Joey + Rory Feek Pay Tribute to Their Manager and Cousin Aaron Carnahan

The Bible says that a friend sticks closer than a brother in our times of need.  This is particularly true of Aaron Carnahan. Carnahan is the cousin, best friend and manager of Rory Feek.  They knew each other their whole lives.  Now that Joey Feek is dying of terminal cancer.  Aaron pays a visit to the Christian and country music duo.

Of their friendship, Rory writes: "Some things are meant to be. They're bigger than us. Bigger than coincidence. And the only way you can explain them is... God."

It was also Carnahan who first predicted that the couple would sing together, which they had never imagined. He left the ministry to become their manager in 2012, and over the years has played multiple roles in their lives and career.

"Though he is technically our manager, he doesn't really manage us or our career. Not really," Rory writes.

"He just loves us ... Aaron has babysat, mowed our lawn, painted barns, fixed broken sewer lines, grocery shopped, killed skunks, weeded our garden, cleaned our house, and a million other big and small things that have nothing to do with his job - all to help make our dreams come true and our lives better."

Rory and Aaron almost live parallel lives.  Rory explains:" While in the service, I got married, had two daughters and was divorced within a couple of years.  He too got married, had two daughters and divorced.

His third child, Greg, who is 25 now, has down syndrome.  My third daughter, little Indiana with her sweet almond eyes, didn't come along for me until many years later.

In the mid-90's while I was still new to Tennessee, chasing my dreams and struggling to find myself and God, Aaron was 500 miles away in Illinois going through the same thing.  Not long after he became a Christian, so did I.  It was Aaron's journey to faith that played a huge part in leading me to find mine.

His second marriage to Jill Hodel was the vision of marriage that I had always hoped for and dreamed of.  So beside my bed each night, I prayed that God might bring someone special into my life, like He had brought to Aaron.

Not long after that, I was playing a show at the Bluebird Cafe and a beautiful brown-eyed girl with a boy's name was in the audience listening.

Joey and I got married in 2002."

Moreover, just as Joey has cancer, Carnahan's wife also had cancer.  Thus, when he got the phone call that doctors thought Joey had a tumor on her cervix, he burst into tears.

"And now, here we are in 2016 and Aaron's still managing... us... our music... and where life has led us. But mostly I think he's just doing his best to manage the pain he feels. He wants so desperately to fix this for us, but he knows he can't," he writes.

"We are here because God wants us here. Aaron knows that. We all do ... I think he's cried more tears over what is happening right now than all of us put together."

Feek ends his touching tribute to their lifelong bond with a birthday wish for Carnahan, who turns 48 on Friday. "Aaron, Joey and I want tell you that we love you more than these, or any other words can say."

 

 

 

 

 

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