Colt Ford didn’t die at the beginning of the year.
He died twice.
At least that’s Ford’s own statement. He said doctors had to bring him back twice after he suffered a heart attack and collapsed following a show in Arizona in April.
- WANT MORE COUNTRY MUSIC NEWS? CLICK HERE.
Since then, it’s been a slow road back for Ford, but he’s still around and promising to make new music for his fans one day. And Tuesday was a big day for the singer, as it was his 55th birthday. That was something he was obviously not promised after his medical emergency, and that was not lost on Ford.
“What’s up, guys?” he said in a video posted on his Instagram. “This is Colt Ford. Man, it’s been a rough time since that heart attack and I’m so thankful for my wife, my family, my friends, my kids and everyone who has stood by me and supported me. And thanks for all the birthday wishes.
“I haven’t cared about birthdays that much in a long time, but today it’s very important to me because I never thought I’d have this one,” he continued. “So, thank you all. I’ve been given a second chance at life and I’m glad I’m here and enjoying it to the fullest.”
“I love you all.”
Ford has been gradually returning to social media in the months since his heart attack, revealing just last month that he had to go to the emergency room a few times.
“I’ve been fine, but this week has been a bit of a struggle for me,” the singer said in the video he shared to his account at the time. “On Monday I had this crazy… I found out and had to go to the emergency room. I had a crazy infection, my foot was swollen to three times its normal size, red, I couldn’t even walk on it. They gave me antibiotics and that helped for the first two days and then I woke up today and one of my wounds that had been closed for two weeks suddenly burst open and I was bleeding everywhere. So I went back to the emergency room and got that fixed.
“But the devil won’t get me,” he added. “Yes, the setback is not as good as the return. See you soon.”
Ford revealed some details of his medical ordeal in late April when he called into the radio show “Big D and Bubba.”
“It was a traumatic, crazy experience,” Ford told the hosts. “I didn’t even remember coming here to do a show in Phoenix.”
Ford had just boarded his tour bus after his performance at Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row Bar when he texted his fiancée, “Hi baby.”
“And then I dropped dead,” he said.
Ford said that luckily his band stopped by to check on him and found him. And, he said, country music star Brantley Gilbert took care of getting him to the hospital and eventually arranged for him to be transferred to another hospital when the hospital they were at didn’t have the proper equipment to treat Ford’s heart problem.
“He said, ‘I don’t care what you do, take him to the other hospital,'” Ford said of Gilbert.
Ford said he died during transport to the other hospital.
“You brought me back,” he said. “You saved my life. The Lord had more for me to do.”
He added that one of his doctors told him he did not give him a one percent chance of survival.
“He said, ‘I would give you a 0.1 percent chance of survival,'” Ford said.
“My body and my heart were so traumatic,” he said. “I had three stents put in.”
Ford, who has worked closely with Toby Keith, Jamey Johnson and Jason Aldean, has also struggled with health issues. Taste of Country reported last year that he suffers from myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disease.
He also reportedly suffered from eye cancer and had to undergo surgery three years ago.
Ford, whose real name is Jason Farris Brown, is a former professional golfer. He has released eight studio albums, his first in 2008 and his latest, “Must Be Country,” in 2023.
