“The one thing that I think country music fans and certainly singers, I think what we all really can appreciate and think about a lot about is the soldiers and their families. I mean, on the most basic level, I think, for me on the road, I just think about being gone two, three days at a time, maybe a couple weeks at a time. That seems like a long time when you have kids and family, but these soldiers, they’re gone for months, years at a time. They’re doing 12 to 15 to 18 months deployments. Four deployments in, they have family back home. That in itself is such a huge sacrifice and that’s just the beginning of it. That’s just scratching the surface of what these guys are doing every day. Preparing for battle, actually being in battle, being wounded in battle, sometimes dying in battle. And so this country obviously would not exist without those courageous men and women and our future depends upon them. And I think what’s great about Veterans Day and the Wounded Warriors Project was just something we’re working very closely with is it’s not just about their hurrah, hurrah, troops, we support you guys, and it’s about the long term, hurrah. It’s about being there for them, being here for them when they come back and helping them come back. Certainly the guys have been wounded, coming back to uncertain times in their lives as far as their health goes, as far as reconnecting with their family goes, and finding a job. It’s just really uncertain for them when they come back to this country. So… I think Veterans Day, it’s something that happens once a year, but I think in the country community it really is something that we are and need to be thinking about 365 days a year because those folks need us.”
