Devin O'Day
Appearances
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
You know what? It's so good to be here. I have had so many people call me about this event. Really? Because autism touches everyone now. It was something that no one knew. Years ago, my mother was a teacher. My dad was a teacher.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
And years ago, the word autism was never used. True. It was special education. Right. It's just, and my mother was one of the pioneers fighting to say, you know what? There are children who don't see well. There are children who don't hear well. There are children who are in wheelchairs because they don't walk well.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
they're children who have things that developmentally are different yeah and she said this is not a one-size-fits-all label right and she really started researching and that's the reason i've gotten so involved in autism i used to babysit a young man in my church a little boy he was so His mother said, he's got autism, so I can't find babysitters for him. Nobody will stay. And I said, I'll stay.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
And we got finished and we started working and we were playing these games. And I said, this child is so brilliant that this world can't contain all that he is. People can't handle this much brain power. You know how we only use 10% of our brains? Yeah. I said, these children that are on the spectrum, sometimes they can handle so much more thought process than we do.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
You know, I knew the people who started the prospect of this. They said, we want to have a show and we want to work with Vanderbilt. And so Doug and Debbie called me and they said, would you do this? And I said, absolutely. You know, because I have so many friends whose children are affected by this. But if your children are affected by it, you're affected by it. That's right.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
And your whole family has got to work with it. I have families. There are families right now that have several children who are on this spectrum.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
I will tell you, I've worked with a lot of entertainers and songwriters that are so genius.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
But now that I know a little bit more about autism, I'd put money that every single one of them is on the spectrum in some way or force. They are in some fashion, they're on the spectrum because the brilliance that I see there, I go, you think differently than other people.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
They're amazingly talented people who are on the spectrum that, you know, there are. I know a young man who's a singer and he's just the most incredible singer songwriter. And I was working as his mentor. And then I just remember when I was.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
Growing up, and I would meet these kids that were... I was in the gifted program when I was in school, and so we'd go and we'd stay in this, like, stay-away camp, and we'd all, you know... Everybody called everybody nerds. You know, we were all nerdy. And these extremely smart kids that were just different. Right. And I thought, wow. Yeah.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
I knew right off I wasn't like them because they could do things in their head that I needed a calculator to figure out.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
And it was really incredible. And I said, you know, we're going to live in a world one day that understands who these people are.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
You know, you're right. But that's the way it is with every disease. You know, I mean, number one killer in the world is heart disease. I mean, the number one. I mean, it killed more than COVID. It killed more than cancer. And as a country, do we understand how to fix that? Yeah, we know how to fix it, but we don't.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
Yeah, and not to think of someone, everyone's got an incredible calling on their life. Everyone. Everyone has a calling. Everyone has a purpose.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
The problem is, is sometimes we don't get to find it.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
You know, or we are told, no, you don't fit into this particular one. So anyway, I think that if we all start looking for our purpose, you know, that's, that's where it starts. Now, how did you get involved in working with autism?
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
And the story keeps getting bigger.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
Yeah. I've always had horses and a young couple had a child on the spectrum and they brought, he was high anxiety and sensory issues. Right. And they said, we don't know how he's going to do with a horse. I said, you know what? I've got a horse with sensory issues.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
And I said, she's really hot and she's really a difficult horse. And I said, I wonder what the two of them will do when they meet.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
Well, I took the show horse and I had her in her cross ties and I introduced them. The little boy was quite terrified at first.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
And then I was talking to the parents and I had my back turned and they had their back turned. And then I turned back around. The horse was gone and the little boy was gone. And they would, oh no. And I got kind of scared. I go, oh, where did he go? And we looked out in the pasture and the sun was going down. And I said, I wish you would look at that.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
This little boy was sitting in the pasture looking at the sunset. And there was my horse that was so high. Wow.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
quietly sitting behind him with her head down with her little nose nuzzling his neck on his shoulder did you get a picture of that i didn't that was when i didn't carry a cell phone every day it was the most beautiful thing and her mother started crying she goes he's never done anything like this that's amazing i said but an animal has a way of sensing yeah and they equaled each other out yeah
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
That's why I have Angel Horse Farm to this day.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Country Music Unites for Autism Awareness
And she was a horse nobody wanted because she was so hot, because she was so high anxiety. So I'm always grateful for those moments when I can take these animals that are misunderstood with children or people that are misunderstood and watching them understand each other.