
- Date: December 31, 1969
- Time: 4:00 pm
- Location: Corona Grandstand Stage
Brantley Gilbert lives in Jefferson, Georgia rather than – like so many country stars – Nashville. It’s not that he’s not serious about his music, or his career, but some things run deeper. Or as he sings in “Grown Ass Man” from his platinum Just As I Am, “I got a home.” That home is rich with life, truth, friends, history – and those are the raw materials that have made Gilbert one of only four country artists with back-to-back platinum certified albums.
For Gilbert, who won the 2014 American Music Award for Favorite Country Album for Just As I Am, every album is another chapter in the life the unrepentant good ole boy has led. Whether it’s raising hell, standing tall or bottoming out, Gilbert’s truth speaks to the heart of blue collar life in the 21st century: hard working, fun loving and deeply committed to the people he loves.
For Gilbert, who’s done USO Tours, put together and headlined a benefit show for 80,000 on the river bank in Chattanooga after a sniper killed 5 servicemen at a recruiting facility, met with countless Make-A-Wish kids and wrote the #1 “One Hell of an Amen” to celebrate a life lost after a hard fight to cancer and a pair of friends – one who died in the other’s arms – in the Middle East, it’s how we hold each other up that matters. It’s also what made his latest album, The Devil Don’t Sleep, take so long – and be so large.
“I don’t make fast albums: I have to live my life, let it sink in and then write the songs,” he explains. “For me, I don’t rush the music. I want it to be right. But then I also want to give the fans as much music as they deserve.”