After son’s death, Craig Morgan finds God’s purpose in song
The last evening that country singer Craig Morgan spent with his 19-year-old son, Jerry, was during one of Morgan’s performances at Grand Ole Opry three years ago.
“The last pictures I have of us together is on that stage,” Morgan, 55, said backstage at the Opry House in late October. “So this is a very special place. It was anyway before, but now it has additional meaning, knowing this is where we hung out together.”
His son, Jerry, who was home visiting from college, died in a drowning accident on Kentucky Lake in July 2016. Three years later, Morgan, who wasn’t signed to a label at the time, came back to the Opry this past summer to sing a song he wrote about his son called “The Father, My Son, and The Holy Ghost.”
He sang about crying until he passed out, praying until he thought he couldn’t anymore and realizing that one day he’ll be reunited with his son. Morgan stepped off stage, physically and emotionally exhausted from the performance, and told his friend Ricky Skaggs, the bluegrass singer and Country Hall of Famer, that he didn’t know if he could sing that song again.
“Ricky told me, ‘You have to sing this song for the rest of your life,’” Morgan recalled.
Morgan’s first song in three years has now been championed by his peers at the Opry and the larger musical community. His friend and fellow Opry member, Blake Shelton, spent several days tweeting about the song and urging his 20 million Twitter followers to download the song from iTunes and push it up the charts.
Soon other celebrities like Kelly Clarkson, Ellen DeGeneres, Luke Combs, Carson Daly and more joined Shelton’s impromptu social media campaign. The song hit No. 3 on Billboard’s country digital song sales without the help of a label or radio play.
“I didn’t even know what was happening,” said Morgan. “I was in Alaska and had no idea what was going on until I started getting texts from everyone.”
Morgan, an Army veteran
whose had hits like “That’s What I Love About Sunday” and “Redneck Yacht Club,” said that since releasing the song, he’s been reading the hundreds of messages sent daily to him by fans who identify with the grief and pain, but also the hope that he described in the song.
“I felt a push. I felt shoved to do this, and not by people. For me, it was God,” Morgan said.
The song lyrics are also a reference to Morgan’s conversion to Roman Catholicism, which his family, including Jerry, had been going through at the time of his death. That faith and religious education is something he leaned on heavily over the past three years.
“And I know I’ll see my son again because I know his faith,” Morgan said.
Morgan, who announced in September a new record deal with Broken Bow Records, said that the song has given him a purpose to help comfort others, especially people who have lost a child, and that was always God’s plan.
“You know, the thing is, I would much rather none of this stuff happen and him to be able to be here,” Morgan said. “But that’s not the way it is. And now he’s in a place where what’s happening has a different meaning.”
— 8 p.m., Mohegan Sun Wolf Den; with Claudette King and Michael Lee; free.
— 8 p.m., Mohegan Sun Arena; $29-$59; 1-800-745-3000.
— 8 p.m., Katharine Hepburn Center, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook; $65; 1-877-503-1286.
— 7:30 p.m., All Souls Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 19 Jay St., New London; featuring Dave Mallett; $25, $10 students and military with ID; (860) 443-0316.
— 8:30 p.m., Side Door Jazz Club, Old Lyme; $40.
— 7 and 9:30 p.m., Comix at Mohegan Sun; $20-$45; also Jim Spinnato at 4 p.m., $15-$35.
— 7 p.m., East Lyme High School, 30 Chesterfield Road; by the East Lyme High School Drama Club; $10, $5 students and children; (860) 739-6946.
— 2 and 7:30 p.m., Old Saybrook High School, 1111 Boston Post Road; student-run play; 2 p.m. show is sensory-sensitive; ages 13 and up; $10.
— 8 p.m., Ivoryton Playhouse, 103 Main St.; $55, $50 seniors, $25 students, $20 children; 767-7318.
— 3 and 8 p.m., The Goodspeed, 6 Main St., East Haddam; tickets start at $29; (860) 873-8668.
— 7:30 p.m., Granite Theatre, 1 Granite St., Westerly; $25, $22 seniors, $12 children ages 12 and younger; (401) 596-2341.
— 9 a.m.-2 p.m., St. Agnes Church, 22 Haigh Ave., Niantic; featuring baked goods, baskets and a silent auction; (860) 739-4707.
— 9 a.m., Fort Trumbull State Park, 90 Walbach St., New London; “From Auto to Manual”; $85; (860) 395-9973.
— 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Niantic Community Church, 170 Pennsylvania Ave.; 74th annual holiday fair with turkey luncheon from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.; lunch tickets $12 adults, $5 children 12 and younger; (860) 739-6208.
— 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Norwich Art Center, 60 Broadway; concluding Steampunk Week with author events and costume contests; afterparty 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Foundry 66, 66 Franklin St.; $30, $15 seniors and students with ID; oddballnewtstuff@yahoo.com.
— 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Camp Harkness, 301 Great Neck Road, Waterford; model train demonstration with the Mohegan and Pequot Model Railroaders Club and the Connecticut G Scalers; proceeds support camp scholarships; $5, $3 ages 12 and younger, $15 families; (860) 443-7818.
— 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Raymond Library, 832 Raymond Hill Road, Oakdale; (860) 848-9943.
— 10 a.m., Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, 110 Pequot Trail, Mashantucket; with grand entry at noon; free for military and veterans, $10 general admission; (800) 411-9671.
— 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Waterford Community Center, 24 Rope Ferry Road; with eye screenings for kids; hosted by the Waterford Regional Lions Club; (860) 443-4402.
— 11 a.m., Public Library of New London, 63 Huntington St.; letter workshop for Operation Gratitude; free; (860) 447-1411.
— 1-4 p.m., Hempsted Houses, 11 Hempstead St., New London; hearth cooking demonstration and historic games to close the 2019 season; $5; (860) 443-7949.
— 1-3 p.m., Bank Square Books, 53 West Main St., Mystic; book signing with the author of “Independent Enough”; free.
— 1:50 p.m., Bill Library, 718 Colonel Ledyard Highway, Ledyard; screening of “Red Joan”; free.
— 2:30 p.m., Public Library of New London, 63 Huntington St.; film screening and discussion; free; (860) 447-1411.
— 3 p.m., Mystic and Noank Library, 40 Library St., Mystic; presentation by Horizon Wings Raptor Rehab; free; (860) 536-7721.
— 3-5 p.m., Savoy Bookshop, 10 Canal St., Westerly; book signing with the author of “The Overlords”; free; (401) 213-3901.
— 6 p.m., Poquetanuck Fire Company, 87 Poquetanuck Road, Preston; with snacks and raffles; hosted by Preston Historical Society; $10.
— 7:30-10:30 p.m., Quonochontaug Grange, 5662 Post Road, Charlestown; $10 members, $12 nonmembers.
— 8-10 a.m., Applebee’s, 350 Long Hill Road, Groton; cast members from Ledyard High School Drama’s upcoming “Into the Woods”; proceeds support the production; $10; ledyardmusic.com.
— noon, Otis Library, 261 Main St., Norwich; children read with Bella the therapy pug; free; (860) 889-2365.