Rory Feek

Rory Feek balances careers as a singer, songwriter, filmmaker, author, and visual artist while making up one half of the Grammy-winning country, gospel, and bluegrass duo Joey + Rory. The husband-and-wife team arrived on the scene in 2008 and delivered eight studio albums before Joey died in 2016. Feek issued his first solo album, Gentle Man, in 2021 and has also built a strong catalog of outside cuts that include hit singles for Blake Shelton, Clay Walker, and Tracy Byrd.

Raised in Atchison, Kansas, Feek began playing guitar at age 15 and lists Don Williams and Merle Haggard among his earliest influences. After high school he completed two tours of duty in the United States Marine Corps, then moved to Dallas and started working the local nightclub circuit. He relocated to Nashville in 1995, signed a publishing deal, and scored his first hit in 1999 when Collin Raye recorded “Someone You Used to Know.”

During the 2000s Feek became a sought-after writer, supplying songs for Mark Wills, Kenny Chesney, and Randy Travis. His first number-one arrived in 2004 with Blake Shelton’s “Some Beach,” which he co-wrote with Paul Overstreet.

In 2008 Feek launched Joey + Rory with his wife; the pair finished third on the CMT series Can You Duet. Their debut single, “Cheater, Cheater,” reached number 30 on the country chart later that year. After signing with Sugar Hill Records they released their first album, The Life of a Song, which earned three Academy of Country Music Award nominations and one win in 2010. Subsequent projects—Album Number Two, His and Hers, Inspired: Songs of Faith & Family, and Made to Last—kept the duo on the charts. In 2015 the couple announced that Joey had terminal cervical cancer. Following her death the next year, Joey + Rory issued their final studio album, Hymns That Are Important to Us.

Feek returned to solo work in 2021 with Gentle Man, which featured the single “Met Him in a Motel Room” and guest vocals from Trisha Yearwood. He has also directed numerous films and documentaries and has published two memoirs as well as several children’s books.