The Singing Cowboy Faux Painter

I spent the last week knee deep in an online romance about the Pioneer Woman and her one true love, the Marlboro Man. If you haven't read this and you are a hopeless romantic like me, I recommend you start here. Make sure you have the time to devote to it before you start because I can guarantee you will get sucked in just like I did. Reading her story about how they met reminded me of my own story of how I met Brooks, aka Faux Daddy. I'd like to share a little of that with you.

It was January 21, 1996. I was working for a radio station group in Louisville, KY. Our station was sponsoring a band competition at a local night club. It was a fancy schmansy event with girls in evening gowns and guys in tuxes. Bob Cat Goldwaith was the Emcee. A few of us from the station decided at the last minute to go and just wear jeans and try to blend into the crowd. The band contestants had to submit a music video to enter the contest. Our local cable network ran the videos and viewers called in to vote on their favorites. The top vote getters in each category were invited to the awards show to perform. When I saw Brooks perform that night I thought to myself, "That guy is going to be a star. I have to meet him". I had met and had my picture made with tons of music stars over the years that I had worked in radio. I was thinking, "Wouldn't it be fun to have my picture with a big star before he was discovered?" I asked our promotion's director to introduce us and she took this picture.

How many people have a picture with their husband from the night they met? I'm pretty proud of it.

Brooks' band was up for "Best Country Video", "Best Song", and "Best Overall Video". He won all three categories. I'm going to try and find the video and have it converted to a digital file so I can upload that too. The song was called "Under the Old Oak Tree".

So, at the end of the night Brooks asked for my phone number. I always wondered if it was because he thought I had some connections with the music biz since I worked for a radio station. As he would quickly find out, I had zero connections. But, he did call me the next day and the next and so on and so on. We were pretty much inseparable after that first night. After about a year my radio stations were bought out and I wanted to move out of the market. My dream was to move to Nashville to work for the BIG 98 WSIX. I landed a job at sister station 107.5 THE RIVER and soon began selling advertising for both stations. Within a year we were married and Brooks joined me in Nashville. Here is a picture of him singing to me at our wedding. He sang True Companion by Marc Cohn. I was crying so hard that I ruined all my makeup. I couldn't catch my breath to say my vows.

So flash forward 12 years and two kids with special needs later. Brooks made a go of it for over 10 years singing in bars and private parties, playing writers nights and trying to get songs published. Here is a song he wrote for me that will give you an idea of why I married him and why I can never stay mad at him. Click on the play button.

Nashville is a tough town to break into. Brooks' singing these days is limited to the choir at church and we are O.K. with that. We have always known that God gave Brooks a special talent and we have tried our best to follow HIS will for our lives. Right now singing in church is where he is supposed to be.