Ashley McBryde Mourns Loss of Brother

Ashley McBryde’s brother, Clay McBryde has died. The Arkansas resident, whose full name was William Clayton McBryde, Jr., passed away on Wednesday, June 20, at his home. Clay was 53-years-old.

Ashley has yet to publicly comment on the loss of her brother, but she did share a few comments on social media about the challenges of the last week.

“Your band is your family much of the time,” she wrote in one post, along with a picture of her playing with one of her band members. “This week my guys have held me up through something I couldn’t even imagine. Thank you @deadhorsetheband. And thank you for getting me to my family as fast as we can do it. My love for you is unmeasurable. #takemehome #beasts #protected #loved”

In a separate post, the singer shared her nephew’s request to donate to Mission 22, an organization that works to combat the average of 22 veteran suicides that happen every day.

“For those who have asked about flowers and donations, my nephew has asked that we make donations to Mission 22 in my brother’s honor. Please note that the donation is in honor of Clay McBryde. Thank you ever so much,” she said, along with a link to the Mission 22 website.

Clay was survived by his wife of seven months, Tanya McBryde, one son, Bradley McBryde, three brothers, two sisters, his father, William McBryde, Sr., and one grandson.

According to Clay’s obituary, he spent 25 years as an officer with the Russellville Police Department in Arkansas, and more than four years in the United States Army. A cause of death has not been released.

Ashley has been spending a lot of time on the road, headlining her own shows in support of her debut album, Girl Going Nowhere, which was released in March. The record, which includes her current single, “A Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega,” is an inside look of McBryde’s life, from her small-town upbringing to her rising star status in country music.

“Listening to this record will give you a really good overview of me as a human being, and collectively, where we are as a band and as people in this industry,” Ashley told AllAccess.com of her freshman record. “I’ve had my whole life to live, and these songs have been written in the process. Selecting these was really hard, but thank God I had the wisdom of [manager] John Peets and [producer] Jay Joyce to help with that.

“It’s a really, really good Polaroid of us, and it does give us room to grow, also,” she continued. “There were some things we considered putting on the record that we thought maybe it would be best to wait so that we had room to grow. We didn’t want to show up with all of the balloon animals at once, but we did want to give you a solid look at who we are and what we sound like.”

Ashley has not announced any show cancellations. Updates on her schedule can be found at AshleyMcBryde.com.

Photo Credit: Getty images/Jason Davis