Michael Ray Shares His Family's Painful Stories in 'Her World or Mine' Video (Exclusive)

When Michael Ray released the video for his current single, "Her World or Mine," it wasn't just his story he was telling, but his family's as well. The song, from Ray's latest Amos album, stars Chad Michael Murray in the video, which covers several personal and painful topics, including Ray watching his parents divorce when he was a child.

"I cried when we were making it," Ray told PopCulture.com. "There are some moments in that video that are hard for me to watch. One thing I wanted to really do that I haven't done yet is really dive in deeper to a video and show different sides of my story that I feel like we haven't really addressed yet, that a lot of people live with or deal with on their own. I think that God gives us this platform and we should use it to connect with people that might feel lost or might feel confused, or might feel alone and realize that, 'Hey other people have also gone through this and it's okay.'

"One of those being my mom and dad's divorce, which is the main storyline of the song," he continued. "Next, is my little sister who was involved in an abusive relationship, which was another segment of the video. And then I lost my grandmother at the beginning of this year. And so the video's dedicated to her and the funeral scene when they zoom in on her hands – my grandmother wore big silver turquoise rings on every finger. All ten fingers. And so, when we were shooting it, I said, 'Stop, stop, stop, she has no rings on her fingers. We gotta put rings on them.' We found rings that literally looked like my grandmother would have worn them."

The whole video was challenging for Ray, but especially honoring his beloved grandmother, whose absence is still painful for him.

"I walked back to the director's chair where the directors were sitting and I saw it, and I was like, 'I cannot look at that,'" Ray recalled. "So that's in the video. It's almost too real for me to witness, but it's been really cool to see the story. I feel like 'Her World or Mine' can go way deeper than just a break-up. I feel like, in a relationship or in death, you lose somebody. When I lost my grandmother, I think the meaning of 'Her World or Mine' took a different thing for me 'cause I felt like she was gone and I was stuck. I was the one stuck here trying to figure out how to put life back together after losing someone of her stature of our family."

Thankfully, Ray's family was okay with him sharing their own stories as well as his, especially his father.

"I asked before I did it," Ray explained. "I was like, 'Do I ask or do I just show 'em?' They were very kind. They knew that my meaning behind it was not to air out dirty laundry. It was about awareness. It was about being able to share my platform to hopefully inspire somebody to get through something that maybe they're going through. And I made em all look good. I had Chad Michael Murray playing my dad so he was cool with it. My dad was like, "All right, if he's playing me, I'm cool with it." But they were all sweet about it."

Photo Credit: Getty / Steve Jennings