Memorial Day marks the unofficial start to summer, but if you're like Brantley Gilbert, you may have some conflicting thoughts about "celebrating" what is a pretty somber holiday.
“I went through a phase where I was really weird about celebrating Memorial Day, just because I felt weird if I just went and got on a boat somewhere and just partied. I always felt like I was bein’ disrespectful," he admits in a statement from his label. "But I had a conversation with a buddy of mine, Tig.
"I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie 13 Hours," he continues. "That’s about the Benghazi thing. He was actually involved in that 13 hour fire fight. He’s just an incredible dude, but he’s been an awesome guy that I can call and be like, ‘Hey man, what’s okay and what’s not?’ I called him, and I was like, ‘Man, just out of curiosity what is the sentiment for Memorial Day? What is that supposed to be for a civilian?
"'Cause I remember, I was at the lake and I’d been talking to folks all day, kinda seeing what everybody else was up to, and everybody was partying. And I just honestly got curious, so I called him, and he’s like, ‘We want people to have a good time. I can’t speak for everybody, but speaking for me, that’s what we fought for. A lot of what we fought for was so people have the freedom to celebrate. And we celebrate the memories of the guys and girls we fought with.’ And he said, ‘We don’t look down on that at all, but it is important just to take a moment of silence and make sure you take the time to be reverent for a minute and pay your respects.’
"So I thought that was pretty cool.”