Mother’s Day is on Sunday (May 14th), and some of your favorite country artists are celebrating the mothers in their lives this weekend.
In 1914, Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating Mother’s Day, held on the second Sunday in May, as a national holiday to honor mothers.
Audio / Chris Stapleton says his wife Morgane is a great mother.
DownloadChris Stapleton (Mother’s Day) OC: …great mom. :
“She’s a great mother. Just like she is with all people, she’s kind and generous with her time, and she’s also, she’ll make you tow the line too, but all great moms are that way. So, yeah, she’s a great mom.”
Audio / Clare Dunn talks about the support and undying devotion her mom has for her and her sister.
DownloadClare Dunn (Mother’s Day) OC: …in the world. :41
“She is unrelenting in her love and her support, and even when we’re crazy kids and we screw up, it doesn’t matter. Her love knows no bounds. And her undying devotion to her kids – to my sister and I – always believing in us a million percent, always backing us up a million percent and helping us navigate life and navigate our dreams and helping us go towards that goal – those are some of the qualities that I hope to have some day as a mother, you know? And I’m so grateful I have THE best mom in the WORLD!”
Audio / Darius Rucker talks about not disappointing his beloved mother, who passed away in 1992.
DownloadDarius Rucker (Mother’s Day) OC: …killed me. :17
“I think that’s the main reason I am how I am…an innate fear of disappointing my mom. My mom’s not even alive, and I have a fear of her looking down from heaven and going, ‘Man I’m just disappointed in my son.’ She could have said anything in the world to me, but if she would have said, ‘Son, you just disappointed me,’ That would have killed me. It would have killed me.”
Audio / Darius Rucker’s mother, who passed away in 1992, was always the singer’s biggest supporter.
DownloadDarius Rucker (Mother) OC: …in my corner. :44
“My mom was just always great. She worked a lot. She was a nurse and she worked a lot. She took a lot of overtime and stuff to make sure we could live basically, but she always just so supportive, ever since I was a kid. I was always a music kid. Growing up in an African-American neighborhood, I was never that guy who was gonna be pigeonholed to let people say I could only listen to this and I could only do this, because I was African-American. She always supported whatever I wanted to do, whatever I wanted to listen to, wherever I wanted to go, she always had my back. Going to college and everything, she was my biggest supporter and never let my brothers and sisters knock me down or try to tell me I can’t do this or that. All of my success comes because my mother was always in my corner.”
Audio / Dierks Bentley recognizes and appreciates how much work goes into being a mother.
DownloadDierks Bentley (Mother’s Day – Cassidy) OC: …to have her. :
“It’s the toughest job out there being a mom, and I know from my life with my wife Cassidy. We work as a team together when I’m home, and it takes everyone to get the job done, me and her, working together. So, when I go on the road, I just have so much respect for her because it’s hard to do it right, if you want to do it great, and she does a great job with it. It’s really rewarding, but it’s also very challenging. I’m so thankful that she takes it on the way she does, and our kids are very lucky to have her.”
Audio / Eric Church says he’s learned quite a bit from his mom.
DownloadEric Church (Mother’s Day) OC: …as a man. :57
“My mom, even though my dad won’t like this, my mom is by far the toughest person that I’ve met. She’s tough. One of those people that’s been through a lot in her life, adversity wise and never complains, always really resilient with anything that’s happened to her. And it’s just that attitude, the positive attitude, regardless of what has happened that I think is the one thing that I got from her. With career, she’s always been a person that’s been really positive through times that I couldn’t find a positive streak, [laughs] and she was always really positive, and very much believes in tough it out, keep working hard, and that’s her motto with stuff like that. I’ve always been impressed with that stuff. Then musically, she’s where I get my talent from, musically. She sings great, always has, her mom sang great. I owe my musical chops to her. And she still sings some. So, career-wise, I owe her everything. And just in life-wise she’s given me a lot of the qualities that it has taken for me to get me where I am. Not only as a musician, but as a man.”
Audio / Eric Paslay talks about his mother, Donna.
DownloadEric Paslay (Mother’s Day) OC: …it’s good. :21
“I wanna thank my mom for giving me faith, laughter and pride in the family I came from. She’d be the fun Mom, just goofing off in the sprinklers outside or we’d go out and play in the rain and all that stuff growing up. She’s always good to be around; always happy, and it’s good.”
Audio / Jon Pardi says his mother, Shelly, is an angel.
DownloadJon Pardi (Mother’s Day 2015) OC: …worrying about me. :29
“My mom’s always been there for me. First of all, she’s a great mom. She’s an angel. She takes care of people that aren’t even in the family. She’s always been like that, and she’s a great mother. She’s always proud, and she’s always there supporting and being a great mom. She’s just a good human being. There’s not one mean bone in her body. And she cries about every time I talk to her. She always worries about me. I have to tell her, ‘Stop worrying about me.’”
Audio / Kacey Musgraves comes from a very creative family, and here she talks about the women in her immediate family and their talents.
DownloadKacey Musgraves (creative women) OC: …taking pictures. :16
“My mom’s an artist – all different kinds of mediums, paint, but she’s always working on something different. My Meemaw, she’s a soap maker. She makes soap and they’re beautiful and they smell really good and they’re all natural. My sister has an etsy store, and she’s constantly creating something, sewing pillows and taking pictures.”
Audio / With Mother’s Day on Sunday, Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley explains he and his brothers – Josh and John -- owe their mother a lot for all of their childhood antics.
DownloadCharles Kelley (Mother) OC: …playing music. :23
“We were honestly, at times, pretty hard to handle, both of us. We used to play our music loud up above on the second floor [of the house], bang on the drums and the guitar. And my mom’s just one of those people, she’ll do anything for her family and she sacrificed a lot for us boys. Anytime we needed something, she made it happen. And so, we owe her a lot. She’s definitely the reason we’re playing music.”
Audio / Lauren Alaina says she can count on her mom for just about everything.
DownloadLauren Alaina (Mom) OC: …same for her. :19
“I honestly would not be able to do it without my mom. I get overwhelmed sometimes, and if she wasn’t there to comfort me or tell me, ‘Look just realize what you’ve got going for you,’ I’d be up the creek [without a paddle]. She’s got my back. My mom would walk through a fire pit for me, and I’d do the same for her.”
Audio / Little Big Town’s Kimberly Schlapman says she always dreamed of being a mother…and her dream came true nearly 10 years ago when she gave birth to daughter, Daisy (July 27, 2007).
DownloadLBT (Mother’s Day) OC: …for my mother. :34
“Being a mother is a life-long dream for me. When I was a kid, that’s what I wanted to be is a mama. It took a long time. I wasn’t ever sure that I would be, but I am now, and it’s the greatest gift of my life. And as I’m a mother now, I see what my mother gave up and her sacrifices and her love and how she made us the most important thing in her life, and that’s what I strive to do for my little girl. It’s the most important job I have, and it’s the most responsibility that I have, and I try to live up to a great example that I had for my mother.”
Audio / Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild says being a mother to Elijah Dylan Westbrook is the best feeling in the world.
DownloadLBT (Mother’s Day-Karen) OC: …every day. :23
“There isn’t anything that means more to me than sitting on the bench and eating a grilled cheese sandwich with this little guy who calls me Mama. There isn’t anything better than that. He’s just a little miracle. I went from dreaming about him to eating grilled cheese sandwiches and ketchup with him, and I could never have dreamed this up – how good it could be, and it just gets better every day.”
Audio / Shania Twain says it’s such a joy to be a parent.
DownloadShania Twain (joy to be a parent) OC: …means everything. :14
“It’s such a joy to be a parent. So, I relate to all the mums out there who are getting all their love and appreciation from their kids, and I hope, when you’re a kid, a child of somebody, show your mum you love her, because it means everything.”