Country music has always had plenty of very giving and generous artists who are always first to help those in need.
When Nashville was flooded in 2010, many buildings and homes were destroyed, and lives were changed. It was country stars who came to the rescue even though many of them experienced the flood personally and suffered their own losses. Tim McGraw and Faith Hill immediately announced “Nashville Rising” and gathered many of their famous friends for a benefit concert to help Nashvillians in need. And who can forget watching Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman operating the phones at the telethon to raise money for flood victims?
In 2016, Dolly Parton held a telethon at her own Nashville studio for victims of the Gatlinburg fires in her native East Tennessee. Parton gave each person affected by the fires $1000 a month for over a year and then surprised them with a final payment of $5, 000 bringing many East Tennesseans to tears when she personally handed them the checks.
Days before the COVID pandemic began in March of 2020, when everyone was stuck at home, the Nashville community was already starting to arrange ways to raise money for victims of the devastating tornado that hit parts of Nashville. A total of 25 people were killed by the tornadoes, with an additional 309 being injured and more than 70,000 lost electricity. Miranda Lambert was one of the first people to help out by raising money for displaced Nashville pets. Taylor Swift donated one million dollars to tornado relief at the time.
Every country star helps out at St. Jude’s Hospital in Memphis, which helps families deal with childhood cancer. Many artists attend an annual event to raise money and visit with the children there.
While there are so many country stars with big hearts that lend their time and money to charity, we gathered five of country music’s top givers.