Luke Bryan: Grief, Faith, and Music

All There Is with Anderson Cooper

CNN

Society & Culture

4.8 • 8.7K Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Luke Bryan is one of country music’s biggest stars. He's also faced great loss. In this personal and revealing conversation with Anderson, Luke shares how faith, family, and music have helped him "do what you do to get through." Join the community to share your story and watch Anderson's weekly streaming show All There Is Live at cnn.com/allthereis Host: Anderson Cooper, Showrunner: Haley Thomas, Producers: Chuck Hadad, Grace Walker, Emily Williams, Video Editor: Eric Zembrzuski, Technical Director: Dan Dzula. Booker: Kerry Rubin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to a new season of All There Is.
0:10.0	I started this podcast three years ago while going through my mom's apartment after she died.
0:15.0	She was still so present in those rooms, and it was hard letting them go,
0:22.6	just as it had been hard letting her go when she died.
0:28.6	My mom saved everything.
0:30.6	There were hundreds of boxes of things to sift through,
0:33.6	including what my dad, Wyatt Cooper, left behind
0:35.6	after he died of a heart attack nearly 50 years ago when I was 10,
0:39.2	and what my brother Carter left behind when he died by suicide 10 years later.
0:44.9	I found grief to be so confusing and lonely, and I started asking people about their experiences
0:51.5	because I was desperate to understand my own.
0:55.0	Stephen Colbert was one of the first people whose wisdom helped.
0:58.0	You told an interviewer that you have learned to, in your words,
1:02.0	love the thing that I most wish had not happened.
1:05.0	I remember.
1:16.6	You went on say, what punishments of God are not gifts? Do you really believe that?
1:18.6	Yes.
1:21.6	It's a gift to exist.
1:26.6	It's a gift to exist.
1:27.8	It's a gift to exist.
1:29.8	And with existence comes suffering.
1:33.0	There's no escaping that.
	...

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