Country music icon, army veteran, father, outdoorsman—Craig Morgan shares all aspects of his life, revealing stories even his most avid fans don’t know. Written with Jim DeFelice, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller American Sniper. In 1989, as US news outlets declared an end to Operation Just Cause, Craig Morgan was part of an elite group of military operatives jumping into the jungle along the Panamanian border on a covert operation. Fans know the country music star from his hit songs and acclaimed albums, but there’s a lot more to him—a soldier who worked with the CIA in Panama, an undercover agent who fought sex traffickers in Thailand, and a dedicated family man who lives the values he sings.
Jonathan Lowe, reprinted from Porthole Cruise Magazine:
I hit the open seas in search of a little relief from home’s Arizona heat. I didn’t bring cowboy boots or a cowboy hat, but I did pack a western shirt for a country cruise aboard Royal Caribbean International’s Grandeur of the Seas.
The headliners were Chad Brock and Craig Morgan, courtesy of local Arizona radio station KIIM-FM in Tucson, which sponsors a country cruise each year as part of a promotional event.
For his part, Brock — whose hits Ordinary Life and Yes made the Top 40 — wore a Hawaiian shirt, sandals, and a beret. Morgan — whose self-titled CD, Craig Morgan, explores life and love in situations both personal and universal—wore a cowboy hat on board.
Max Morgan, a DJ for KIIM-FM’s “Max & Kris” morning show in Tucson, said they have been organizing country theme cruises for five years, aboard Royal Caribbean, Holland America Line, and Carnival Cruise Lines ships. They typically advertise the cruises on the air, and a few lucky listeners get to cruise for free. On one previous cruise they had artists Kevin Sharpe and Keith Urban, and they planned an Alaskan cruise.
Throughout the week, in which Grandeur of the Seas visited Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta, we were treated to several informal country music performances by Brock and Morgan.
Both artists made their performances enjoyable to non-country fans as well, by mixing things up with humor and supplying the personal context behind their songs.
“People are always trying to decide what’s country and what ain’t,” Morgan said, “but I think it doesn’t matter — not even the boots and hat — so I wrote a song about that.”
Between songs Morgan talked about his past careers as an EMT, a paratrooper, a Special Forces soldier, a police officer, and a Wal-Mart employee, leading up to that fateful day when he learned that he had a recording contract.
When I asked him what he thought of his first cruise, he said he wasn’t a big ocean freak, and had thought that a purser was “somebody who made women’s purses.” After a taste of the country cruise, though, he said he’d discovered that the service was “the best I’ve ever experienced, and I’ve eaten in many fine restaurants, all over the world.” It was rare for him to be traveling with his wife, too, which was “better than sharing a room with my guitar, believe me!”
Brock could also qualify as a stand-up cruise comic. A big man, formerly a wrestler, Brock sees country music as a landscape of the heart, and therefore the music works, even at sea, drinking a margarita and wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
“Emotions are universal,” he said, “and I like keeping things simple, although nothin’ stays the same. We’re all changed by all our experiences. Like being in the Navy or havin’ a baby.”
After the motion of the ship inspired some hilarious antics on stage, Brock concluded “the only thing they ever gave us in the Navy for this was crackers and a bucket.”
(Note: Morgan’s new book is GOD, FAMILY, COUNTRY out in hardcover and on audio with him narrating, from Blackstone Publishing and Blackstone Audio. Ask them for an update to this interview. And check out ROBIN MASTERS TO THOMAS MAGNUM on Amazon for a series mystery story first published in Porthole.)
The headliners were Chad Brock and Craig Morgan, courtesy of local Arizona radio station KIIM-FM in Tucson, which sponsors a country cruise each year as part of a promotional event.
For his part, Brock — whose hits Ordinary Life and Yes made the Top 40 — wore a Hawaiian shirt, sandals, and a beret. Morgan — whose self-titled CD, Craig Morgan, explores life and love in situations both personal and universal—wore a cowboy hat on board.
Max Morgan, a DJ for KIIM-FM’s “Max & Kris” morning show in Tucson, said they have been organizing country theme cruises for five years, aboard Royal Caribbean, Holland America Line, and Carnival Cruise Lines ships. They typically advertise the cruises on the air, and a few lucky listeners get to cruise for free. On one previous cruise they had artists Kevin Sharpe and Keith Urban, and they planned an Alaskan cruise.
Throughout the week, in which Grandeur of the Seas visited Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta, we were treated to several informal country music performances by Brock and Morgan.
Both artists made their performances enjoyable to non-country fans as well, by mixing things up with humor and supplying the personal context behind their songs.
“People are always trying to decide what’s country and what ain’t,” Morgan said, “but I think it doesn’t matter — not even the boots and hat — so I wrote a song about that.”
Between songs Morgan talked about his past careers as an EMT, a paratrooper, a Special Forces soldier, a police officer, and a Wal-Mart employee, leading up to that fateful day when he learned that he had a recording contract.
When I asked him what he thought of his first cruise, he said he wasn’t a big ocean freak, and had thought that a purser was “somebody who made women’s purses.” After a taste of the country cruise, though, he said he’d discovered that the service was “the best I’ve ever experienced, and I’ve eaten in many fine restaurants, all over the world.” It was rare for him to be traveling with his wife, too, which was “better than sharing a room with my guitar, believe me!”
Brock could also qualify as a stand-up cruise comic. A big man, formerly a wrestler, Brock sees country music as a landscape of the heart, and therefore the music works, even at sea, drinking a margarita and wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
“Emotions are universal,” he said, “and I like keeping things simple, although nothin’ stays the same. We’re all changed by all our experiences. Like being in the Navy or havin’ a baby.”
After the motion of the ship inspired some hilarious antics on stage, Brock concluded “the only thing they ever gave us in the Navy for this was crackers and a bucket.”
(Note: Morgan’s new book is GOD, FAMILY, COUNTRY out in hardcover and on audio with him narrating, from Blackstone Publishing and Blackstone Audio. Ask them for an update to this interview. And check out ROBIN MASTERS TO THOMAS MAGNUM on Amazon for a series mystery story first published in Porthole.)
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