That’s what drives Collin Raye.
While some families would give up hope when an unexpected medical thing happens, Collin moved his whole family to Salt Lake City so his grand daughter Haley could see some of the best neurologists in the world. Love is also what has found guided Collin Raye’s philanthropy through the years as he’s been and continues to be an advocate for Child Help USA, Al-Anon & Alateen, a yearly benefit for his hometown of DeQueen, Arkansas and most recently, Haley’s Heroes, a charity that is for children and their parents who suffer through unknown neurological disorders.
Collin’s granddaughter Hiley was a perfectly healthy elementary aged child one day and the next she was quickly descending back into what amounts to an infant. For no diagnosed reason at all. Perplexed, Collin looked to find others out there that were going through what his family was going through and sadly there wasn’t much of a community for these rare, unknown brain problems. Rather than stand there, Collin Raye did what he knew best: He started Haley’s Heroes. “One thing we’ve learned about going through this process, of figuring out what’s happening to Haley, is that there are more people like us.”
“Haley’s Heroes is more for a community for parents to share their own experiences when trying to figure out what’s happened to their children. It’s been a blessing for them and for us.”
Love also drives Collin Raye in his music career. After floating around with a couple of independent record labels, Collin’s back with a larger company in Time-Life Records but the independent spirit is still there. When asked what he liked best about working with the label, Collin said “They truly let me do what I wanted to do. They were and are supportive of what we went in and did.”
“When working with the bigger labels you rarely get that kind of freedom,” he says, “so I feel that, with this record, "Never Going Back," that it is the most me. It’s one, that if my career ended tomorrow, I’d be proud to have as my last.”
The honey-soaked tenor has had a remarkable career filled with multiple number one hits (“Not That Different,” “Love, Me”) and millions of albums sold. He’s certainly in the position where he doesn’t need radio success to have a successful tour but what artist doesn’t want to continue being played on the radio? Collin says that “Never Back Down” is a mixture of styles of songs that he’s always had but now seem to be more “AC” or “adult pop” than what current radio stations play and a lot of that has to do with the fact that labels and radio seemingly pander to their audience.
“It seems that most artists, male artists at least, have to record certain types of songs,” Collin says, “songs that follow the country lifestyle and if I have to hear one more song about drinking beer from a mason jar, I may just go crazy.”
“Back when I was getting a lot of hits, we seemingly had removed that stereotype from the playing field, they were there but were hardly a requirement for artists (to prove their country credibility),” he said.
“Artists like Mary Chapin Carpenter, Dwight Yoakam, Wynonna and Patty Loveless worked hard to prove that country music wasn’t a cliché and that the values found in the music worked for more than just people who are from rural areas.” 
It’s this kind of honesty that people rarely hear and while some folks at the labels may not want to admit this, but they are likely to agree. Some folks in radio seemingly only wantone type of song and it has lead country down a path that takes it away from the folks that loved it the most: people who want good, honest music, people who love country music, the music of their lives.
It’s that honest, pure love of music and what it can do that has blessed Collin Raye and it’s the vehicle that he will continue to help those that need it. Who doesn’t want to cheer for someone who loves enough to help the ones who need the help the most?
If you'd like to help Collin Raye help those children with undiagnosed conditions like Haley's, you can go to his website (click here) where you can donate $5 or more and receive the audio track "She's With Me," a song Collin Raye wrote for Haley.
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