Jason Crabb Invites Kentucky Tornado Victim and Viral Piano Player Jordan Baize to Play the Opry
Grammy-winning Christian singer Jason Crabb was on tour in Texas over the weekend of Dec. 10 when in the early hours of the morning, 61 tornados ripped through parts of Kentucky, Tennessee and six other states, killing more than 80 people. His wife and daughters were huddled in a closet of their home near Nashville to seek shelter. Around the same time, his friend Jordan Baize was in the basement of his Bremen, Kentucky, home on his hands and knees under a mattress, trying to shield himself from falling debris.
Crabb's home survived. Baize's did not.
Baize heard the thundering low whistle of the tornado overheard followed by popping and cracking. He looked down and saw leaves around his hands where previously there were none, and knew he was in trouble. It was over in less than one minute. Baize, 34, doesn't know how leaves got in his basement because when the tornado passed and he stood up, the door was closed, and the basement roof was intact. The storm ripped his front door off and jammed it under his basement door, wedging it closed and momentarily trapping him inside. When Baize forced the door open, he realized the roof and several walls in his home were gone.
"I feel like my reaction was a little selfish," Baize says, explaining that he didn't know how hard everyone else was hit. "I looked around and saw that my house, much of it was, was missing. I remember saying, 'Oh my gosh, this is so bad.'"
Chris Hollo/Grand Ole Opry Jordan Baize and Jason Crabb
RELATED GALLERY: See Heartbreaking Photos of the Tornado Devastation in Kentucky, Illinois and More States
He knew there was another line of storms on the way. He got in the car and drove a mile down the road to his parents' house to ride out the next wave. When the sun came up, Baize went back home to survey the damage. He saw his piano sitting amid the rubble and sat down to play it one last time. When he placed his hands on the chipped keys, Bill and Gloria Gaither's worship song "There's Something About That Name" flowed. He didn't know his sister was filming him — or that the video would go viral. Six days later, thanks to an invitation from Crabb, he played the same song on stage at The Grand Ole Opry.
"I will tell you the contrast between the Friday previous and that Friday night was disorienting," Baize says. "It was wild."
Crabb, who recently released his Christmas EP Home for Christmas, has played the Grand Ole Opry more than 50 times. When he approached Dan Rogers, vice president and executive producer of the Opry, Rogers' response was immediate.
"He had tears," Crabb, 44, tells PEOPLE. "He's like, 'How can I help?' That's who Jordan met at the door. Two things happened. I wanted the people to see it, and I wanted the Opry family to love on him."
The video of Baize playing in the rubble rolled on the Opry's screens. Then Baize walked out and played the song alone before Crabb joined to sing it with him.
"You talk about blessing these people," Crabb says. "It's so tender on these peoples' hearts. There's news coming out of [bigger cities], but these little small towns don't get the headline news. But they did get him playing the piano."
Chris Hollo/Grand Ole Opry Jordan Baize and Jason Crabb
Bremen, in Muhlenberg County, has a population of 172 people, according to the U.S. Census. Crabb grew up in neighboring Ohio County and met his wife near Bremen. The area is home to him, and the day he returned to Tennessee from his run of shows in Texas, Crabb took his manager and went to Kentucky to help. He described Baize's house and the surrounding area as "looking like a movie set." The singer met tornado victims who had held their friends as they died. There are families and children with nothing and no homes to go home to. Crabb has long worn his Kentucky roots like a badge of honor, and people immediately started calling with offers to help.
"They said, 'I'm sending money to you,'" he recalls. "' I want it to be in the hands of the people.'"
Because of his line of work in the country and Christian music communities, Crabb already had a nonprofit 501(c)(3) Forever Ministries established. He had barely used the account when unsolicited donations started pouring in. Crabb and Baize's immediate plan is to use some of the money to ensure local children have a good Christmas. After that, they will be "more strategic" about addressing needs within the area.
"This is a community that is so dear to me; I had to get there and to figure out," says Crabb, who is a member of the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame. "There's a lot of work to be done. The money I've raised, it'd be scooping water out of the ocean. But we're gonna put it where these people wanted it to be put, in the hands of the people."
Chris Hollo/Grand Ole Opry Jordan Baize and Jason Crabb
Baize hopes the national attention he's receiving for his video will remind others of the importance of faith but also continue to shine a spotlight on his "precious little town that is hurting so badly."
"The Opry felt like just the perfect way to do both of those things at the same time," he says. "Not to mention, selfishly, that playing the Opry wasn't just on my bucket list; it was No. 1. I think Jason had as much fun bringing me there as I did playing there."
"I promise, there's no comparison," Crabb says, agreeing.
Chris Hollo/Grand Ole Opry Jordan Baize and Jason Crabb
Baize would give his house all over again for his town to feel the love they've felt from the entire nation in the last week-and-a-half. He just hopes people don't forget them.
"As we move on, one week, two weeks, three weeks, one month, two months, three months from the actual storm, the media intention will die down, like it always does," he says. "The huge influx of volunteers will slow, but we are not going be anywhere close to done. I would encourage people not to forget that it's gonna take some of these folks years to rebuild their lives."
To donate to Forever Ministries for Kentucky Tornado Relief, visit jasoncrabb.com.
