A pretty remarkable American Idol moment took place when Colby Swift, an aspiring 19-year-old country singer, took the stage.
Colby had never sung in front of a big audience before and had never taken a single voice lesson. In fact, he said he'd never even traveled out of his home state of Texas before! Regardless, his rendition of "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" by Freddy Fender blew the judges away.
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After his performance, judge and country superstar Luke Bryan felt a kinship toward the young cowboy. "Well, I don't know if a kid has ever walked in here and been more me at 19," he remarked.
Then something very unexpected happened. Luke asked Colby to lift up his feet and show him the soles of his shoes. They were tattered, torn up, and worn out… the holes went straight through to the bottom! "What size shoe are you, Colby?" he asked.
Luke is well known for being an all-around good guy. Luke's sister, Kelly, passed away from unknown causes in 2007 while she was at home with her then-toddler son. Her husband, Ben, went on to raise their three kids. Sadly, in 2014, Ben also died suddenly. Luke and his wife Caroline immediately decided to take all three of the children in as their own.
So it came as no real surprise when Luke performed an act of kindness for Colby that moved the audience members to tears.
