Watch Craig Morgan Perform ‘The Father, My Son and the Holy Ghost’ on ‘The Kelly Clarkson Show’

Craig Morgan performed his heartbreaking song, “The Father, My Son and the Holy Ghost,” during a recent appearance on Kelly Clarkson‘s The Kelly Clarkson Show. Blake Shelton, who helped propel the song to No. 1 on iTunes, surprised Morgan by appearing on the show, and sat and watched as Morgan gave a stunning acoustic performance of the single.

Prior to his performance, Morgan shared how Shelton unexpectedly got involved with promoting “The Father, My Son and the Holy Ghost,” written about the loss of his 19-year-old son in a drowning accident three years ago. Shelton’s involvement in the song stunned Morgan in the best way possible.

“I didn’t have a clue,” Morgan told Clarkson. “I had texted Blake that song right after I recorded it. I sent it to him and I didn’t hear nothing. He didn’t say a word to me. Blake lost a brother, so I thought maybe it was a little too close to home for him to have a conversation with me about it. And then later on, maybe a month later, I sent him another text, and he replied to me. It was a picture of something, not about the picture I sent him, but about the song.”

Shelton also opened up about the song, and why he reacted so strongly to it, when he finally heard it.

“I think it’s easy to connect that song to anything that’s happened in your own life, because Craig’s been a friend of mine for so long,” Shelton reflected. “Gwen and I were actually at the funeral. I didn’t connect it to anything. It was his story, and it hit me that hard, just knowing him. It’s a horrible tragedy. I can’t even imagine, but man, it’s just such a great, great song. And he had sent it to me probably a month before I reacted to it. I’m a great friend, aren’t I?

“But when the kids are around, I have zero access to my phone,” he continued. “And I even knew that there was an attachment there, but I couldn’t get my phone back … He texted me about something, he was elk hunting or something, and I saw it. I was like, ‘Oh crap. I didn’t even respond to the first one.’ I was by myself at the house, and I lost my mind. I literally lost my mind.’”

Morgan admits that it is still hard for him to discuss the loss of Jerry, but he knows he needs to, not just for himself, but for others.

“Talking about this is very difficult, but it’s also a wonderful thing,” Morgan acknowledged. “It’s like the song, he’s not physically here, but he’s still very present in our lives … It gives me confidence to know that, even though I didn’t want to do the song – in fact, the first time I did it, I didn’t finish it. I couldn’t even finish the song, and I apologized to the audience. I said that I don’t know that I’ll ever do it.

“The guys worked it up, and we did it on the Grand Ole Opry,” he continued. “I barely got through it and I walked off, and Ricky Skaggs was standing there. He said, ‘That is a beautiful song,’ and I said, ‘Well I’m glad you got to hear it because I’ll never do it again. I’ll never be able to do that again.’ He put his hands on my shoulder, and he said, ‘You have to sing that song. There are people that need to hear it. You have to do it.’”

Download “The Father, My Son and the Holy Ghost” on iTunes.

Photo Credit: Getty / Al Pereira