A couple of weeks ago, during an awards acceptance speech, Brad Pitt credited actor Bradley Cooper, for his sobriety. Bradley gave up drinking in his 20’s and so he was able to help Brad get sober back in 2017. Similarly, a lot of people may not know that when Brantley Gilbert got sober eight years ago, it was another country star who supported him through it.
Brantley was talking about being able to celebrate “What Happens in a Small Town” being Lindsay Ell’s first #1 song of her career, and the fact that he was able to be a part of making that happen by inviting her to sing on his song. When he started thinking back on the people who have supported him and given him chances throughout his career, he revealed, “Keith Urban became a friend of mine in a time, you know, when I was making a transition in life. 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.”
Keith Urban got clean from drugs and alcohol after his third trip to rehab, in 2006, and since then we’ve heard a few stories of how he has paid it forward by being generous with his compassion and his time for other artists who are going through that transition. Brantley says when Keith reached out to him, “It was a time when I’d stopped drinkin’ 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.”
December 2019 marked Brantley’s eight year anniversary of being alcohol and opiate free, and he’s looking forward to a great 2020 with his Fire’t Up Tour kicking off on January 23rd, and his new song, also called “Fire’t Up,” starting to make its way up the charts.
Brantley Gilbert – Keith Urban help :30
“A lot of folks for me in this business, as far as folks doing me favors, I don’t know where I’d start. I will say that Keith Urban became a friend of mine in a time, you know, when I was making a transition in life. 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 drinkin’ 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.”