Why Brantley Gilbert Is Taking Up Golf
Brantley Gilbert and his wife Amber are going to become parents in November. So he's trying to become a father figure -- in more ways than one -- before the baby arrives.
"I'm trying to find some 'dad hobbies,'" Gilbert told Billboard. "So I have been trying golf for the past four months."
He is also preparing for the baby by getting some parenting tips from his mom Becky.
"She always has great advice. I think we all think that about our mothers," he said. "She raised me and put up with me, so she definitely has had some helpful advice to raising this little fellow."
Gilbert had even written a song about his mom and dad -- "Modern Day Prodigal Son" -- which became the title track of his 2009 debut album.
But when he was just a teenager, playing that song in motorcycle clubs and VFWs, he had become friends with the older guys who frequented the clubs.
"They weren't the richest or the most polished, but the life lessons that they had, the way they cared about each other really spoke to me," he recalled. "There was this one guy who ran with them, and he was this big mountain of a man. I thought he hung the moon.
"I sat down with them one night, and they asked me to play some songs, and I played that one. After I did it, this guy came up to me with tears in his eyes. He said, 'I just thought I'd let you know that song spoke to me, and I can relate to that. My mom used to tell me some of the same stuff.'
"That really blew my mind for 16-year-old to have someone in their forties that you looked up to tell you that you wrote a song that they could relate to. That really turned the tables for me."