Ford’s comeback tour at Cape Fear Vineyard & Winery

ELIZABETHTOWN – Record-setting high temperatures visiting Bladen County were joined by a high-temperature outdoor concert as national recording superstar Colt Ford and Confederate Railroad brought a packed-out crowd to its feet for most of the night.

The first big concert of the year was held April 4 at the Cape Fear Vineyard & Winery where the gates opened at 5:30, but concert-goers started lining up at 1 p.m. The concert was set outside with no assigned seats, but people could secure VIP tickets.

By the time the first notes blasted over the crowd, there were already very few seats left. It was a concert that people had been literally waiting for since last June. Ford was scheduled for a June 7 concert which was supposed to be an event from Cape Fear Vineyard and Winery’s series of live music events. The concert was billed as “a night of Southern charm and country beats, featuring Colt Ford’s unique blend of country and hip-hop.”

April 3 of 2024 not only altered the concert in Elizabethtown, but also altered Ford’s entire concert schedule as two back-to-back heart attacks nearly took his life and questions arose as to whether he would ever recover to live a normal life, much less a life of travel, touring and hard-driving music.

“Jason Farris Brown (born August 27, 1969) known professionally as Colt Ford, is an American country rap musician, songwriter, entrepreneur, and former professional golfer. He is also the co-founder of record label Average Joes Entertainment. Ford has released seven albums through Average Joes and has charted multiple singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts,” according to Wikipedia.

He defied the odds as he walked in the midst of several miracles to get back to the stage. Instead of taking a stairway to heaven, he once again climbed those earthly venue stairs to the stage at Brantley Gilbert’s album release party in Nashville, Tennessee, Sept. 16, 2024.

By the time April rolled around, Ford was heavily invested in a different health lifestyle and once again was driven to a grueling and sometimes unforgiving travel schedule. Booked solid. Proving to himself and to the world that he could drive the “hell out of it” – facing fear, kicking butt and taking names.

The appreciative crowd was excited as the tour busses pulled into Elizabethtown. First up, Confederate Railroad took the stage and set the charges for a major explosion as Ford would take the stage that he was robbed of the previous year.

The Railroad was slick and wild and pumped up the crowd. Featuring the incredible rasp of Danny Shirley, the guitar licks by Michael Lamb and of course the always popular Mo (Morgan) Thaxton who many remember from the 14 years he played with Dr. Hook. His unmistakable pure white hair, feathered cap, and walkin’ bass thrilled the audience.

As the bands tore down and set up for Ford, the anticipation was off the charts as people began to come to the stage railing for a premiere look at this historic show. It was one year to the day that Ford experience the heart attacks.

As Ford came out and grabbed a hold of the gun microphone stand wrapped in an American Flag, it was as if people had been ejected from their seats and the decibels were deafening. After just the third song, Ford took off his iconic cowboy hat, the cross around his neck was glistening and his smile filled his face. He fought back a few tears coming on stage – but it only took a few songs to realize he was back. He thanked the audience and told them that they were the reason that he did what he did. He spoke of an appreciation for God, family, country and the incredible feeling that he got with a crowd like he witnessed in E-town.

Before he continued, he said, “I love y’all so much and thank you for welcoming me back to the stage.”

Before the concert I had a chance to sit down and got to hear the heartbeat of a resurrected country singer. He was strong, but humble. He was confident but soft spoken. He was a superstar but he was genuine.

Ford was born in Athens, Georgia, in the midst of the very hot summer of the late ‘60s.

“I grew up in Georgia and been there my whole life,” Ford said. “But I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma, now with my amazing wife Megan.”

He graduated from Clark High School in 1987 and before he became a musician full time, he was a dedicated pro-athlete.

“When I was growing up, I always had a love for music,” he said. “Nobody in my family was a musician, but it was my mom that kind of prepared me for writing music. She would give me a word and told me to rhyme something with it. Also, I was always beatin’ on the dash of the car before there were car seats and it was an interesting time for me.”

He was fine tuning his rhythm and his rhyme. He was being prepared to be something special.

“Athens was such a great place to grow up; it really was,” he said. “You had Georgia football and Herschel Walker and we were a football school. I can remember when I was a senior, there were 15-20 guys who got division one scholarships and we were like national champions. Everybody knew everybody, all the parents knew all the kids – the sports were just great.”

According to Ford, “the Athens music thing was just bubbling.” Athens, Georgia was an underground musical juggernaut at that time and even made the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine.

“I guess I have a singing style like gumbo,” he said. “A lot of stuff mixed in there together. I’m fascinated by music. It transcends politics and religion and it’s such a feeling thing. Everything you learned in life you learned with song. I mean… how did you learn your ABC’s? You sang it. It’s such a powerful thing and it’s frustrating when it’s used in bad ways or for platforms. I just want to hear good songs. I don’t want to hear your political opinions… just write the songs, make the art and let your life lead the people wherever they are supposed to go.”

Ford grew up at time when music was changing. From folk remnants to the storytellers of the ‘70s and into disco and rap when he was going to high school. He said that the first rap he heard was Rapper’s Delight and it made him curious.

“Now, my parents loved Elvis and the old country singers and my dad was rural and didn’t have indoor plumbing until he was 18 years old,” Ford said. “He was living country and didn’t have a choice. I on the other hand was such a strange kid and in the ‘80s I loved the Commodores and Earth, Wind & Fire. I still might just stand on the hill and say Earth, Wind & Fire was the greatest band ever. Just overall for musical balance and so many moving parts.”

Ford who says he’s a drummer at heart made his first record in 1983 which was a kind of rap/country genre.

“I think I was 14,” Ford said. “And here we are. I’m just happy to still be here and Makin’ music.”

As his love for music grew, the competing love in his life was golf. He ended up playing college golf and then went on to bigger and even better things.

“I played college golf at the University of Georgia,” he said. “I then played on the pro-tour for 10 years and was a collegiate All-American. I did that pretty seriously before I did music. I played in probably 20 or so professional golf tournaments around the world.”

Happy that Happy Gilmore 2 is coming out, he would have had a chance to play a part in that movie had he not had health issues. John Daly is to this day a good friend and supporter of Ford.

Ford is frustrated because he has little recollection of what happened during the health scare.

“I don’t remember any of it,” he said. “I don’t remember the bus ride out to the show or any of the conversations. I don’t remember one single thing. I played that sold-out show and afterward one of my crew members and I walked to the bus. He took my ears off and he told me later, the last thing I said to him, was ‘man I’m gettin’ too old for this…’ He walked off and I sat down in the front lounge and fell over.”

Ford’s bass player luckily came onto the bus and found him and then according to Ford, all hell broke loose.

“I woke up eight days later,” he said. “I don’t remember any of it. What I do know has been told to me.”

He went into a coma for eight days and the doctors actually lost him twice on the operating table.

He jokes about it today when he says that he figured if it was worth doing it once, he’d try it a second time. The humor helps him get past the somber of those early moments on those first days when he actually found out what happened.

“I died twice, they put me on ECMO,” (Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a critical care treatment that acts as a temporary substitute for the heart and/or lungs when they are unable to provide sufficient oxygen and gas exchange. It’s essentially a heart-lung machine that circulates blood outside the body, oxygenates it, and returns it to the body.) he said. “That’s the final ‘hail Mary.’ If that didn’t work, well, then that’s just what it is.”

Ford said that at the time he had no concept of how sick he really was.

“April 4th was one year to the day,” he said. “Here I am still piecing it together all the things that have happened to me. It’s affected my body in different ways and I’ve been through a lot. I’m still not quite there as far as being fully recovered. I don’t think I’m even close.”

He has gone through hours of cardiac rehab and physical therapy.

“Now I’m just trying to exercise more and changed all my eatin’ habits,” he said. “Also, I’ve always been the kind of kid that nobody could figure out, and once I had my mind made up – that’s it. It’s like going back on the road. People may think it’s crazy, but I’ll probably never stop makin’ music. I just can’t turn it off and maybe one day I’ll have to go off the road, but the music will never stop.”

There was a time when he was touring and rubbing shoulders with the elite in golf. He also went on to be a golf pro – giving lessons and helping a lot of people with their game.

“I was really good at that, but I just couldn’t make the music go away,” Ford said. “It never went away from me. It was too engrained in me. People ask when I got into music, and I always say I don’t know, but its rather, music got into me.”

As for golf, he says that he’s just not that guy anymore and he hasn’t picked up a club since the accident, but he sure knows how to handle a flag shrouded gun stand hooked up live to a hot microphone.

“I do believe that old clique’ that everything happens for a reason,” he said. “You end up in certain places. I’m a Christian and I think that God just wasn’t ready for me and He had more for me to do. I’m going to try to get up every day and try to do that.”

He finished by saying that his wife and himself are leaving the past behind and are looking toward their future. A future that hopefully includes healing, a few grandchildren and perhaps some new songs. Wisdom is now telling him at middle age to begin to impart some of the wisdom that his father passed down to him.

“I think we are supposed to help that next generation,” he said. “I love teaching and mentoring. But over it all, I just love the music and I’m going to let it take me where it takes me. And yeah, when you are an artist making the most out of your life, there will be haters… but I tell people all the time, man, you may not love Colt Ford, but you ain’t gonna stop Colt Ford from loving you.”

And the legend lives on.