was just real hard charging yeah but I also knew what size his underwear was I knew what his wife's name was I knew what his kids names were they you know I took care of my people and and it teaches you a sense of gratitude for how fortunate we are I had the privilege of going to third world countries before you know to countries most of my friends couldn't even enunciate and going in and seeing things that when I would come home just be in tears almost But, you know, like even now when I go to Alaska and I bust my ass to get to the cabin in the middle of the winter, sometimes getting stuck, a trip that shouldn't take over 45 minutes, sometimes taking six hours. And then you get in there and you get that fire bill and you sit there with a glass of wine and you're like, man, God, this is the most perfect moment.

But that moment, like I said earlier, was not be that perfect had it not been for the pain that I went through to get there. And that's what I felt like with the opera. It felt like, you know, it was perfect. And I don't deserve any of this. I will tell you that. I don't deserve any of this. You do. No, I swear to you, I don't.

I didn't. This was not my dream. You know, I'm buddies with Blake. You know that. I see guys like Blake that he loves it so much. Yeah. As a kid, he stood in front of a mirror with a brush, he says. It tells those stories, you know.

People that want it that much and work so hard for it, you know, they do deserve that. I'm not saying I didn't work for it, but it was never my – I worked for it because I had wife and kids. I had bills to pay. Right. It was never my dream to stand on stage and do that. Right. Now that I do it, I praise God every night, man. Before the show, after the show, I get on and have a glass of wine and literally almost cry.

every night going, what did I do? And you pour your soul out. You're an amazing. I've watched you like on stage and I just, I think you are an amazing performer. And it's because it comes from your soul. Like you can tell that you are there for the people and not just for the applause. Like you're there to move people.

And I mean, of course, everybody that's your fan sees that also. So when you say that you don't deserve this, I truly feel like, you know, I hope one day you realize how much you do deserve this and how much you have changed a lot of people's lives because of what you do? Well, I get paid. I mean, we all love

a little cash on well. It ain't like I'm doing it for free. Right. I get it. But I always thought about this the same way kind of my service in the military. I got paid. Right. And I do a bunch of stuff with a bunch of veterans at different times. And I love sitting down with these guys and I'll never forget it. We was out at my place in Alaska and had a group come through that a paid group came through of veterans. And I was there with them, and they were talking about it. We had an old guy there. 74 years old, he said he don't tell the veterans, thank you.

And these veterans, and these are all tier one operators. I'm talking about Navy Seals, Delta Force, CIA. These are hard chargers. These are guys that kill more people in smallpox. Real bad dudes. And they all looked at him and like, why? You know, not that they were offended. They were just curious.

Why? And he said, I never served. I don't know what it's like. I don't even, he said, I don't feel like I deserve it. I thought, holy shit, man. You know, he didn't think that he felt like he had the privilege to tell us thank you. He said, and it was like, holy cow. And one of the guys that was there, F-18 pilot, CIA, tough dude, super sweet man, said,

I used to say thank you, but it feels weird as a soldier saying, thank you. I get paid to eat snakes and shoot bad people. I can't really say thank you. He said he started saying it was an honor. It's a privilege. And I feel the same way about this occupation. You know, when people say, man, that saw meant everything to you. It's an honor and it's a privilege for me.

I believe that. I love that. Let's talk about your faith because you are rooted in faith. What was your first memory of faith and how did that like shape your life? I don't know. faith and Christianity and there's a lot of different descriptions and elements of that. It started with me early as a kid. My parents took us to church.

We got out of church at times, got back in the church at times. But when I was in the army, we would go to church. And when my wife and I came home, it was important to us to raise our children in a church family. Right. So we met a group of people that we just, we just fell in love with and we became part of that church family. And we were going to church Sunday, Sunday night, Wednesday had the potluck on Thursday, Bible study on whatever other day. You know, it was just what we did.

Yeah. But my spiritual walk has been something of a book in and of itself. Right. I grew up in a Southern Baptist family. Stayed Southern Baptist my whole adult life. Experience things in the church that made us feel uncomfortable there. So we thought we would go over here and try. try the Methodist, we tried this.

Before my son died, he and my youngest son and my wife were going through a program at the Catholic Church called the RCIA program. And it's the rights for Christian and something. It's about the Catholic Church is different than any other former Christianity. I was Chris and does a Catholic and we grew up a little bit Catholic before we went to Southern Pentecostal. Yeah. So Karen was going through this program and she would come home and tell me.

me these stories and I'd be like, we're going to end up getting divorced. You're in this damn cult. And she would tell me something. I'm like, that's not true. That's not what the Bible says. And she says, it is. And you know, study it, read it. I'm not going to tell you. I'm just going to tell you this is it. And I started studying. In doing that, when Karen would tell me things, I would remember from my other studies. So I started doing a lot of research. I spent about a year. And I got so, engulfed in it that I remember going to that same program a year later that they had gone through and the very first night I sat there crying thinking I have been a Catholic my whole life and I didn't even know it and it just hammered me and I just did not want to let another minute of

my life pass without trying to be the best Christian person that I could be. I think you're a great example of Christianity because you don't judge people and you also don't push your faith. You live your faith. I say all the time. I'm not, I will tell you this. And I went through a great program in that Baptist church that I still love so much in those people called experiencing God. And it taught me something. It humbled me, humbled me. And there's a portion in there where we're all sitting there and we're talking about doing God's work. You know, as Christians, we all try to do God's work. And that book in this program said, we cannot do God's work.

And it struck me, I thought, how can we as Christians say that we can't do God's work? That's what he put us here for. And it's like, you started studying again, he realized that's not what he put me here for. Only God can do God's work. God asks two things from me, love my neighbors and love him.

And when you focus on your relationship with God and not all the other stuff, God will do great and wonderful things through you. And I believe that with every fiber that's in me. And I apply that same philosophy in my relationship with him to every aspect of my life. Yes. My music, if it's meant to be a hit song, it will be. As long as I'm working and doing everything that I can to try to make it hit and focusing on my relationship.

If he wants it to be, it will be. If he don't want it to be, it ain't going to be. And it's in my best interest. I love it. It's so beautifully. Not easy to accept. Not easy. Oh, trust me.

I argue with God all the time. I'm like, are you sure? Yeah. I'm just like to do a woman. So not to bring down the, you know, the mood, but you did touch base on losing your son. Yeah, that was a really God moment. Right. And that was my next question.

Somebody who is so rooted in faith, do you ever find yourself sometimes being mad at him for that happening? No, I can't say that I was mad at him. I would not question but question. You know, like that really God? Yeah. You know, I thought, you know, you would say, as a Christian, I really thought, you know, I mean, I know I made mistakes. I've done things wrong.

But I thought I was doing pretty good. And, you know, when you're doing pretty good, you know, bad shit shouldn't happen to you. Right. To good people, especially. Not the way it works, though. I don't believe that. And I know that. And I knew it then.

But I was selfishly going, I'm a little better than most people. who were saying that. You know, I mean, really, I was probably being, being, I'm just being honest, you know, I was arrogantly going, but I really did live better. You know, I really was trying, you know, and then I'd see my sin and go, well, maybe I didn't try as hard as I should have. But as I worked through all that, I realized God was never punishing me. He never was.

And I don't believe for one second that God took my son. I do not believe that. I believe the devil did it. And I do know that God could stop him and he didn't for some reason. And what I have to accept is that that happened. And a lot of people seek out the reason why God let that happen. Was it so that all those kids that got baptized after my son died would get baptized? Was it because of this?

Was it because of the charity that was established his name that's going to help all these kids? It's going to affect that. I don't do that. I can't. Because you'll chase that shit for ever. And all you're doing is looking for justification. And for me, there is no justification. He's gone and it is, that's it.

My youngest said it. We just have to live with the suck for the rest of our lives. And we miss him. But my faith in God will not waver. Yeah. Amen. But it doesn't mean that you don't have bad days, you know. It doesn't mean that I think it's okay to,

I think there's moments in your life where you're supposed to question him. Yeah. Sorry. I think that when you, it's tough, you know. I'm so sorry, Craig. No, no, it's okay. Okay, I got this. I think when you question God, your faith grows because he educates you.

Sometimes it just takes really shitty things. I mean, you know, my wife just read a book about a lady who, she lost, we lost Jerry. She lost her husband and two kids all at the same time. time. I mean, there's people every day losing multiple siblings. You know, so... Can I give you a hug? Well, yeah, absolutely. Sorry.

I don't want to make anybody upset. I want to encourage people. That's like the down song I wrote. The Father of my Son and the Holy Ghost. When I wrote that, I never had any intentions of any ever hearing that song. Right. But I know that God wanted people to hear that.

There's stories that I have heard. When that song, when we released it to the platforms, you know, we didn't even go to radio with that song. Yeah. We didn't go to radio. It became the number one most downloaded song in the history of music of all genres four times. That's God.

That's God. We're going to dial you guys in real quick. Sorry, when we get up and sit back down, the cameras kind of. I just couldn't not hug you, you know, in that moment. Thank you. We all need a hug sometimes. Oh, yes, we do. And we should not be scared to hug one another.

No, I'm a hugger too. I love that. I am too. I tell my friends I love them. I got buddies that, you know, I got buddies that, you know, grew up in homes that didn't, I grew up at home when both my parents hugged us and told us they loved us every day before we went to school. Yeah. You know, before they, in fact, my parents both went to work before we went to school.

Absolutely. So they would wake us up and get us up and feed us and get us ready. And me being the oldest, I was kind of in charge of getting the younger ones to the school bus and such. But they would hug us and tell us they love us, you know, kissed us, you know. And my wife, she's super weird, though. She's like a lip kisser. Like she is, man. My wife, like, my buddies come over and she's like, oh, you know, he's like, you've met him twice.

And oh, she kissed them on the lip. And I'm like, oh, shit. I'm too OCD for that. I can't do that. I mean, women don't understand dudes, though, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You get the dude on the lips. He's like, oh, shit, we did it.

Can you repeat? We're going to have a baby. Can you repeat for me what you were saying before we had to fix the cameras, though? Because I think in that moment where everything was so heavy and, you know, we all were crying a little bit, that was just such a beautiful testament of what God can do. You said it was the most downloaded song in all genre. and it wasn't even supposed to hit the air.

It wasn't, I never intended for anyone to hear it. Right. In fact, that song, it's one of the few songs I've ever written in my life that when I wrote it, I wrote it from top to bottom exactly the way you hear it today. Right. No, no, no, went back and changed this line like we do normal. Right, yeah. Verbatim.

Right. Word for word, note for note. And so I tell people, God wrote that song. And I was downstairs, it's 430. in the morning. My wife was still asleep upstairs. But I know she hurt me a little bit. And I was crying and, you know, just pouring it out. And I'm sure it was therapeutic.

I'm sure that there's psychologists or psychiatrists that would say, yeah, that's one of those very therapeutic moments. You obviously use me. Like, I'm not that guy. Right. I'm the hot stove guy philosophy. When something hurts, freaking stay away from it. You know, you just don't go back and keep touching the stuff.

I get it. I'm the same way. But that song, God, it was, I knew that he wanted me to do it. And it happened. And so I finished it and I just came upstairs and everything's good. And then I went back down there and I had recorded it and I listened to it on my little recording thing. And I thought, oh my gosh, what have I done, man? And I called my daughter.

And I said, I wrote this song. I want you to hear it because she's a writer, you know. That's not what she does professionally. She sells drugs professionally, but... Sells drugs. She's in pharmaceuticals. Okay, gosh. I was like, crack, heroin.

I played it for it, and she was crying, and she said, Dad, you've got to put that. You've got to record it so that we have that. It's so good. And I said, well, I don't want everybody to hear this, though. I'm just not ready for this. So I didn't even call Phil. Phil and I produce all my records.

we've been producing my records together for years. I didn't even call Phil. I didn't call all our normal band studio guys. I called different people. I didn't call my normal background. I called Sonia Isaacs. And I said, Sonia, I wrote this song, and I knew that she had lost a baby.

And I said, I don't want to upset you, but I want your vocals on this. I think you need to be the one singing this. I'm telling you, this is the way God, All these things happened. Went in this little old studio, recorded it, and ended up playing it for my management folks, and they let the label hear it.

And the next thing I know, they're saying, okay, listen, we won't go to radio, but let's at least put it out to the socials. I said, all right, you know, we'll do it. I went to Alaska, and I was up in Alaska, and service where I'm at wasn't real good at that time. still ain't real good until I turn Elon on. That's Starlink.

Yeah. But I don't like to turn it on because we only have solar and generator, so it sucks up the solar power. Yeah. But anyway, I got into an area where I had service and my phone went nuts. You know, all these messages and phone. And I'm like, what the hell? And I noticed one from Blake.

And I was like, well, that's weird. Because I hadn't texted him in like two weeks. Right. And it usually takes him a lot longer to respond than two weeks. And he had called me and had texted me, and I went to his text, and he said, call me ASAP. And I thought, oh, shit, someone's hurt. I really thought something was wrong. So I got to where I had service, and I called Blake first because, you know, he's the only one that all these guys had sent me a message.

You need to call us. You know, it's important. Well, whatever, you know. I'm not doing music shit this week. And I called Blake, and he said, dude, if you talk to your managers, you know what's going on. And I said, I got, what are you talking about? Is it everything okay? He said, man, I got your text.

I got the song, and I listened to it. And I said, and at this point, I literally had forgotten that I sent him the song. Blake had lost a brother. So I wanted him to hear that song. And I said, are you talking about the elk? I sent him a picture of an elk I killed. And he said, no, dumb ass the song. And I said, oh, oh, the song, the father's, my son.

He goes, yeah. he goes, dude, it's gone viral. It's about to be number one most downloaded song on iTunes. And he said, you need to call your managers. I said, all right, I'll call them, I'll call them. I said, did you see the hulk? He said, man, call your people. He said, Ellen DeGeneres is talking about your song.

Kelly's talking about it. Everybody. He said, you need to call your folks, man. So I called them and they said, hey, we're going to get you on all these people want you on the show. They want to talk about the song and talk about your spirits. And it's helping people. It's healing people. I said, okay, yeah, sure. I'll be back Monday. They said, no, Ellen wants you on Thursday. I said, I can't do Ellen on Thursday. I'm going to be in Alaska. I said, I love her. And I'd love to be on her show, but I can't come home early, bro. I'm sorry, y'all. And so I said,

book whatever you can book starting Monday and I'll be there and I'll do whatever anybody wants me to do. And that's what happened. And then I went on the Kelly show and it again flipped and became the number one most downloaded song in all genres after that show. I went on Fox and Friends and again it flipped and became the number one. But again, it was a song that no one was supposed to hear, a song that all of these things that happened.

You know, and I am in no way, no way comparing my. myself to any biblical figure. I'm not doing that. But I'm just saying God takes the things that aren't supposed to work and makes it. I mean, I talk about y'all all the time. I'm just saying, I'm not saying that you weren't supposed to work, but, I mean, he's not a pretty man to me. I mean, and you're super cute. And so people see it? And they're like, really? I'm like, no, really, it's true. It's my baby. It's true. She loves him and he loves her. I do. God takes things and does beautiful and wonderful things with it. God takes broken things and does. He does take broken things. Thank you for telling us that story and thank you for going

somewhere that, you know, is uncomfortable. It's a hot stove. I really, it is, and I really, really appreciate that. So let's move on into your legacy. And then I've already kept you for like an hour and a half. So I'm going to end it with this. But after, I've been trying to get on your show for freaking six minutes. Listen, you can come back anytime you want. You come here anytime you want. We love you. I love that.

We share it all the time. When someone says something bad about you, my wife gets real freaking Texas. I tell her, I have to remind her, you know, you have grandkids now. They can see that. You can't put F, question mark, question mark K, and they don't know. I'm telling you, me and Karen are a lot of like, and the Lord is working on my mouth. Let me tell you, but I love a good clap back. So tell Karen, I appreciate it.

But after everything, the uniform, the stage, fatherhood loss. Who is Craig now? All of those things. Still. Yeah. You know, I think that's been the biggest issue with my, if you look at my music career, and it's been an amazing career. I mean, I'm still here.

Everybody said, you know, the reality is I should have left 10 years ago. And by left, I mean, I shouldn't have had the success, but God did. Right. I want this to happen. I've tried to get out. My management will tell you, five years ago, I said I'm retiring. You know, I've got these other businesses that are doing great and, you know, and I want to do this, I want to do that. But God does something every time that shows me that he still wants me here.

And so as long as he wants me here. But I am all of those things. And it makes it really hard for a management company or a record label because I don't wear a cowboy hat. I'm not a one straight line. This is what I do and this is who I am kind of guy. And I don't one trick pony. I am not. and I'm not going to subdue to that in order to be more successful at any one of those things.

What I do strive to be the best I can be is a dad, a husband, and now a grandfather, a brother, a son, and a friend. I think that's beautiful, Craig. Those are top. Everything after that is what you really have to work hard to do so that you can be the best you can be at those five things right there for me. You know, I worked very hard at my job. I worked very hard at the businesses that we have outside of this with my friendships and everything. But I do it so that I can be the best husband, father, grandfather, brother, son, and friend

that I can be. Yeah. And I said it when you first walked in here that just reading about your story, you're a beautiful soul, but being able to sit here and talk with you the past hour and a half, I'm just in love with you. I'm in love with your family. I'm in love with everything that you represent. and I could only hope that Jay and I could be like you and your wife as we age and you're already there.

You guys are inspiring so many people. I love it when I get on stage at night and I talk about y'all. And when I say y'all's names, the crowd goes wild. And that means they love you and they respect what you're doing. And I tell people all the time, you know, I'll never forget. I'll never forget. You won't remember this, but Jelly had made a post. I don't even remember what it was.

and there was a preacher who went off on him. You can't say these things and then try to claim to be living a Christian life. And I thought, man, how arrogant of you. And I never, ever, ever, ever. Let me say that again. Ever, ever, ever respond to text. I mean, to these messages. Yeah.

Because all it does is just, you know, it's like you'll get into this never-ending bullshit. fuels the fire. What I do is just let everybody else do it. And they'll do it. They do it amongst themselves. And then it goes away. But I remember that that hurt me that someone from the Christian community was judging a man that I knew that I found to be good. And it like, and you had made a comment. And then I told Karen, I said, I can't not do it. I'm like, lest ye not judge. judge. You don't even know this man. You know, I'll never forget the first time. Even. I want you to know I do remember that. And I do remember you sticking up for him. One of my closest friends. And I think he would tell you he's one of the greatest Christian

man I know. Even he said one time, because we were at a show. Can I curse on it? Of course. I already did a few times. We were at the show at that bowling place. Brooklyn Bowl. Oh, Brooklyn Bowl. Oh, it was that stupid label thing. Yeah. Remember? Yes. And I love the label. I do. I love those folks. Yes. Shout out Loba and Brooklyn. A hundred artists. But Jelly was about to go on and y'all were all outside. And Jelly said, Craig, would you pray for us? I said, yes. And there was like, I don't know, 1,200 people back there. If it's my husband back there, yes. He's got his whole entourage. Which I loved. And I got one more Jelly story for you. And I said, yeah, I'll pray. And everybody's arms.

And it was just, I've not failed. The love was so good. And it was pure and clean and innocent and honest. And I finished my prayer and jelly said, that's the way you fucking pray right there. My husband will cuss in his prayers. We got to separate them just a little, Jenny. Just a little, bro.

That is so my husband. You know what, it didn't hurt me. It didn't bother me. In fact, it made me love him because he was being who he was and it was honest. And he meant it. And I think sometimes we try so hard to be this semblance of what we think other people think we should be that we ignore truth and honesty and fairness and kindness. And non-judgmentalness.

I feel like the church now is so judgmental. and we could talk about that for hours, but I just feel like our job as people who love Jesus is to show people what unconditional love is. And that's all I want to do. Love your neighbor and love him. Yes. When you're doing those two things,

everything else is where it's supposed to be. Yes, sir. Yeah. Craig, thank you for sitting here with me. I appreciate you so much. At any time you want to come back here, you have a VIP pass to come and sit down. We will get you in ASAP, sir.

Well, we're going to have you guys. guys out. Do you eat meat? I do. Okay, good. Yeah. Well, you're taking me hunting. I got to go see this turkey. I know. Well, there's a difference in hunting and eating meat. Okay. Like, my son eats meat, my youngest, but he won't hunt.

Yeah. Like, he cries when I poke the cow to try to get it to go through the fence. I'm like, you don't know. He don't even feel that hard. You know, he's so sensitive about animals. He just loves it. I killed a coyote that was chasing my donkey the other day. Yeah. And he's like, I know it had to die. but I just hate to see it.

You're like, how are you my offspring? Yeah, yeah. And no, he's like, they have a cat and a dog. And I'm like, listen, when you hear them howling, you at least need to come outside and make some noise because they will eat your cat. Yes, yes. Take it and drag it away and eat it.

Yeah. And he's like, no, you know, like, yeah, shoot the coyotes. Well, promise me. Anyway, I say that because if you do, I, we have the best black angus beef. Oh, yay. And we'd love to have all of you. come out and we'll have a steak night.

What are you guys doing for Thanksgiving? Our kids are, my wife, y'all, she gets so thankful. My kids said, Mom, we're going, we got friends coming in this day. She said, no, don't give a shit what you're doing. You're coming to my house Thanksgiving Day. And you're coming. She put her foot down. And so this Thanksgiving, all the kids and all the grandkids, everybody's coming in.

I love that. It's going to be beautiful. Well, we're right down the street. We have learned out there. I swear you got the cow. The long-haired one is here. I'm getting one. The last time I bought cows.

Yes. Shut up. Right now and they're gorgeous. They're the offspring of my cow. I literally went to the cow sale when I, I don't know, when I bought my last year and they had two and I'm like, gosh, man, do I go in now?

They're the best. I know. The sweetest temperament. But my donkey, my little tulip. Oh, my Lord. I have two donkeys too with them. I know. I see your pose and stuff.

No, they're great. I'm telling you. is so sweet y'all and the people i bought her from they said oh she's mean that's what we're getting rid of her the first time they deliver her i was out on the road and i come in and i pulled through the gate she come running up i'd gotten out of the buggy she come around i thought oh shit they said she's mean she come she put her head in my chest and i was like you gotta be kidding and now like the kids go up and she'll she'll lower her herself oh she just needed some love that's it my My son will go out there. He lives on a house on the farm. And he'll go out and he'll put his arm over her and walk her from the far side of the, from another barn. It's, I don't know, a quarter mile all the way to the feed barn.

Oh, I love my donkey Nova. She's the sweetest. She just comes. She's like the silent little creature that just, until she doesn't want to be silent anymore. But like, if she wants to move, like, stealth-like, I'll literally be sitting there and all of a sudden her mouth just comes over my shoulder. And I'm like, how did you get behind me without me hearing you? And she's protected probably. So sweet. Oh, yeah. So sweet. Thank you, Craig. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you guys for tuning into another episode of Dunblad. I'll see you guys next week. Bye.