Well... the unimaginable has happened. There's really no other way to say it.
It's the same song that I shared in a blog post a couple of weeks ago and pretty much the same music video... Yet, I'm not the only one singing it now. Someone else is singing with me...
Dolly.
To know what a big deal that is, you have to know Dolly's tie into my wife Joey... She was her hero.
Joey grew up idolizing Dolly. Her very first performance at Cunningham Elementary School back home in Indiana was Coat Of Many Colors. She wanted to be Dolly... To be LIKE Dolly.
And so after high school, Joey packed her things in a horse-trailer and moved to Nashville to make her mark in country music the way Dolly did.
And in the twenty years that followed, Joey made her mark. But not just in country music... she touched the whole world, or at least millions and millions of people who followed her story. Our story. As the girl with the pretty smile and voice battled cancer and trusted Jesus. And when all the prayers didn't work out like she and we hoped they would, continued to smile and trust in Him, even when most of the rest of us probably wouldn't have.
One of those lives that was impacted was Dolly's. Although Joey never got to meet her in person, a few weeks before Joey passed away, Dolly sent her a video. Telling Joey what a big fan she was of hers and encouraging her in her struggle. I remember that night very well. We were all gathered around a tv at Joey's mama's farmhouse, about to watch a movie together. But instead, I put something else on. And we all watched as Joey saw her hero, tell her she loved and admired her.
Her tears, and ours, fell for days... "Sad happy" tears, as Indy says...
Now... fast forward five years. And I record a song on my new album called One Angel, about Joey and the faith she had... and Ben Isaacs shares it with Dolly Parton. And Dolly replies that she doesn't just want to sing harmony... She wants to sing a verse; the email back says. "...and maybe add a few things, if that's okay.
And she did. The voice of an angel, sang for an angel.
Something neither Joey, nor I could've ever, ever imagined actually happening
Thank you Dolly.
And Ben.
God is so good. Even when things go bad.
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* rory's new album Gently Man is available for Pre-Order today on Amazon, iTunes, Apple Music and most other digital retailers where music is sold.
* you can also Pre-order an autographed copy of the new album today at Rory's webstore.
