Brantley Gilbert has consistently been building his career for several years now, with his most recent album, Just As I Am, being his biggest success yet. On October 8, the Georgia native celebrated in Nashville as his “One Hell of An Amen” recently became his fourth No. 1 hit. Go beyond the chains and the tattoos, and you will find one country star who is as down to earth and as humble as they come. Gilbert took time before his party to chat with us about his successes.

You have been quoted before as saying while this isn’t your first time to the top of the charts, you consider this one to be a little different. Why?

We’ve had number ones before, and they are all wonderful experiences. This one was on a different level. It was so personal to me. It’s really close to my heart, and I feel like it had a lot to say. I feel like it did a lot of healing around country. The team read email after email about people going through different situations, and the song helping them through it. That’s the number one benefit of my job. Money is nice, but at the end of the day, the best part of my job is when somebody says “Your song helped me through this situation.”

Can you share one of those stories with us?

One that stuck with me was from this girl who wrote me about her dad, who came home from the Vietnam War, and we all know how people were treated then. She was mad at the world about how people were mad at her dad. Then, when he was starting to get better, he was diagnosed with cancer. It eventually killed him, and she spent years mad at the world, mad at God, but she heard the song, and it made her look at things different. She realized that God didn’t take her dad from her to be mean. Her dad was a fighter, and God needed another solider. It’s stories like that that really punched me in the chest. 

You tied the knot earlier this year with your longtime girlfriend, Amber. How have you adapted to marriage?

For a long time in my life, I was dead set against getting married. But, when Amber came back into the picture, it wasn’t a choice. There wasn’t anything I could do. She’s always had a big piece of my heart, and I think that had a lot to do with why I never could give a lot of myself away. She’s my best friend too, so having somebody to share all of this with, and someone who knows me very well is a great thing. There’s nothing like having somebody who loves every single bit of you that you love the same way. 

It’s been about a year and a half since Just As I Am was released. What can you say about the follow-up? 

We operate on a different kind of time schedule than anyone in this town. We just take our time. I’ve looked at a couple of ideas. The last one was Just As I Am, and I’ve kind of thought about An Open Book, because I feel I am an open book. Between the tattoos and what comes out of my mouth, you know who I am real quick. When the recording process starts for me, I go through my entire catalog, every song, every idea. On the last album, there were three or four songs that I had started years ago, and had never finished. They just matched up with where I was in my life. There’s been some ideas in the air about doing an acoustic record, which a lot of people will think is off the cuff for us, but there is that side to me. There are songs that we put out that are a little more vulnerable. I don’t have a very vulnerable side, but once you hit it….you hit it. If you tap into that, there are several songs that will fit right into that spot. It would be something different, and offers people a completely different aspect to everything they know about me. 

You have been very supportive of the troops, from playing benefits for them all the way to your recent Chattanooga Rising concert, which helped raise money for the survivors of the four Marines and a Navy sailor that were killed in the city on July 16. Tell us more about that. 

You know, God blessed me with a platform a lot bigger than I need. I’m not a big dude, and I don’t require a lot of spotlight. I don’t really know what to do with it. I live my life and write songs. I’m more of a songwriter than I am an artist, I think. I write about my life. I had to pass up an opportunity to go overseas on a Christmas tour, and it really beat me up. I made them promise me that if I didn’t go this year, I could do it next year. We try to stay in touch with all of the ones I’ve met. I’ve found that a lot of the work I’ve done with the military might not turn into a bigger project at all, but it adds a lot to my life. I invest in relationships, and once I care about somebody, I try to keep up with them and make sure they are ok…the best that I can. I think a lot of these people go through some stuff that takes them up and down, so I find myself on the phone late at night in conversations with people about things that are difficult to talk about that have nothing to do with me. That’s really good for me, and rewarding as well. What I can do behind the scenes is really where I think I can help the most. I’m enjoying that right now.