Ben you know I'm here today because my son-in-law sent me the record and I called him back and I said Barry this is so good this sound is so distinct and the harmonies are just so beautiful are you sure that you have talked to your mother and to your two sisters about singing with these three ugly boys well I plead the fifth I plead the fifth you have sung for years with three women that's one of the greatest sounds in our field and everybody recognized it and understands it however you've kind of moved over to the Gaither side there is something about singing with male singers isn't it there really is it's different it's a different thing and you know I was I love the blend that we have you know it's it's very special and I'm grateful to have this opportunity to to sit with some of my buddies and make some of the in my opinion some of the prettiest music love song music or just life music song songs about real life right you know ninety percent of of what you do on stage happens off the stage absolutely it's about relationship yeah and if you have a great relationship with each other you're going to perform great whether that's marriage or that's in a quartet you've got a great great project here and I'm so so happy for you only one thing on your next on your next one you don't need Gordon I've learned how to play the piano myself on it so I could help you but I thought you were getting more popular with your boom books brotherly love I have always loved that song um and somehow that's made its way to this brand new record and and it really is an amazing title for what this is congratulations on this thank you thank you so much how long has this process been in the works a couple years uh I would say at least two years you know the these are some of my best friends in the whole wide world and we've Mike and I have sang with Jimmy and Mike and I have sang with Bradley before this and and we blend so well we thought what would it be like all together so it's uh man I'm telling you wait till you hear this one sing bass right here I've heard it you know I've heard him sing me he sings with us from time to time Bradley I've known all of you for a good while some of you a little longer than others but probably know Bradley the best and uh I've heard him sing bass you know and he's he's incredible and I never heard him in a blend like this before so this is a pretty special thing we were talking about earlier that not only is the title uh brotherly love but but it's really become a bit of a Brotherhood for you for sure for you guys for sure absolutely I love singing with these guys we all love singing together but we love each other as people you know we we truly love each other and we support each other and just we have a blast together whether we're singing songs or whether we're just hanging out such a blessing for all of us I feel that we are all each other's biggest cheerleaders you know we spend so much time working and creating together uh that you know when it's right you know everybody's as excited as you are you know it's it's really it's really special this is a project where literally no one stands alone or in this particular setting no one sets alone right and I love this song Bradley and this is one that you're singing lead on and and I love it because on on your own you are all incredible singers songwriters performers musicians but together you're something even more and this title and what this song's about is something much bigger than than just this but uh no one stands alone is is pretty special how did that end up being on this record that is a song that I've known for a long time anyone who's a Christian and who has Jesus in their life it's such a comfort to know that no matter what you go through you're you're never alone wow you never are alone it's very fitting and so I was very proud to be able to sing this for these guys no uh collection like this would be complete without a Johnny Cash song that's right yeah and this one which is Bradley singing bass Jimmy singing or something is it Jimmy or is it Jimmy oh yeah well you're up there on this one yeah I mean you're way up there as Jimmy said before Mike and I have the parts that don't matter yeah that's fine yeah no I didn't say that out you know I read online that on the original Johnny Cash recording that Lou and Dawn actually sing uh me and little brother join right in there did you did not know that I didn't know that yeah yeah that's amazing and who who sang The Girls part is it Jean no it wasn't June it uh people think it was June but it was actually uh Jan Howard wow yeah I mean unless Wikipedia is wrong which is surely yeah surely the thing of it was I got to sing on the 30th anniversary of The Statler Brothers uh uh I got to sing that with John and on stage with Statler Brothers Johnny Cash oh yeah yeah we're done it was one of the treats of my whole life Wow you know I didn't get to be around him a whole lot but not too long before he died one of the greatest things anybody ever said to me was we went to see him at his home and we were walking out and he stopped me because I I would always sit back and to listen to what everybody had to say I didn't you know I was just so in awe of everything and he stopped me and put his hands on my shoulder and said Jimmy said I really regret that I didn't get to know you a lot better he said but I was worried about The Statler Brothers when they changed over and you came along and he said but when I heard Elizabeth I knew everything was going to be all right I really loved and respected him a lot because I know he went through a lot in his life and everything but I know in his heart it came back to Jesus before was all over with and that that to me meant more than anything all you guys are amazing Harmony singers but when you put all these great Harmony singers together that's a whole other animal what did you think about that Ben you know recording wise oh man when they all came together the way that you guys have the first time that we got together I got chills because the blend to me singing together in the vocal blend that we have other than our relationship with each other is the most special thing about it every now and then you sing with certain people and there's just there's something there that's really special you know and we have that and people will try to say well how can I learn how to sing harmony I don't know if I can yeah it takes anybody it's just something that you hear and I was doing it before I knew what it was you know as a kid specialist yeah so we all really listen to each other if Bradley's singing lead we try to absolutely get into that that blend with him and it makes it so special and Jimmy when Jimmy goes to a leader Ben yeah it's like we all gravitate to that voice and listen well it's easy to tell that you guys have something special because even when you're singing someone else's song that you know really well or even a quartet song or something like Elizabeth where you've heard you know you've heard an amazing Harmony blend before you've not heard this one before it's really special let's talk a little bit about Elizabeth now I read again on the interweb yeah so surely it's true is that the first song you wrote for for The Statler the first song I ever wrote that's I I didn't believe that was true yeah that's true the first song you ever wrote when I got a guitar when I was 12 years old I didn't have any songs to listen to The Learning I was kind of making up songs you know just making up things I didn't know I was writing actually but I never really put anything down but then I started learning other people's songs for so many years I was playing clubs for six nights a week four hours a night doing cover music for for years and years and years before the stat Brothers hired me I didn't have time to do anything to sit down and realize was that I had something to say or sing about really and so when they hired me I mean you talk about God things in your life that you can't explain uh and I knew in the back of my heart and my mind I I knew that I said man you know Lou was a songwriter I said I'm just singing tenor I said maybe I need to write a song I need to do something to just say hey this is who I am you know I can bring something and uh and it was literally a God thing I mean I I had a Melody that just came to me that was just in my head and it kept being there and I said man that's a beautiful Harmony I said that that's just so Harmony oriented and I said Allison I need some something to go with it you know and I kept hearing this name over and over again everywhere I would go Elizabeth Elizabeth and um a little girl in a in a in a grocery store her mom was getting on her about everything she was getting into stuff and then on the way to Tulsa Oklahoma to do a concert we watched a movie Giant with Elizabeth Taylor and and those the name just kept coming up then we get we get to Oklahoma and there's a girl comes up out of the audience grabs me by the hand wouldn't let go saying I'm Elizabeth I'm Elizabeth and so I go back to I go back I said God I know you're trying to tell me something I go back to the hotel room and I had two of those tape recorders it was a walk man yeah and I sang into one in the bathroom because it has good Echo there right you know I hit the I hit the the and I had a version of course written and so I hit the button and I sang into this one and I played it again sang Harmony into this one and I played back and sang another Harmony I stacked the harmonies on it wow and then I took it the next morning and I said I wrote this last night because I asked them I said if I write a song Would you all recording and Harold said yeah if it's good enough and so when I hit play on it I just knew it was it was a great Harmony song and I and when I played it they said oh yeah well that's going on our first record and it was a third single and number one song and I won songwriter of the year that Year song of the year and um fan voted song of the year in 1984. I mean I mean those are things you can only God you know can can put those things together he knew he knew The Statler Brothers needed something about that time he knew that I needed something to kind of make uh a place for myself and he was setting you up at the time to to continue with them and help them through that time but even more than that setting you up for a time in the future for you to write songs for other people for you to have your own success as an artist and then being here together recording Elizabeth all these God things have brought us to this it's amazing right here today that I just can't even explain we're excited about this well this new project and and this song in particular on it now how many of you guys are from the Bluegrass world all of you three of you three of you no not really I'm same with me like I didn't really grow up in the Bluegrass World it took me a long time to get there it actually I think I got there through YouTube guys wow because Joey and I oh gosh it was I don't know when it was maybe uh 2000 when's your your first record come out 2006 2006 so I discovered that and and that was basically Bluegrass instrumentation so it was just beautiful around the same time you had a record that has halfway home on it uh half a day away half a day away yeah half a day away half a day away oh I wore it out and it's the same it was like it it was Bluegrass instrumentation but it was great songs and great singing and then I went and saw Bradley uh at an award show he was up for a male vocalist of the Year anyone and it was really really a great moment because Joey and I were big fans and so we go to this award show it's at the Grand Ole Opry I don't have a ticket somebody's date didn't show up and Joey didn't come with me so I was by myself I'm sitting in the back and I'm really just there to see Bradley Walker because I heard he was coming and he comes rolling out and he wins and he comes up they give him the microphone he's like oh shucks y'all I'm just a country boy from Alabama that's him and I thought he has no idea the gift God has given him no idea and I I loved him more and from there you know if you started looking around listening you just realized he'd been singing Bluegrass for a long time you know a guy like you who has a voice and a gift like you in country music sometimes they're trying to figure out what to do with you you know they're just not sure like what but what How's he travels they get on them but then what happens and I think in bluegrass they say but why don't we just roll them up to a microphone and let him sing exactly and it's about that easy and that's all that really needs to happen and that's exactly what happened in the Bluegrass world and to take that a step further I'm so thankful that Bill Gaither didn't see an obstacle when he saw a wheelchair right well the gospel world's real similar that's the same thing let's roll him up and let him sing right you know what we we when we're all together it's like we we don't we don't even see that wheelchair now honest to God we we look at him he's with he's just like us I mean as far as I'm concerned and and we love him so much and but we respect his talent but we're mostly the person that he is but when you're around him for a little while you it's like until he runs over your toes yeah and then the big Bluegrass explosion happened you know on in the public the big explosion was Oh Brother Where Art Thou yes that was awesome to me that movie just opened up Bluegrass so much yeah again yeah again it was just like wow man this is going back to to the roots I love it it was so special this song uh Man of Constant Sorrow it's been around a long long time Ralph Stanley didn't record it until 1950 so most people hadn't heard it until then and then of course when o brother came out but you guys did a great job on this one yes he's one of the most talented people that I've ever known in my life as I moved to Nashville he not only sings great great Harmony singer but he can play anything he puts his hands on and it is amazing I'm not just saying that but one of the most talented people in this town as far as I'm concerned it really is coming to do this with calling it brotherly love I mean whatever we needed brotherly love it sure is now yeah we need to look at each other and uh and we got something to sing about we got purpose yeah and having that purpose is what you know what drives us and it's it's the reason we're here today not just because of the music but it's because of the purpose of the music I love that each of you brought in some songs when you said hey we're going to have this pool of songs on a record everybody had some different ideas and one was this song only lonely that you brought in right I love that song well it's a J.D Souther song that uh I sung years ago and uh I had a good friend of mine last year I told him we were putting together this project his name was chucked off and he writes wrote for uh billboard Chuck passed away right and he passed away but he called me not long before he passed away and he said Jimmy he said I really want you to record this song uh only alone you're only lonely and I said it's weird you said that Chuck because I said I used to do that song years ago and he said man he said I've talked with some friends of mine we sit around and told me what would you love to hear Jimmy Fortune sing this song you're only lonely and uh so I said well I'll tell you what I told Ben about it and he said well we'll do it we'll we'll put it on the record and then of course he passed away not too long ago last year yeah and uh I I never got to play it for him you know because he passed away before we we recorded it actually well we'll send this one out absolutely Mike is probably the biggest heart on this stage and I mean it's just you know you get those people in in life that you get to make music with but you also get to be friends along with it and that's you know I think that's that's one reason that we make great music together is because we have a great relationship together you know I think 90 90 of your stage performance happens not on the stage it happens in your relationship that's right and he's a great guy to have a relationship thank y'all Bradley last time I saw you we were in Dallas we were we were in Dallas and you were part of a another group sort of you were part of a bigger show um we have a you know room for maybe 150 people here but how many people were there for that oh God Ten Thousand fifteen thousand twenty I think twenty thousand Fleet Arena and you were there with Eric Clapton which was crazy it was so neat incredible I flew down there just to be there and watch you and be beside you as you got this opportunity tell a little bit about this story not everybody's heard this story how it came to be you know it's just one of the craziest things and one of the biggest blessings Eric had heard some of my music heard a song that we recorded on my blessed album called drifting too far from the shore yes sir it's a great great song but he'd heard that on YouTube uh Vince Gill and I sang that together on that album and he just for whatever reason just just loved that song and love my voice and he took it upon himself to reach out to me and invite me to come sing at his Crossroads Guitar Festival last year that's awesome a guy who doesn't even play guitar can't even play guitar a singer coming to Dallas Texas in the middle of all these rock stars people like Joe Walsh and John Mayer Sheryl Crow just these incredible musicians and singers and I got to actually sing with Vince Gill and Vince's band they backed me up and um just the coolest thing is that we have maintained a friendship and then maintained and kept in contact and may actually get to work on some other projects together Eric's expressed some interest on working on some other projects and it just is proof again that God can do anything and God can bring anybody yeah two people from two totally different worlds together um it's just amazing it's amazing we were talking just a minute ago on a little commercial break kid and uh could we borrow some money from you because you're the only one that has a real job and you work at a power plant in Alabama and you have for years and years and you sing from time to time but what I love is that there are things that we do in our life where you know you work hard I've I've paid my dues and I found I found my opportunity and I took hold of that opportunity those things happen from time to time for us and then there are other things the better things which is I didn't do that yeah right I didn't do that and that's what I love about this moment is when you least expect it and sometimes we do we do find ourselves questioning thinking am I making any difference I might love this song or this album or this message and I don't know if anybody's even hearing it out there you know it's it's hard to tell when you get a call like that you realize that one of the most famous rock stars in the world is listening to YouTube he's on YouTube listening to gospel songs and he's listening to you sing a song you guys made together and and then he picks up the phone and calls you and invites you to be part of his his big event I just think it's the power it's the power of the internet but it's really more it's the power of the lighthouse I mean it really is you you're you're you have you've got a light that was shining and somehow it made its way all the way across the sea to him and you were part of that and I liked being in the audience you guys were rehearsing and it it is it's literally most of the Eagles are all there and Bradley Walker which was pretty darn cool that's just crazy because it makes you realize God has bigger plans and God can do things and will do things that are so far beyond anything we can imagine if we'll just let him that's the key is just letting him you know and so I'm just so thankful to get opportunities like that and I know that it's not anything that I could ever do it's all the good lord it's it's all his part of his plan I wanted to pay tribute to the statlers uh and you know the the I felt like the best way to do that was record one of their songs and then Jimmy was like yeah we that would be that would be great to do that class 57 is so it's such a well-written song it it it kind of encompasses The Statler Brothers and what they were about they were they were nostalgic and historic and and the magical thing about this song was that each person in that song was actually the person that did what they said they did it and there and and it was real in their in their graduating class yeah yeah that's amazing and it was like Harold's 50 55 graduated but they had 55 wouldn't work so they just used 57. so you know as you know in songwriting you have to kind of make things work in in a way for the song itself but um the magical part was is that every person was real and when it gets to the part where things get complicated when you get past 18. boy how true I mean it just knocked me back I mean because it's true well I love the idea that you know looking back those people that you went to school with who wrote in your yearbook or probably knew you at that time and knew you were dreaming about things like this that they've they get to look at your life now and they've got to be Mighty proud of you and what you've done and what you've where your music has taken you you guys have really done amazing things I love that thank you so much we've all got a page in this particular song class of 57. we're all still writing our page I love how much fun you guys all have together shows in your you know your rapport with each other but it also shows in the music you know you guys have a good time in the songs that you're doing and then boy you can bear down too some some of the painful things or you guys really do them well too thank you this song is a really special song to me in my life because like you all you know I've I've lost deeply and grieved deeply for someone and I love the power of music the way that it can heal it can help you you know it's not gonna you're not gonna get better but you can get through it you know I mean it can make you some somehow country music has a way of like hurting with you like Vince Gill when he did this song uh I'm just listening on the radio and I think it was for his brother right originally yeah go rest high and you could feel his pain and it wasn't mine it was also for for Keith Whitley at the time you could feel his pain and and it was tangible and then when time comes around and you have your own pain and you still hear him singing that song he feels strangely like he is singing it for you and your loss and that's what this song feels like to me is is that the whole world you know we're not going to go through life without feeling some pain and some loss without losing some loved ones but music can help us get through it and this this song Just is a tangible way of of letting someone go yeah and I just love the version that you did of this I found myself thinking if you had to dedicate this song to someone you lost to someone in particular who would that be a friend of mine you're one of my best friends his name was David Kidd we were we were on a having fun four-wheeling one day up in Virginia and his brother we started together started playing music together we played uh but when we're 13 we got together and put our band together and his brother's name was Curtis Kidd I found those guys list down the road from me and they knew that they could play guitars and they could sing put together our first band and so Through The Years we'd always stay in touch and we played played together for quite a few years we're on this four-wheeling Expedition and one day and uh and and he right in front of me was killed on a four-wheeler and uh it was the hardest day of my life but he was like he was like a brother to me and that's probably the closest thing like a brother that I've ever had ever lost and I had to tell his wife and three daughters that he was he didn't make it that day and um so I think of him when I sing that song I would have to say that the person that I would dedicate it to would be my grandfather on my mom's side he died I was young when he died and I still remember stories about him but the pain that my grandparents went through at being Holocaust Survivors and the peace you know my mom was able to pray with my grandfather and my grandmother on their Death Beds and um I think about him more than anybody because of the pain that was inflicted on their lives by nothing that they did other than just being a race a Jewish race and for me to think about my grandfather Oscar Fishman peaceful now you know he died from kidney failure because of alcohol abuse because he couldn't handle it yeah yeah my father your father yeah he passed away a few years ago and uh he taught me Jimmy you met him you got to pick with him yeah he taught me so he likes you like my dad oh yeah he taught me so much about music and life just love um what about you Bradley well it'd have to be my granddaddy JD J.D Adams um that's my granddaddy on my mama's side he uh hardest working man I've ever known toughest man I've ever known I mean really just just tough um tough but never said a bad word about anybody loved everybody would give you the shirt off his back the most honest man uh he was killed on in a freak accident at work and still working 73 years old man um and we played this Vince's version of that song at his funeral and so that have to be I have to to send it out to him I know if my pretty bride were here this would be her favorite song she'd say thank you she's not here so this is my favorite song Thank you guys