Brantley Gilbert and his wife Amber welcomed their third child, Abram Howell Gilbert, into the world on Friday night in the most unforgettable way. Brantley was on stage playing a show in Tupelo, Mississippi, when his tour manager pulled him off stage because Amber was in labor on his tour bus.  In a matter of moments, Amber gave birth to Abram, Brantley called his mom to tell her the good news, and then he returned to the stage and finished his concert.

We caught up with Brantley last night on Zoom. He was back home in Georgia still processing everything that had happened and still feeling emotional about the entire experience.

BRANTLEY GILBERT – BABY HOW YOU DOING :20

“I’ll be honest with you, I still feel like I’m kind of been adrenaline crashing the last several hours. You know, the night after it happened, we played another show, and I felt like I was kind of crashing before it, and then the show kind of jacked me back up. So, I’m still kind of reeling. I’m still kinda wrappin’ my mind around everything that happened.”

Of course, everybody wants to know how mom and baby are doing.

BRANTLEY GILBERT – HOW ARE MOM AND BABY :17

“They’re amazing. She’s the strongest woman I’ve ever met. I can’t say enough about her. And baby’s awesome. He’s tiny. He’s five pounds, seven ounces, but he’s got the cutest little cry ever. And he slept pretty good. He’s a pretty good baby so far. I mean, we’re only three days in, but he’s precious.”

Brantley admits that even though he and Amber had put a plan in place in case she went into labor while she was on the road with him, nobody thought it would actually happen. So, Brantley didn’t expect that’s what was happening when his tour manager tried to get him to stop his show and leave the stage.

BRANTLEY GILBERT – DIDN’T EXPECT BABY :47

“One thing she’s been worried about is we don’t want anybody to think we were just being irresponsible and riding around. We were prepared, and we knew it was unlikely for it to happen on the road, but we had our midwife with us, and we’d had extensive consultations with her. So, we were prepared if it did happen. So, it wasn’t like we were just throwing caution to the wind. And the night before had been extremely uneventful, so we thought we had a week or so. So, we were four songs into the set and my tour manager comes up and pulls on my arm and I look at him kind of strange. And the first thing that came to mind was it’s a security threat. You know, something’s going on, he’s trying to pull me. So, I kind of look at him like, ‘Hey, I need to get the rest of the guys. I need to tell the crowd what’s goin’ on.’ And he looked at me and he gave me like a stern, like, ‘Come on.’ And he was like, ‘Baby,’ and like, mouthed baby to me. And when he did, I dropped the mic and everything and just took off runnin’.”

Once Brantley got off stage and made it to his tour bus, the birth of his son happened very quickly.

BRANTLEY GILBERT – BABY CAME QUICK :33

“It was wild. The minute I walked on the bus, like I saw her in here and I ran and I washed my hands really quick. And the minute I knelt beside her, like her water broke, I looked at the midwife and she looked back at me, and I was just wide eyed. And she was like, ‘We’re having a baby.’ I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ So, a long story, very long story short, she was a soldier, such an understatement. Like, I’ve never seen anything like that in my life. The first two were so different in the hospital. She was just so strong and I was such an emotional wreck. It was ridiculous Like she handled it a million times better than I did.”

Some people wonder why Amber would even be on the road and riding the tour bus with Brantley if there was a chance she could go into labor, but it was so important to Brantley to be there for the birth of his son, since he was with Amber when their first two kids were born. Because Amber knew how important that was, she agreed to join him on tour just in case she went into labor.

BRANTLEY GILBERT – AMBER BEING ON ROAD :53

“Initially, when we found out she was pregnant, the conversation started really early on, she wanted a home birth. It was just something she had researched and looked into, and it was something that’s really important to her, and I was, just to be completely honest, I was not on board. Then later on into the pregnancy, a couple months back, we kind of got the idea that she may not make it full term, and that put us right in the middle of the tour. And we were speaking with the doctor and I looked over at her, and I just kinda halfway joking was like, ‘You know, y ‘all could always just come out on the road and we do it out there.’ And she kinda looked at me and it wasn’t an immediate no, and it wasn’t her rolling her eyes. And I was like, ‘Really?’ So, just her being willing to do that, man, I’ve never been more in love with my wife than I am right now. Just her being willing to do that, and it was honestly kind of ended up being a meet in the middle type thing. Like she kinda got a home birth, you know what I mean, and I didn’t have to miss my little boy being born.”

Brantley and Amber and everyone around them was so convinced that she would not go into labor while they were out on the road, that he even joked about it prior to it actually happening.

BRANTLEY GILBERT – JOKED ABOUT BIRTH ON ROAD :24

“It was funny cause we joked if it happens during a show, you know, I’ll just hop off stage and we’ll have it, and I’ll run back up there and I’ll hold the baby up like Lion King, you know, like Simba. But we never really, neither one of us, the midwife, whose name was Brittany Thornton. She’s absolutely amazing. She did an incredible job. None of us actually thought that was really gonna happen. It was just kind of a snowball’s chance in hell kinda thing.”

Some people were surprised after Brantley’s wife gave birth to their son, backstage at his concert on his tour bus, that he actually went back out and finished the show. But Brantley explains how the whole emotional decision unfolded.

BRANTLEY GILBERT – FINISHING SHOW AFTER BIRTH 1:25

“So, she has the baby. I was able to catch it, so I was able to be the first person to ever touch my son. And I held him for a minute and handed him to her. And I went out to tell my guys that we had a baby, and my tour manager was out there, and he said, ‘Hey man, I know this is kinda crazy to even mention,’ He said, ‘But if we go in the next 15 minutes,’ he said, ‘we can finish the show.” And she heard him say it, I was standing in the doorway and I looked at her. She’s sittin’ on the couch and she looked at me and she said, ‘Are you serious?’ And I kinda looked at her and she just had this look of understanding on her face, and she said, ‘You need to go finish.’ And um, it was just really cool cause I know a lot of people are sayin’, why wasn’t he with his baby? Why would he ever come back out? And it was like, you know what? For 20 years, I’ve shared my life story and our love story, which is kinda one and the same with these people. So, it was like a full circle moment to be able to do that, and I just felt like I couldn’t not do it. But right before I walked out, she said, ‘Do you want to hold him?’ And I said, ‘Yeah,’ and I took my shirt off and I held him just as close as I could to me. And Corey was like, ‘If we’re gonna go, we gotta go. And I handed him back to her, and oh my gosh, man. The whole thing’s a blur. And, you know, I walk in the arena and the whole arena is chantin’ my wife’s name. It was a … it was a crazy moment, but it was incredible.”