Luke Bryan‘s family has faced incredible tragedies, including the deaths of his older brother, his sister, his sister’s husband and his infant niece. Now, in a new interview for Sunday Today With Willie Geist, the country star is opening up about what he’s learned from his heartbreak.
“When Chris passed away, I was 19 years old, fixin’ to chase my dream, and it just totally rocked our family’s world, rocked my world,” the “Fast” singer, now 40, says in a sneak peek of the sit-down, which airs in full on Sunday, April 2, ahead of Bryan’s ACM Awards hosting gig.
“It makes you appreciate chasing dreams,” he adds. “You’re like, ‘Hey, you get one go-round at this thing called life, so you better go after your dreams.'”
Bryan previously spoke about Chris’ death in an interview with ABC News in 2013. “I’m kind of hyperventilating talking about it,” he said at the time. “You never truly … move beyond it.”
He also touched on the death of his sister, Kelly, who passed away from unknown causes just a few days after his Grand Ole Opry debut in 2007. “My only older siblings … gone from the world, in a flash in two, two different, crazy, tragic manners that … we’ll never know and never understand,” he told ABC.
Kelly had three children with her husband, Ben Lee Cheshire, who died in November 2014, seven years after his wife. After his death, the couple’s then 13-year-old son, Til, moved to Nashville to live with Bryan and his wife, Caroline, who are parents of two boys, Bo and Tate. (Til’s older sisters visited frequently.)
“We feel like if we just stay positive through this, maybe we’ll be a positive inspiration for people that had these things happen to ’em,” the country crooner told ABC News in 2015. “You just have to plow on and play the hand that’s dealt.”
