Send us a textCountry music and autism awareness come together at Nashville Palace for "An Acoustic Evening for Autism," where artists use their platform to support families affected by autism through the newly formed Country Music Autism Awareness Foundation.• Doug Mathis explains how his song about an autistic boy named Jack led to creating an annual benefit concert• The event features performances from Daryl Worley, T Graham Brown, John Barry, and others to raise funds for Vanderbilt's Kennedy Center• Emcee Devin O'Day shares personal connections to autism and how understanding has evolved over time• Discussion of how many brilliant artists and songwriters likely fall somewhere on the autism spectrum• O'Day shares touching story about connecting a high-anxiety horse with an autistic child, finding unexpected harmony• Plans to expand the Country Music Autism Foundation events to more cities nationwide• Statistics highlight that one in seven people worldwide know someone with autism in their familyTell everyone everywhere about Why Not Me the World, the conversations we're having and the inspiration our guests give to everyone everywhere that you are not alone in this world.https://tonymantor.comhttps://Facebook.com/tonymantorhttps://instagram.com/tonymantorhttps://twitter.com/tonymantorhttps://youtube.com/tonymantormusicintro/outro music bed written by T. WildWhy Not Me the World music published by Mantor Music (BMI)
Chapter 1: What is the purpose of An Acoustic Evening for Autism?
Welcome to Why Not Me? The World Podcast, hosted by Tony Mantor. Broadcasting from Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee. Join us as our guests tell us their stories. Some will make you laugh, some will make you cry. Real-life people who will inspire... and show that you are not alone in this world.
Hopefully, you gain more awareness, acceptance, and a better understanding for autism around the world. Hi, I'm Tony Mantor, and welcome to today's episode of Why Not Me? The World. We're recording live at the Nashville Palace for a special remote podcast, unscripted, unedited and full of heart. Tonight's episode supports an acoustic evening for autism, a show happening right here this evening.
We're thrilled to bring you this country experience, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we're enjoying sharing it with you. We've got two fantastic guests joining us tonight. And for the next three weeks, I'll be featuring two guests per episode to dive into everything we're covering right here tonight. Thanks for tuning in. All right, I'm here with Doug Mathis.
So tell me a little bit about what you're doing tonight.
Tony, it's a lot of work.
Yes, it is.
We are hosting an event called An Acoustic Evening for Autism. And we've got Daryl Worley, T. Graham Brown, John Barry. Dylan Massengale, Jamie O'Neal, her sister Minnie Murphy who has an autistic child. I'll be performing and Farron Hamblin will be performing with his autistic nephew. So it's going to be great.
So this is your number two, right? Second annual, yes. So what kicked it off? What started it all?
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Chapter 2: How did Doug Mathis' song inspire the autism benefit concert?
I wrote a song a couple years ago about a little autistic boy. His name is Jack. He's seven years old. He's all about numbers because of his autism.
Right, right.
So he's always asking Mom how many days till Christmas, how many days till my birthday, how many days till Grandma comes, you know. And he was actually about to take his first communion. They're Catholic.
Okay.
And so he's learning about heaven at church, learning about Jesus. And they're putting the toys away one night, throwing them off the bed. And he looks at his mom in a very matter-of-fact way and says, Mom, how many days till I go to heaven?
So that evening, instead of tucking him in, she climbed in with him and began to try to explain to a seven-year-old autistic little boy matters of faith and trust. She posted about it on Facebook. It hit me real deep. Yeah. I wrote this song. It didn't take me long. I probably wrote it in less than an hour. Wow. And the song took off.
It was, it was a number one song on the positive country charts and people were listening to it all over town. And so here in Nashville, that's kind of a big deal. Yes. So, uh, we wanted to do more for the community and someone said, well, why don't you hold an event for autism? And I said, it's exactly what I need to do. And so it kind of blossomed from there.
We got some help from some other people in the industry. Right. And now we're hosting this event and we had, we raised over $6,500 last year with about eight artists. And this tonight we'll have eight. Nice. And we hope to raise a lot more.
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Chapter 3: Why is the Country Music Autism Awareness Foundation expanding?
Yeah. Yeah. And it's going to what the Kennedy Center in Vanderbilt.
Yes. Yeah.
I've dealt with them. They're nice. They're terrific.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. That's great. I mean, so it's it must feel good to be able to put something together like this because a lot of people don't realize the hours and the and the and the legwork that it takes to put together a showcase like this with so many different people involved.
We work on it for months. Yeah. It takes months to put it together. And the real challenge is now we have formed the Country Music Autism Awareness Foundation. Okay. And we want to do more of these.
Yeah. Nice.
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Chapter 4: How has autism understanding evolved over the years?
We'd like to do, you know, we'd like to do several of these a year and I'd like to take them on the road and do one in Texas and do one in California and do one in Alabama and and just move it around, depending upon the artists that we can get and what kind of participation we can get. But we really want to encourage these families and try to be a blessing to them.
Well, it's a need because... I was telling some people just the other day that up until I started this podcast, I really didn't know anything about autism. And now in the last year and a half, I've learned so much. And we don't realize what they go through and what they have to deal with every day. And it's a struggle for a lot of people. So it's a good thing you're doing.
well we didn't even know what autism was yeah yeah and so you know growing up right I had some friends and they were a little different but I didn't think anything about it right right and then I pastored churches for over 20 years okay and I had an autistic boy in my church yeah didn't know that's what it was right but it was clearly what it was sure and so after I wrote this song I started finding about how many people
are dealing with this yeah it's amazing the numbers it is it is so uh so we just wanted to help yeah well i think it's i think it's a great thing you're doing so what we'll have to do later since this is just a preliminary to get you get everybody knowing about what you're doing prior to the show going on we'll have to get you back onto my podcast to do a full episode i'd be thrilled well i appreciate it absolutely all right thank you sir okay thanks
Okay, I'm here with Devin O'Day, and she's going to be the emcee tonight. So nice to have you here.
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.
Right.
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.
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.
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Chapter 5: What role does Devin O'Day play in the autism awareness event?
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.
Yeah.
I will tell you, I've worked with a lot of entertainers and songwriters that are so genius.
Right.
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.
Yeah. Well, you know, one in seven, they say that one in seven people around the world either know someone who has someone that's autistic in their family. That's pretty huge numbers. That is. That is.
And, you know, I interviewed one autistic gentleman, and he said you could walk into a pharmacy, you know, with a pharmaceutical company where they're working and doing the microscopes and doing all this stuff for medicines and all this. He goes, throw a pebble because you're probably going to hit someone that's autistic because they're that brilliant.
Yeah.
The sad part is that we only see the worst. You know, it's like there are unfortunately there are some of those autistic people out there that that don't function well. And they're in their 30s and they've got a brain capacity of like an eight to 12 year old. And that's what we see. We don't see the other ones that thrive. And so we just need to get that word out there.
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Chapter 6: Why are many artists and songwriters linked to autism?
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.
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.
Nice. That's nice.
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.
Yeah, I think we will at some point. It's just unfortunately, we as a country. It's not a problem unless it affects our family.
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.
Right. Yeah, we've just got to take and find a way to hopefully get people to show more empathy towards others no matter what it is. And then if we get to that point, then we're winning.
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.
Right.
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