Colt Ford had spoken publicly about his recent cancer struggle. He informed supporters in April that he had been diagnosed with cancer after noticing a lesion on his eye in March that had continued to develop.

“I went to a specialist in Georgia who specialized in cataracts and all that stuff, and I remember them telling me, ‘This ain’t good,’ and ‘You gotta get this out,’” Colt says. “They wanted me to see a cornea specialist… I got very nervous.”

Colt had surgery but says he was “a week to ten days away from having to go on full chemo.” Instead, he’ll have to put chemo drops in his eye and “monitor” it.

He did shift his perspective as a result of the diagnosis. “I thought to myself… all the stupid s— I’ve done, I could have killed myself numerous times, and this is what’s going to kill me?” he adds. “I know God never puts anything on you that you can’t bear, but the Lord could have more faith in me than I imagined.”

Colt acknowledges that the epidemic was complex for him and that he required drugs to get through it. But things are looking up for him now, and he has a new song, “When Country Comes Again,” with a video due out later today.