Ashley McBryde Opens up About Pain of Her Father’s Disapproval Over Her Career Choice

Ashley McBryde is sharing some heartbreaking news, in the midst of so much success. The singer, who just won the 2019 ACM Award for New Female Artist of the Year, has already earned both acceptance and admiration from millions of fans.

But the one person whose stamp of approval she wants the most is from her father, William McBryde, a former physician and father. William is currently battling a degenerative disease, making him unable to give McBryde the thing she wants the most.

“Just a few years ago, right when he was first getting sick, we took a trip together,” McBryde told CBS News. “And he said, ‘Well, just tell me something. Promise me that when you’ve made your money and had your fill of all this music stuff, you’ll go to medical school.’”

“You can say anything you want, you know, about me and about us and the music we make, but my daddy doesn’t approve of it,” she continued. “So how bad is it gonna hurt me if you say that?”

McBryde is living the life as an artist that she spent years dreaming about, but she doesn’t tell her father nearly all of what she is doing, at least not anymore.

“I’m careful, the things I share with him, because it’s important to me,” McBryde acknowledged. “And it’s not always important to him … I said, ‘You know, Daddy, I’m not just – I’m not just playing bars anymore. I’m playing arenas. We’re traveling the world.”

“And he said, ‘I’m – I’m proud for you.’ Didn’t say ‘of you,’” she added. “Everybody wants their papa to be proud of them. Everybody does.”

McBryde’s father isn’t the only naysayer she has encountered in her life. After a high school teacher infamously told the singer her dreams were unrealistic, the Arkansas native moved to Nashville anyway, only to be quickly told she needed to change almost everything about her.

“It started with a photoshoot,” McBryde recalled. “This person looks at me and says, ‘I need you to start running twice a day.’ I wouldn’t run if a bear chased me.”

“And it was, ‘I need you to lose 10, 20, 30, if you can,’” McBryde continued. “I’m still trying to lose 10, 20, 30 every day of my life like every other woman in the world.”

Through it all, McBryde, who released her freshman Girl Going Nowhere last year, has resolutely remained more determined than ever.

“This is the only thing I know how to do, and I’m going to do it to the best of my ability,” McBryde maintained. “And when the level ups itself, I will up myself to that level.”

McBryde is also nominated for the ACM Award for Female Artist of the Year. The 2019 ACM Awards will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Sunday, April 7, at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

Photo Credit: Getty images/Jason Davis