If not for one superstar, Brantley Gilbert might not still be making country music. Gilbert credits Keith Urban with convincing him that he could still be an artist, even without alcohol.
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"Keith Urban became a friend of mine in a time when I was making a transition in life," Gilbert says. "I honestly don't know if I'd be sitting in this room if it weren't for that man, and him taking time out of his life to come talk to me. It was a time when I'd stopped drinking and stopped doing some other things, and was just kind of unsure about moving forward. And he, again, took time out of his life and talked to me, and I'll never forget that as long as I live. So that just wasn't in music, it was in life."
This isn't the first time Gilbert has praised Urban. He previously said it was Urban who visited him while he was still detoxing at Cumberland Heights. Although Urban has never publicly commented on his visit, Gilbert says it changed everything for him.
"My whole world flipped," Gilbert recalls to The Tennessean. "At that point, I was like, 'All right.'"
Brantley Gilbert's Second Chance At Life
Now that he has been sober for more than 13 years, the father of three is deeply grateful for the second chance he has been given.
"I'm not being theatrical when I say that there was a chapter in my life where I never planned on being anybody's dad or anybody's husband," Gilbert reveals. "And I honestly didn't, in my heart of hearts, think I'd make it much past 30, 'cause of the things I was doing, the people I was hanging around with and the choices I was making. And to be completely honest with you, I wasn't miserable.
"Like, I'd kind of found my peace with that. ... I like to think that my wife just stayed prayed up so much and did enough of the right things that he's blessing her," he adds. "And I'm just kind of catching the good parts of her blessing."
Gilbert's most recent single is "Over When We're Sober," a duet with Ashley Cooke.
