I want this record to be about the listener, and I want to mask my problems.
But that only tells one side of Acuffs story.
The night before that Ryman debut, his father, Pat Acuff, died after a terminal illness.
Colby Acuff learned his father died right before he was to play a show at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.Matthew Berinato*
And she was right.
I knew this feeling, for me, was going to pass, he continues.
But also, Ive lost 10 or 11 friends to suicide, unfortunately.
I wanted mental health to be a big pillar for this record.
He moved to Nashville two years ago, shortly after his fathers diagnosis.
By the time I got back home in November, I just felt crazy hollow, Acuff says.
So, I started writing.
I feel like I ended up dealing with a lot of my demons in this record.
Yeah, its super heavy, but its my best writing yet.
Pat Acuff died Feb. 9, before he could ever hear the album in its entirety.
American Son, however, was the last song Acuff sang for him.
I played it for him acoustic.
He inspired that song.
He had a lot of wisdom, so I decided to write it down.
That night, he was set toopen for Flatland at the Ryman.
He kept his fathers death to himself, only letting his girlfriend and one of his bandmates know.
My band didnt even know, Acuff says.
I didnt tell anybody, until everybody knew at the Ryman.
I just felt like I needed to tell somebody, and I absolutely broke down onstage.
Like his emo-country contemporaries, his songs caught on with a young, social-media-savvy demographic.
