Brantley Gilbert is sharing the story of his new son’s name. The singer’s wife, Amber, gave birth to their third child, son Abram Howell, on his tour bus in October while Gilbert was on his Off The Rails Tour. The infant joins big brother Barrett, who is six and his big sister, five-year-old Braylen at home.
“[Amber] wanted an A name because both my daughter and my son are B names,” Gilbert shares. “She brought the name up. It’s biblical. Abram was the name of Abraham before God called on him. I love the name. And his middle name is Howell and that’s a family name of hers. He gets my last name and he’s got an A name so she’s not alone, and I was cool with it.”
Gilbert’s seventh studio album, Tattoos, was released in September. It’s the first record that Gilbert released that the title didn’t reflect his strong Christian faith, but he says that Tattoos still shows his personal beliefs.
“Up to this point, all of my albums have had a title track or the title of the record itself be something about my faith,” Gilbert tells Forbes. “This one is obviously different, but if you look at my tattoos, I have a lot of tattoos about my faith. And they tell my story, like my records in the past have.”
The Georgia native had no idea when he was performing in Mississippi on October 11 that he would leave the show with a newborn baby.
“So last night might have been the craziest night of my life,” Gilbert wrote on social media after Abram’s arrival. “Watching such an amazing woman do such an amazing thing is something I’ll never forget. Thank you to our road family for rallying around us, Brittany Thornton for helping us bring this little dude into the world, Tupelo, Mississippi for showing us mad love and support, and most of all… Amber Gilbert, for letting me love you and showing me EXACTLY how incredibly strong a woman can be. I love you.”
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Gilbert later praised Amber, whom he wed in 2015, for how well she handled the unexpected arrival of her third child.
“You hear during the entire pregnancy that when they get here, when you hold them for the first time, everything will set in,” Gilbert said. “It’s just this life-changing moment. And I was like, ‘All right, so I’ll write a song about that.’ But like against the advice of almost every man I know that said, ‘Don’t look down there. Don’t look,’ I watched everything. I mean, everything.
“And while it was beautiful, I gained so much respect for women,” he continued. “When they say women are tougher than men, they mean it. And it was an amazing thing to watch, and I’ll never forget it. But that being said, it’s not something to write a country song about. It’s just not.”
Gilbert is back at radio with “Over When We’re Sober,” featuring Ashley Cooke. Find all of Gilbert’s music and upcoming shows at BrantleyGilbert.com.
Photo Credit: Brian Vuaghan