Three years after his teen son's death, country singer Craig Morgan has combined the healing power of music and his faith to help him recover from his tragic loss.
Morgan, 55, spoke to People about his poignant new song, "The Father, My Son and the Holy Ghost," as he continues to heal from the death of his son Jerry, 19, who was tubing on a lake in Tennessee in 2016 when he fell under the water and went missing until his body was found a day later.
"I attribute my healing to my faith," he said. "It’s still difficult. I mean, Jerry is the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing I think about when I fall asleep. There are times when I am angry and I don’t understand it, and then there are times that I am joyous that we had him for 19 years. You have to let those joyous moments steer you away from the anger."
Morgan woke up in the middle of the night one day and wrote the song, he told People. He first performed the song in an emotional performance at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, in June.
"I walked off the stage, thinking I might never perform it again," Morgan said. "But standing there was Ricky Skaggs, and he told me that I simply had to perform it again. I had to get through this and find a way to share this song with as many people as I could."
He decided to record the song in the studio and release it publicly, where it has been championed by country star Blake Shelton.
"I would gladly give up my spot on country radio to get this song on..Wow @cmorganmusic you blow me away brother,'' Shelton wrote on Twitter. "There’s nothing easy or fun about writing a song like this but sometimes it’s just something you gotta do."
Morgan admitted that the loss of Jerry is still so raw that he avoids discussing it with fans.
"Very seldom do I do meet and greets anymore because I just don’t know if I could do them,” he said. "People are so kind and I’m so grateful for their concern, but I know that they would want to talk with me about Jerry, and it’s always going to be such an emotional thing for me."