March 12, 2024 • 7 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Songwriter Aaron Barker tells the story of a life altering event in his life as a father that birthed one of country music's greatest songs. An event that brought him to his knees to pray. And play his guitar.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue here with our American stories. And up
next a story about a song, the story of how
George Strait's Love Without end Amen came to be. Songwriter
Aaron Barker's son was born just two weeks after he
(00:30):
turned seventeen, but he wasn't filled with dread at the
prospect of being a father at such a young age.
Barker's own father, it turns out, wasn't present in his life.
What better way to make up for that absence, he figured,
than to have a boy, a buddy of his own.
I was with him in the hospital, and I thought
(00:51):
to myself, this'll be great. We'll grow up together, he
told a local reporter in Nashville in twenty fourteen, laughing
at his naivete It would take Barker a long time
to learn that fatherhood entails more, much more than being
a friend to his son. More than sixteen years, to
be precise, when his son reached an age when boys
(01:13):
test their father's boundaries patience and love. Here is Barker
talking about this very thing at a songwriter's event in Huntsville, Alabama.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
I had to get on him one night, and he
had driven his car passed where he was supposed to
drive his car both ways. Everything all the rolls are
out the window. So anyway, I had to set him
down and have this talk with him. I got pretty
hot and heavy with it, and when on was a
school night, so he finally went to bed, And after
he went to bed, I was kind of like, it
(01:46):
just dawned on me that it was my time to
be the dad. And so that was kind of a
revelation to me at that point in our lives growing
up together.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
It turns out it wasn't just Barker's son who had
a hard time sleeping that night. The father. It was
still trying to process what had happened to him. He
had his own doubts about how he'd handled things, not
certain he'd administered the proper dosage of discipline to his son.
No father, ever is so Aaron Barker did with a
(02:15):
songwriter who happens to be a Christian, would do let's
take a listen.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
So I sitting there kind of doing what I do.
My guitar has always been like my therapist, so I
kind of call it getting all my knees and playing.
It's somewhere between praying and playing songs. And working on stuff,
but looking for answers that way, and so I was
doing that. I was getting on my knees and playing.
And the question I had was, how can you be
(02:41):
that mad at somebody and still love him that much?
Where does that come from? You know? And this song
is the answer I got that night. It was about
four in the morning, and I also had a co
writer on this, It was God. That's when I learned,
God writes someone lets me put my name on him,
and he didn't mean take publishing on it.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
The answer to that question he was asking God and
to which God had an answer, turned out to be
the song Love Without end Amen, which soon wound up
in country legend George Strait's Capable Hands. The rest was history.
The song spent five weeks at number one on what
is now called the Hot Country charts in April of
(03:24):
nineteen ninety, giving straight his first multi week number one song.
His prior number one songs, all eighteen of them, had
spent only a week at the top of the charts.
Why did the song resonate with so many music lovers
for so long and why does it still resonate today?
Barker had his own explanations, one that had less to
(03:46):
do with earthly concerns and more to do with those
of an eternal variety. The song tells the story of
a trouble making son who sent home from school one
day for fighting, only to find a father who, before
disciplining his boy, shares some secret words his own father
had shared with him when he'd been in trouble. In
(04:06):
the second verse, the narrator has himself become a father
and passes along the very same secret words his father
had shared with him on a night his own son
tested some boundaries. In the third and magnificent final verse,
the narrator dreams that he's died and he's standing outside
Heaven's gate. It is followed by the final chorus, repeated
(04:29):
for a third time, but now imbued with a spiritual dimension,
a deeply Christian dimension that emphasizes God's unconditional love for
all of his sons and daughter. Hears Barker himself singing
that third verse and final chorus.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Left dream bad Dance to that Mando's bird A Gates
suddenly realized the most beisum studies.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
They all have things up, and I'll never let you.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
It's somewhere from the other side, I heard these words.
Listen up to tell you a secret about the words
you see have My Haddaddy says speaking You see that
(05:28):
is the longest love their children, and never the outing.
It's a little with that, and it's a love with by.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
And thank you all right.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
For the fathers out there doing our best to love
our children. Were thankful. Barker chose to memorialize his deepest
struggles and questions that fateful night. His story is the
story of all of us who carry the name of
Father with pride, all of us who believe that being
a good father is the world's most important work. All
of us who believe that in loving our children unconditionally,
(06:23):
we come close to being godlike Here on earth. It's
not too late to join the best club in America,
the Father's Club, and experienced love, unconditional love that never ends.
The story of how George Strait's Love without end Amen
came to be the story of fatherhood and so much more.
(06:44):
Here on our American Stories, Liehabibe here the host of
(07:33):
all American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing
inspiring stories from across this great country, stories from our
big cities and small towns, but we truly can't do
the show without you. Our stories are free to listen to,
but they're not free to make. If you love what
you hear, go to Alamerican stories dot com and click
the donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Go
(07:56):
to Alamerican stories dot com and give
And we continue here with our American stories. And up
next a story about a song, the story of how
George Strait's Love Without end Amen came to be. Songwriter
Aaron Barker's son was born just two weeks after he
(00:30):
turned seventeen, but he wasn't filled with dread at the
prospect of being a father at such a young age.
Barker's own father, it turns out, wasn't present in his life.
What better way to make up for that absence, he figured,
than to have a boy, a buddy of his own.
I was with him in the hospital, and I thought
(00:51):
to myself, this'll be great. We'll grow up together, he
told a local reporter in Nashville in twenty fourteen, laughing
at his naivete It would take Barker a long time
to learn that fatherhood entails more, much more than being
a friend to his son. More than sixteen years, to
be precise, when his son reached an age when boys
(01:13):
test their father's boundaries patience and love. Here is Barker
talking about this very thing at a songwriter's event in Huntsville, Alabama.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
I had to get on him one night, and he
had driven his car passed where he was supposed to
drive his car both ways. Everything all the rolls are
out the window. So anyway, I had to set him
down and have this talk with him. I got pretty
hot and heavy with it, and when on was a
school night, so he finally went to bed, And after
he went to bed, I was kind of like, it
(01:46):
just dawned on me that it was my time to
be the dad. And so that was kind of a
revelation to me at that point in our lives growing
up together.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
It turns out it wasn't just Barker's son who had
a hard time sleeping that night. The father. It was
still trying to process what had happened to him. He
had his own doubts about how he'd handled things, not
certain he'd administered the proper dosage of discipline to his son.
No father, ever is so Aaron Barker did with a
(02:15):
songwriter who happens to be a Christian, would do let's
take a listen.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
So I sitting there kind of doing what I do.
My guitar has always been like my therapist, so I
kind of call it getting all my knees and playing.
It's somewhere between praying and playing songs. And working on stuff,
but looking for answers that way, and so I was
doing that. I was getting on my knees and playing.
And the question I had was, how can you be
(02:41):
that mad at somebody and still love him that much?
Where does that come from? You know? And this song
is the answer I got that night. It was about
four in the morning, and I also had a co
writer on this, It was God. That's when I learned,
God writes someone lets me put my name on him,
and he didn't mean take publishing on it.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
The answer to that question he was asking God and
to which God had an answer, turned out to be
the song Love Without end Amen, which soon wound up
in country legend George Strait's Capable Hands. The rest was history.
The song spent five weeks at number one on what
is now called the Hot Country charts in April of
(03:24):
nineteen ninety, giving straight his first multi week number one song.
His prior number one songs, all eighteen of them, had
spent only a week at the top of the charts.
Why did the song resonate with so many music lovers
for so long and why does it still resonate today?
Barker had his own explanations, one that had less to
(03:46):
do with earthly concerns and more to do with those
of an eternal variety. The song tells the story of
a trouble making son who sent home from school one
day for fighting, only to find a father who, before
disciplining his boy, shares some secret words his own father
had shared with him when he'd been in trouble. In
(04:06):
the second verse, the narrator has himself become a father
and passes along the very same secret words his father
had shared with him on a night his own son
tested some boundaries. In the third and magnificent final verse,
the narrator dreams that he's died and he's standing outside
Heaven's gate. It is followed by the final chorus, repeated
(04:29):
for a third time, but now imbued with a spiritual dimension,
a deeply Christian dimension that emphasizes God's unconditional love for
all of his sons and daughter. Hears Barker himself singing
that third verse and final chorus.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Left dream bad Dance to that Mando's bird A Gates
suddenly realized the most beisum studies.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
They all have things up, and I'll never let you.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
It's somewhere from the other side, I heard these words.
Listen up to tell you a secret about the words
you see have My Haddaddy says speaking You see that
(05:28):
is the longest love their children, and never the outing.
It's a little with that, and it's a love with by.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
And thank you all right.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
For the fathers out there doing our best to love
our children. Were thankful. Barker chose to memorialize his deepest
struggles and questions that fateful night. His story is the
story of all of us who carry the name of
Father with pride, all of us who believe that being
a good father is the world's most important work. All
of us who believe that in loving our children unconditionally,
(06:23):
we come close to being godlike Here on earth. It's
not too late to join the best club in America,
the Father's Club, and experienced love, unconditional love that never ends.
The story of how George Strait's Love without end Amen
came to be the story of fatherhood and so much more.
(06:44):
Here on our American Stories, Liehabibe here the host of
(07:33):
all American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing
inspiring stories from across this great country, stories from our
big cities and small towns, but we truly can't do
the show without you. Our stories are free to listen to,
but they're not free to make. If you love what
you hear, go to Alamerican stories dot com and click
the donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Go
(07:56):
to Alamerican stories dot com and give
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