Country Star T. Graham Brown Talks Faith, Addiction and Drive to Help Others
By Movieguide® Contributor
Country music star and Grand Ole Opry member T. Graham Brown couldn’t be more grateful for his salvation, America and a wife who loves and supports him.
“I grew up in church. I always went to church. My mama and daddy made sure I went to church, and I think I’ve always been a Christian,” Brown told Fox News Digital on Monday.
“I got baptized early in my life, and I’ve always been a believer in Jesus. I think I just kind of maybe drifted away,” he admitted.
Brown previously suffered from alcohol addiction. He’d try to stop, but then he’d start again, and rehab didn’t help.
He recounted on the “Jesus Calling Podcast” that he’d even been drunk on stage several times. When he’d get home, the first thing he’d do was drink.
“But one morning, I think I finally had my heart right and my head right,” he explained. “I think I was ready, and I can remember it like it was yesterday. I looked in the mirror and I actually talked to myself. I said, ‘Man, what are you doing? You’re about to blow everything. You need to straighten up and do something about this, man. You’re smarter than this.’”
“And I asked God to help me,” he said. “And you know, from that instant — I have not had one craving. I went from looking for a buzz 24/7 to never thinking about it.”
He calls his lack of desire for alcohol “a miracle.”
“I’m 69 years old now, and I guess I was 54, 55 years old when that happened. So I lived most of my life, you know, all bipolared out and drunk and doped up, and all that. But now my mind’s clear,” he said. “Everything’s great.”
“Sheila and I are happier than we’ve ever been. She’s my best friend,” he said about his wife of 44 years. “And another thing. It is wonderful to have somebody that you know has got your back and is sincere about it, that you can count on, man.”
Movieguide® recently reported on another country artist’s journey to sobriety:
“I’m eight years sober this October,” said singer Walker Hayes. “I woke up one day when I was working at Costco. I was working at Costco from 4 to 11 and then writing and then playing shows. And man, it caught up to me. And honestly, I had been drinking since I was probably like 13.”
He continued, “I woke up one Saturday, and I just felt like I was going to die. I felt like physically if I did one more day, something was wrong. And so I stopped, and then one day turned into two and then two turned into a week. And then a week turned into a month. And then I did the whole high on sobriety thing and got into working out and stuff. Kind of traded a bad addiction for some good ones.”
As someone who’s traveled all over the world, Brown believes there’s nowhere quite like home — on U.S. soil.
“I’ve been everywhere the grass grows green. And I’m gonna tell you what. The United States of America is the only place to be for me,” he said.
“I’m sure I could be anywhere I wanted to be, but I like being in the United States of America,” he added. “And I got great hope for America.”
Even though there is much turmoil on earth right now, the “Hell and High Water” singer believes that God still reigns supreme.
“I mean, there’s some craziness going on, you know? But this is what I think. I think that God is on top of it all,” he said. I think God is large and in charge and pulling the strings — and everything’s going to work out just like God wants it to work out. I think that’s just the fact of the matter.”
His wife and “best friend,” Sheila, has been with him for 46 years, and they’ve been married for 44 of them.
“She’s seen me go up and down and all round,” Brown said, adding that he’s “thankful to God for helping me get everything straightened out.”
“If it weren’t for the grace of God and the love of Sheila Brown, I wouldn’t even be here. But I came through all this craziness, and I just like to tell people there’s a way out,” he said.
Sheila knew something was different about Brown but didn’t know what was wrong. After she saw a doctor on TV talking about bipolar disorder, she realized that Brown must be bipolar.
“She told me that she immediately thought, ‘Man, that’s Tony,’” Brown said. “And she said, ‘That’s Tony right there.’ So she tracked this doctor down, and it took a while to get on a waiting list, as he’s a world-renowned doctor.”
“So I was finally diagnosed with bipolar. And, thankfully, there’s medication that can alleviate the symptoms, pretty much.” He said.
While the couple makes their money from Brown’s concerts, they get their fulfillment by following their “calling, our personal ministry,” which is to “help people get sober and stay sober and to educate people about mental illness.”
“That’s really what we care the most about. We’re just trying to help some people, and we feel like it really helps people,” Brown said.
At all of his shows, Brown tells the crowd his testimony.
“My life’s an open book. I just try to give people some hope and let them know that, especially about mental illness, it is nothing to be ashamed of,” the country star explained.
At one of his concerts, a security guard told him that he was happy that Brown talked about “that kind of stuff.”
“I just want people to know this,” Brown said, “Hey, I’m no big deal, no genius or anything like that. I’m just, like I said, trying to save people from trouble.”
He added, “I get to make people happy for a living, see? It’s such a blessing to do that. I think I finally figured out what really matters. And when you get right down to it, that’s what matters.”
Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry inducted the Georgia native as a member in March, and Brown was over the moon.
It “was great, man. It’s the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me,” he said.
“I’ve been singing for a living for 51 years. I’ve been going out to the Opry for 40 years, and I think I’ve got about 400 appearances out there,” he said. “And finally, a couple of months ago, Vince Gill asked me if I’d like to be a member — and I just cried like a baby.”
For him, none of his other accolades compare to this.
“It’s like, I’ve won all the awards and all that stuff. But being a member of the Grand Ole Opry is the No. 1 career achievement for me.”
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