Wounded Warrior Overcome With Emotion Addressing Crowd At Brantley Gilbert Concert

Facebook/Brantley Gilbert

Country star and all-around badass Brantley Gilbert has always been very vocal about his support for the military.

In 2015 he joined the organization Wounded Warriors for a motorcycle ride from Houston to Baton Rouge and back called the Rolling Odyssey. There, Gilbert formed a bond with a certain soldier, who wanted to show Gilbert his appreciation for supporting veterans the way he does.

Staff Sgt. Justin Patterson, who suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from his time overseas, told Gilbert, “I have not been out of the house for over two years with my PTSD, I mean I go to the grocery store.”

“What you are doing for us, you have no idea what that’s doing for us soldiers,” Patterson continued. “Man, I got goosebumps. I don’t know any other way to thank you. I can’t give you a Grammy or a country music award, I could thank you a million times, but for me, I got a gift for you.”

Patterson reached in his pocket and said, “My blood, sweat and tears are on this and that’s how I earned it.” And then he did something none of us saw coming, he said, “I’d like to give you my first purple heart.”

At that moment, Patterson was in tears and Gilbert was speechless. Since that day, the two have remained close and have publicly met up a few times. 

Over a year later, Patterson joined Gilbert at his October 15th concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado to close out his Take It Outside Tour.

“To take time out of his busy ass schedule to make it about the Wounded Warriors,” Patterson told the crowd before breaking down into tears. He then told the story of giving Gilbert his purple heart and the crowd began cheering and chanting “USA! USA!”

After embracing one another, Patterson told the crowd, “Don’t ever forget, the real heroes never came home , the only way you can honor them is to never forget, just like Brantley does every time he’s around. He helped save my life. Thank you.“

This moment explains so much about Gilbert’s character and that his support for the military truly does go a long way. Watch the emotional video below.