Mitchell Tenpenny Visits Gravesites of His Late Father and Grandfather in Emotional Video for ‘The 3rd’ (Exclusive)

“I thought of it, and I made a decision that I needed individuals to see the identify on the stone and perceive why this tune was written,” the nation star tells PEOPLE

had a tough time deciding if he ought to put his full identify into the highly effective lyrics of his new tune “The third.”

“It was bizarre singing my identify,” Tenpenny, 34, tells PEOPLE in an unique interview. “I didn’t know the way that was going to really feel, to be sincere. I type of struggled with that once we had been writing it. I needed it to really feel like one thing individuals may perceive. Like, that is how I really feel [about my name], and I’m hoping you are feeling the identical about yours.”

And what the platinum-selling artist feels about his full identify ‘James Mitchell Tenpenny’ is satisfaction, because it’s this identify that he shares with each his late father and grandfather.

“I’m pleased with the place I’ve come from and I’m proud that they gave me that identify,” says the “Drunk Me” hitmaker. “However yeah, there’s a stress that comes with eager to ensure you hold your loved ones identify good and clear, to hopefully make them pleased with you.”

And it’s this often-hidden trepidation that Tenpenny faces through the highly effective tune “The third,” which he wrote alongside longtime collaborators , Andy Albert and . “I’ve been wanting to write down this endlessly,” admits Tenpenny. “And the truth that they needed to write down it with me meant the world to me.”

The spine of “The third” has in reality been a very long time coming, because it’s a delicate topic that Tenpenny says he typically discusses together with his spouse, .

“There’s plenty of duty that comes with [passing a name down],” Tenpenny explains. “What am I going to do if I’ve a child too? Do I’ve to present him that identify if it’s a boy? I’ve been pondering quite a bit about it, particularly since my spouse and I are speaking about youngsters. It’s simply one thing that’s been on my thoughts .”

An emotional tune grew to become even moreso for Tenpenny when he went to movie the music video for “The third,” a cinematic magnificence premiering completely on PEOPLE.

“Actually, that was somewhat unusual,” Tenpenny says of visiting the gravesites of his late father and grandfather within the touching music video. “I didn’t know the way I used to be going to actually really feel. Did I wish to go the grave and do I wish to sing? And I thought of it, and I made a decision that I needed individuals to see the identify on the stone and perceive why this tune was written. With out them, I’m clearly not right here.”

It’s a narrative Tenpenny says he’s now prepared to inform.

“Lots of people don’t know that I’m solely one of many third which are alive to at the present time,” says Tenpenny, who misplaced his father in 2014 and his grandfather in 2007. “So, going to their graves within the video was one thing I needed to do. I needed it to be impactful and I believed it will be respectful sufficient that my dad and my granddad can be proud to see it.”

However by no means did anybody anticipate what occurred subsequent.

“We had no concept it was going to rain,” remembers Tenpenny. “We had been out at my home, which is about 35 minutes from the grave website, and we simply felt prefer it was time to go movie the video, and we needed to do it in a single take. The whole lot was feeling proper. And as we get there, the clouds simply begin getting darker. And proper once we began strolling up there to the cemetery, it began raining. And I used to be like, ‘What a second.’”

It was additionally a second that Tenpenny says he has been avoiding as of late.

“I don’t go there on a regular basis,””Tenpenny says quietly about visiting the cemetery. “It’s most likely been, actually, a pair years since I’ve. Generally there’s moments the place I wish to go by after which generally, I don’t know if I wish to take into consideration that proper now. So simply being there was undoubtedly an emotional expertise for me. I’m glad I did it.”

It was this second that joins a myriad of moments and life classes that can quickly discover themselves wrapped inside Tenpenny’s upcoming album , set for launch Sept. 20.

“I might undoubtedly say the album actually covers what I’ve discovered in the previous few years since getting married and hopefully rising up and hopefully maturing,” he concludes. “I wish to be private. I wish to be weak. I need individuals to imagine and know that this music is genuine to me, and I imply the phrases I say.”

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