As Kentuckian Tyler Childers writes and sings his way to the Grammys this weekend, he's taking a lot of collaborators with him.
"I never thought that I would be a Grammy nominee, ever!" said Kentucky Poet Laureate Silas House.
House wrote the story portrayed in the music video for Childers' song "In Your Love". It features what's believed to be the first gay love story ever told in a mainstream country music video. It tells the story of two coal miners who fall in love in the 1950s. On Sunday, it's nominated for Best Music Video.
"We made the video for rural LGBT people who've never seen themselves in a video before and so I think, for me, that'll be the most moving part of being out there and if, I don't want to jinx it, but if we should win, that's who will be on my mind when we're on that stage," House said.
During the making of the video, House knew what they had was special, but certainly not to this level.
"When we were filming the last scene of the video, the costume designer came up beside me, and lots of people were weeping, and she said, 'I'll see you at the Grammy's,' and I thought, 'Yeah, I wish!'. I could have never dreamed we would have been nominated,"
"It's so strange. It's so beautifully strange! I don't know!" Geno Seale laughed.
Seale thought this kind of thing had passed him by.
"I'm a hot end technician at an automotive glass plant. That's what I do, long hot hours. It's a great job, pays the bills. That's what I do for a living,"
He started writing songs 30 years ago, and had sort of fallen out of it until a few years ago when a coworker let him know about a new Kentucky songwriter.
"There was a period of time where I wasn't playing music. Life just happens. I have a family and I have a full-time job and those kinds of things, and there was a co-worker, Dustin Woolery, and he asked me, 'Hey man, have you listened to this guy named Tyler Childers?' That's several years ago now, and I hadn't. It's so funny, he clicks on a work computer, I hope I don't get in trouble for this later, but I sort of stole a paycheck that day because all I did was listen to Tyler Childers," Seale said. "He really inspired me to sort of take music seriously again. It's always been a serious part of my life, but I went for a period of time where I wasn't doing it and that part of my life, the artistic side wasn't being fulfilled and, man, he lit a fire."
As Childers worked the Kentucky music circuit, Seale developed a friendship with him and finally cowrote "In Your Love" with Childers. Learning of their Grammy nomination together for Best Country Song was overwhelming.
"It feels like this dream that I've had my entire life, I'm 43 years old and being the certain age that I am, you want to get a record deal and you want to tour, and you want to do these things. My life looked differently, and I'm so happy with the way that my life is. When it all worked out this way, the Grammy nomination comes in and I find out, it really does feel like this dream come true, like that was sort of this validation of a dream that maybe you once had," Seale said.
Seale, House, Childers, and the rest of their team are all heading to Hollywood with Kentucky on their minds. House will walk the red carpet wearing a ring made of agate from Estill County.
"It's just another way to carry the Commonwealth with me and to hopefully represent my people the best way I can," House said.
They're all just trying to appreciate what a special moment this is.
"I really don't know. Everything feels like a dream. It's just more and more like how crazy is this thing going to get? In the best possible ways!"
The Grammy Awards are Sunday night at 8:00 p.m.
