Father’s Day is Sunday (June 19th), and we have thoughts, memories and more with many of your favorite country stars! Check them out and download below.
Audio / Alan Jackson allows his three daughters to live and learn.
DownloadAJ (parenting style) OC: …what they did. :19
“We try to be just not pushy hands-on parents. We let them live and be their own way. I’m not stern with them. You know, I’m funny and light, and try to give them guidance and let them live and learn their own ways. And that’s something, I think, my parents did. It was accidental, but that’s what they did.”
Audio / Canaan Smith says his father is a big inspiration.
DownloadCanaan Smith (Father’s Day) OC: …I love him. :35
“My dad, I think is just the greatest man. He’s always provided for us. He was always there. He was always a great dad. He worked his butt off, you know, and showed me what it was like to work hard and provide for a family, and I just hope I can do that one day too. We’ve always had a special bond. He’s been a songwriter and a singer too for a long, long time, and so I got to grow up listening to him do his thing, sitting in the other room while they do band rehearsal. I’d be sitting on the couch in the other room just taking it all in, dreaming one day to be behind that microphone, so he’s definitely been an inspiration. I love him.”
Audio / Canaan Smith (Father’s Day) 2 OC: …learned that too. :45
Download“I learned that music scores chicks. [laughs] My dad had a rehearsal one time at his piano player’s house, and I was sitting on the couch in the living room, and the piano player had two daughters that were around my same age, and they were sitting on either side of me on the couch. I thought I was king of the world, you know, watching this rock and roll band and a girl around each arm, and I was like six-years-old, eight-years-old something like that, old enough to know that was pretty awesome! My dad, he taught me hard work too. It took rehearsals. It took dedication. You can’t just get up on a stage and fly by the seat of your pants. You have to be prepared, and so I learned that too.”
Audio / Darius Rucker says his kids would say he was a fun dad, unless they did something wrong.
DownloadDarius Rucker (Father’s Day) OC: …loving dad. :41
“I think if you asked my kids what kind of Dad I was they would probably say…Danny would say that I was a fun Dad. My little daughter would say that I was a fun dad; she thinks I’m a lot of fun. I think if you caught them at the right moment they would say I was mean [laughs] because when I’m home I’m not afraid to discipline them. I’m all fun until it’s not fun anymore and then daddy’s not the fun guy. I think that they’d say that I was a fun Dad, I’m a loving Dad and I think they would say that. I’m gone so much that when I’m home, I just shower love upon my kids. I say ‘I love you’ probably fifty times a day. We hug, we kiss all the time. I’m always wanting them to know how much I love them. So I’d hope they’d say that I was a loving dad.”
Audio / Darius Rucker says his mother made him a good father to his three children.
DownloadDarius Rucker (mother’s qualities makes him a great father) OC: …my mom. :45
“She had a lot great qualities, but she was always, family was first for her. She was always a rock and making sure she took care of us and making sure we had things we needed to have to survive – food and clothes and a home – and seeing that and seeing how hard she worked and all the things she did just really made me the father that I am today. I mean, I’m so crazy and hands-on with my kids. I think it all comes from watching my mom have to struggle so much to support us. And so now, I don’t want me or my wife to ever have to struggle, and I don’t want my kids to ever want or wonder where I am or where there mom is. I want them to always know where we are and always be taken care of, and that all comes from my mom.”
Audio / Dierks Bentley, the father of three, is very grateful to his own dad for turning him on to country music as a kid.
DownloadDierks (Father’s Day) OC: …that’s for sure. :10
“My dad was my biggest influence in country music because my dad loved country radio. So, we always drove around listening to country radio and George Strait, Hank Williams and Randy Travis and all these guys, so. Without him, I wouldn’t be doing this, that’s for sure.”
Audio / Dierks Bentley explains how being a father (to three children) has changed him.
DownloadDierks Bentley (how fatherhood has changed him) OC: …different. :07
“There’s a whole kind of different universe that has opened up that I never knew existed, and I’m not the center of it, which is really cool. It just makes you look at things totally different.”
Audio / Eric Church describes his father and the qualities he admires in him.
DownloadEric Church (Father’s Day) OC: …always admired. :29
“My dad is a, I’m trying to find the right words to describe him. My dad is a great guy, honest guy, very call it like he sees it, which is where I get a lot of that. No BS. I’m gonna tell you how I feel whether you like it or not. I’m that guy, I’m me…My dad’s that way, so I get a lot of that from him. There’s also an honesty and an integrity that my dad carries himself with that I’ve always admired. I think the both of them combined, and they’ve been married for I think 40 years, to be together that long in this day and time is a feat in itself.”
Audio / Eric Paslay says his father taught him how to work hard and to do a lot of things himself, such as electrical work and other handyman tasks.
DownloadEric Paslay (Father’s Day) OC: …ceiling fan. :23
“He just taught me that working hard and sticking it out, even when you know things aren’t right, that if you stick it out, it’s worth it in the end. And he just taught me to work hard, and there’s a lot of things that you don’t have to pay someone else to do, and it feels more rewarding when you’re able to put in new light fixtures or paint your own walls or put in a new ceiling fan.”
Audio / Keith Urban – father to daughters Sunday and Faith -- says there are a number of things that are at the top of the list of being a dad.
DownloadKeith Urban (Father’s Day) OC: …experience that. :36
“The first thing is probably just having someone call you dad. I’m like, ‘Omigosh! I’m her dad! That’s amazing.’ That’s probably the first thing to me. I don’t know, I mean, the different personalities that our two daughters have, that’s amazing. It’s such a long list I think. I always say…I think for the people that haven’t had kids – which I hadn’t for a long, long time. I didn’t have kids ‘til later on, and being around it is not the same as having them, you know? I realize that it’s not something that can be explained until you actually sort of have it, so I’m glad I got to experience that.”
Audio / Kip Moore talks about his father’s influence on his music career, and how he’d play classics on their fishing trips.
DownloadKip Moore (Father’s Day-dad’s influence) OC: …of us singin’ ‘em. :29
“He would just play all those classic records – Little River Band, Jackson Brown, Springsteen, Seeger, Willie Nelson, the Red-Headed Stranger, Kristofferson, Sam Cook – like classic music. He’d be singing the songs and telling us why it was such good music. And I looked up to him so much, that’s the music I gravitated towards and that’s what I continue to listen to. Whenever I think about those old fishing trips, that’s what I think about is on the way down there, him singing those songs and all of us singin’ ‘em.”
Audio / Lady Antebellum’s Dave Haywood says his father was a big influence both personally and musically, and he wants to pass along those qualities to his own children.
DownloadLady A (Father’s Day-Dave) OC: …like that. :39
“My dad was a really hard worker growing up and was always great, however hard he worked, he’d always make important time for family, important time to be home for dinner and be there for a lot of special moments for us growing up. For all the money he would make, he would always give a portion of it back to charity or to the church, and so that was always important for me to watch. We had a great relationship growing up. My dad plays guitar; he’s very musical. I learned how to play acoustic guitar with him playing ‘Day Tripper’ by the Beatles and all these old songs we’d play together when he’d show me how to play these James Taylor songs and things like that. So, definitely want to pass along music, of course, to my children, as well, like that.”
Audio / Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott says her father is a great communicator.
DownloadLady A (Father’s Day-Hillary) OC: …my children. :33
“I definitely got my Type-A personality from my dad. He’s the same way, but one thing I’m so appreciative of – especially from a father-daughter relationship – my dad always, always talked to me, even when I didn’t want to talk to him. He would force me to communicate and talk through things, and not always the easy stuff, which is such a rare quality in a man, truthfully. And so, I am very, very thankful for that. I think it helped me find the right husband for me, and I also know that it will help me be that much of a better communicator to my children.”
Audio / While Luke Bryan has a show in Columbus, Ohio on Sunday (Father’s Day), he says all he wants or needs on this special day is to be with his family.
DownloadLuke Bryan (Father’s Day 2016) OC: …I’m happy. :39
“Well, I’m doing a show but the boys will be there. As long as we’re together as a family, and my wife is so great about wanting to, like, if it were up to her every moment like that would be fireworks and balloons filled, cakes and all that. They’re gonna come up to our show, and then we’ve got a couple days together. Just as long as I get to be with my family on important days, whether it’s birthdays or anniversaries or stuff like that or certainly Father’s Day or Mother’s Day, that’s all I need. Just let them make me a cup of coffee in the morning and I’m happy.”
Audio / Sam Hunt says his father taught him a lot about being a man and knowing the right thing.
DownloadSam Hunt (Father’s Day) OC: …he’s great. :27
“I’m obviously biased about my parents, but I’ve been around a lot of great men of integrity, but he is by far the best man that I know. He’s just taught me so much about being a man, doing the right thing, knowing the difference between right and wrong. And even though I don’t always follow his lead, I definitely know better because of him, and that means a whole lot to me. I was just really fortunate to have him as a dad, and he’s great.”
