Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood  honored Rosalyn Carter with a performance of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” at her funeral on November 28. Carter, wife of former President Jimmy Carter, was 96 years old when she passed away on November 19.

Both Brooks and Yearwood became close friends with the Carter family, thanks to their involvement with Habitat for Humanity, which is a cause the Carters were passionate about.

“It’s tough,” Brooks said after Carter’s passing (via American Songwriter). “President Carter calls Ms. Yearwood his second favorite Georgia peach. All I can think about right now is, when you think about President Carter, you don’t say one without the other.”

Brooks and Yearwood, who will soon celebrate their 18th year of marriage, look to the Carters for inspiration.

“They were inseparable,” Brooks said. “Miss Yearwood called her ‘quiet warrior.’ If you ever got to hang around her, President Carter always steals the show, and then when it comes time for her to speak, she’ll walk to the mic. What she says is very quiet but yet very powerful.”

“She taught us all that the lion doesn’t have to roar,” he continued “The statement doesn’t have to be more than a few words to get your point across. She was great at that, and everyone loved her for that.”

Brooks and Yearwood became involved with Habitat for Humanity following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, quickly learning that by working with the Carters, they were expected to do much more than just lend their name and notoriety.

“You learn several things when working alongside the Carters,” Yearwood recently told WSMV. “You learn that you better be working all the time — if you look like you’re standing there idle, President Carter will ask you if you need a job, if you need something to do.”

“This work site without them, we’re calling that ‘being Carter-ed.’ If you get caught without a job, you’ve been Carter’ed,'” she added.

With Carter’s passing, Brooks says he hopes others will continue the important work she began.

“A light has gone out that shines on how we should treat each other,” Brooks remarked. “But if we all pick that light up, maybe that light can grow instead of disappear.”

Carter’s funeral came only a few days after Brooks’s long-awaited Friends in Low Places bar and music venue opened for Black Friday. Only the first two floors were opened, but Brooks anticipates the entire place being opened in early 2024.