Brantley Gilbert Unfiltered, Part 3: A Future With Kids
Brantley Gilbert used to joke that he's afraid of snakes and commitment. A wedding band is proof he's gotten over at least one of those things, but that's not to say another isn't holding his heart hostage.
"I am mortified of having a little girl," Gilbert tells Taste of Country during this last of a three-part interview. The topic came up after discussed his own childhood and rowdy inclinations. He recalled how his goddaughter has her dad wrapped around her finger. That may be him soon.
"I really don't think my kids will be able to pull one over on me, but I am terrified of having a little girl," he says, this time with more conviction.
Gilbert and his wife of 18 months aren't expecting, but they're preparing. The conversation is ongoing and one gets a sense that as he gets through an album launch — The Devil Don't Sleep dropped on Jan. 27 — they'll get more serious.
"You hear people say that have daughters, 'Oh, I'll go to jail,'" the 32-year-old says. "But no, I really will — I'll go to prison. If a dude comes up my driveway that looks, talks, acts anything like me I'm going to stab him as many times as humanly possible."
Laughter lets you know that he definitely probably maybe isn't serious, but the country-rocker does, by his own admission, enjoy a good fight. Getting past his addiction to alcohol and opiates may have tamed him. Getting married certainly did. But when you listen to the aggression he brings to certain songs on his new album it's clear that emotion is only a whisper away from taking over.
"I may just line the driveway with bikers, my brothers and say, 'Son look, anything you do to her, every one of them is gonna do to you,'" he adds, laughing even more.
Watch all three parts of Gilbert's interview Taste of Country below and learn about how an ugly past still influences this very positive chapter of his life, how those who left him saved him, why he doesn't use the word "sober" and what advice his mother gave him before he got married. You'll get as close as you want to his dark side, but also be introduced to the tender, soft-spoken storyteller that's so much a part of his music.