Cole Swindell's mother, Betty Carol Rainey, passed away recently. The country music star broke the news on Monday evening (Sept. 13) with an Instagram story.
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Swindell's social media post offered no details about the date of Rainey's passing or the cause of her death. He simply posted a picture from an airplane flight back to Georgia plus the caption: "Lost my sweet mom today. I know she's up there. Gonna miss her so much. Love y'all."
The 38-year-old country singer has credited his mom with keeping him humble amid the country airplay success of "Chillin' It," "Break Up in the End" and other career-defining singles from his ongoing run with Warner Music Nashville.
"She's the one that, no matter how stressed out I get, if I wanna be here or wanna be there, she is always the first person to remind me, 'Come on, Cole. Think about it. Me and you would have never thought you'd be where you are right now.' I always say that, but I mean it because it takes someone like her to put it all in perspective," Swindell told PopCulture.com.
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The Nashville-based singer-songwriter lost his father, William Keith Swindell, in 2013. The elder Swindell's death inspired the song "You Should Be Here."
Swindell didn't follow Thomas Rhett's advice and step away from the Center Point Road Tour, which returned on Sept. 16. Instead, he paid tribute to his mother on Sunday night (Sept. 19) at the XFinity Center in Boston with a powerful performance of "You Should Be Here."
"There's no way I'm missing being up here in front of a crowd like this. These people have had my back since day one" Swindell says. "She would want me on stage in front of a crowd like this. People who care. People who matter."
During his stage banter, Swindell revealed that he wrote "You Should Be Here" in the parking lot of Boston's Gillette Stadium. He likened his view of the crowd on Sunday to heaven as they waived Bic lighters and sang along to the country hitmaker's most personal song.
