Being a father is less about DNA and more about love.

Chris Young knows that better than anyone else.

Chris shares, “My dad, I think I tell the same story every time, everybody is like, ‘Oh! Y’all look so much alike!’ And he’s my stepdad, but that’s who I refer to as my dad.”

Chris adds, “He’s just an incredible man, I’m so lucky that that guy is my dad. Basically, from the time he came into my mom’s life, my life, my sister’s life… He’s always treated me like a son. It’s pretty incredible to have somebody that you look up to and that you’ve got a lot of respect for. He and I kinda have this relationship where sometimes we’ll kinda rib each other back and forth a little bit. I don’t know that there’s a whole lot of people that I respect more than I do him.”

Although Chris does admit there’s one thing that his dad did that will always leave as a challenge for Chris every February. He jokes that no matter what he does on Valentine’s Day for his someone special, he’ll always feel like he’s in his dad’s shadow…Chris explains, “My favorite story about Valentine’s Day is everybody’s like, ‘So, what are you gonna do special?’ or, you know, kind of, ‘What do you have in your back pocket on Valentine’s Day?? And I can never live up to my stepdad, because he asked my mom to marry him on Valentine’s Day, and then called us down from upstairs and asked me and my sister permission. So, pretty much anything I do, he made me look like a punk for the rest of my life (laughs) on Valentine’s Day”

But we think Chris is OK with that.

Chris’ dad even appeared in one of his music videos – check out the video for Chris Young’s number-one hit “Voices” and you’ll see his dad as one of the guys under the hood of the car at the start of the video.

Photo Credit: Jeff Johnson