Luke Bryan garnered strength out of tragedy after losing his brother in 1996—a sense of resilience that's continued to help him throughout his life.
In a clip of his upcoming interview on Sunday Today With Willie Geist, the 2017 Academy of Country Music Awards host took a moment to open up about what he learned after the sudden loss.
"When Chris passed away, I was 19-years-old, fixing to chase my dream," he recalled of the day he found out his brother had been killed in a car accident. "It just totally rocked our family's world, rocked my world."
However, while he will always grieve over the loss, he never let it stop him. In fact, he let it motivate him.
"It makes you appreciate chasing dreams, you know," he told Geist. "You're like, 'Hey, you get one go-around at this thing called life and it's very fragile, so you better go after your dreams.'"
Though he put those dreams on hold for a few years to support his mother and work in the family business, his father urged him to continue pursuing his music career and move to Nashville in 2001.
Unfortunately, that was only the beginning of what would be several sad family deaths for Bryan.
In 2007, his sister Kelly passed away at age 39.
"My only older siblings...gone from the world, in a flash in two, two different, crazy, tragic manners, that...we'll never know, and never understand," he told ABC in an interview in 2013.
However, he maintained his faith in God to get him through it and continued to stay strong, despite his heartbreak.
"Losing my brother changed me tremendously and losing Kelly, even more," he told People Country in 2013. "I literally do not take one second for granted."
In 2015, Bryan faced yet another tragedy when Kelly's widower, Bryan's brother-in-law Ben Lee Cheshire died suddenly at age 46, leaving three children behind.
At that point, the singer and his wife Caroline, who have two young sons of their own, made the decision to take in one of their orphaned nephews, 13-year-old Til, and raise him as their own.
Sadly, Bryan's family was faced with another death earlier this year. In February, his infant niece Sadie Brett passed away.
Sadie had been battling an undisclosed infection that affected her liver while also suffering from heart issues. Bryan's rep confirmed to E! News that she died Feb. 21.
Sadie was the daughter of Caroline's brother Bo Boyer and his wife, Ellen Boyer, who gave birth to her in the summer of 2016.
Despite all the tragedy, death and heartbreak, Bryan continues maintain his optimism.
"Your faith has to get you through all that," he said in the 2013 interview. "That's not saying you don't question it. But you just have to revert back to your faith in God's plan, that you'll be together again and that's what you have to go on."