Luke Bryan Tributes Late Brother Chris With ‘Songs You Never Heard’

Luke Bryan has gone through a number of tragedies in his life, including the death of his older brother, Chris, who died in a car accident in 1996 at age 26. On Friday, Aug. 6, Bryan released his new IMDb TV five-episode docuseries, My Dirt Road Diary, and to coincide with the series, the country star shared an emotional new song dedicated to Chris.

Titled “Songs You Never Heard,” the track was written by Bryan with Luke Laird and Josh Osborne and celebrates Bryan and Chris’ shared love of country music. “We weren’t just killing time singing ‘Killin’ Time’ / It was the soundtrack of our lives / Chasing girls and growing up / A lot about living, a little ’bout love,” the chorus reads. “Time marches on, there’s a lot of new / Music and memories we’d be drinking to / I think about it and I laugh until it hurts / ‘Cause I can hear you singing along to songs you never heard.”

Chris died when Bryan was 20 years old and set to move to Nashville the very next morning. “When Chris passed away, it was devastating because no one was more fired up about me going to Nashville than him,” Bryan shared in a new interview with Today. Bryan decided to stay in Georgia and go to college before working for his dad, who gave him the push he needed to go to Nashville after all.

“I remember the color of the sky the day we were riding in the truck, and I had the anxiety of asking my dad what did he think about me moving to Nashville,” Bryan recalled. “He was like, ‘If you don’t go, I’m going to kick you out of here. I’m going to fire you. I’m going to make you go.’”

Luke Bryan: My Dirt Road Diary is now streaming on IMDb TV and documents the singer’s life, from growing up in Leesburg, Georgia to becoming a country music superstar. “When you start talking about the loss of siblings, and even the loss of my brother-in-law, you almost feel anxiety of telling aspects of your life that are so tragic,” Bryan noted.

In 2007, his sister Kelly died of natural causes that are still unexplained, and in 2014, his brother-in-law, Ben Lee Cheshire died of a heart attack, leaving behind their three children, who Bryan and his wife, Caroline, took in. “I have to remember, there are people out there that have gone through similar stuff that I have,” Bryan said, “and at the end of the day, we’re trying to just tell the story of my dirt road diary.”