Mitchell Tenpenny is passionate about supporting the military. The Nashville native teamed up with Crown Royal, and their charity partner, CreatiVets, to raise money for the military, in honor of Military Appreciation Month, which occurs in May.

Tenpenny prevented a check for $120,000 to CreatiVets founder Richard Casper, to help continue the work of CreatiVets, which helps wounded veterans heal through music and art.

“My granddad was in the military,” Tenpenny tells Everything Nash. “I’ve been around the military my whole life. I had a lot of friends too in college. But I met Richard pretty early on, when I started hearing about some friends doing the writing with veterans. And they would all come back and they’d talk about how special and touching it was for them.”

For Tenpenny, who writes his own songs, he realized that there was something unique with CreatiVets, something he couldn’t find anywhere else.

“When you’re in the music industry, sometimes people get jaded and they’re always like, ‘I write songs all the time,'” he says. “And when they were coming back from these events, they were talking about it differently. You could literally see it in them. And so I was like, ‘I wanna be a part of something like this.'”

Tenpenny married fellow singer-songwriter Meghan Patrick last fall, who also became passionate about the work of CreatiVets.

“My wife got involved in it,” Tenpenny explains. “She came back from a right like that and she was just tearing up and crying. I was like, ‘This is obviously something very special.’ So I did one of the golf tournaments they put on, and got to meet these people. It was eye-opening for me. It just truly was. And I wanted to be a part of it.

“Richard was so amazing and you can tell how genuine he is,” he adds. “When it comes to charity work, and when it comes to doing things like that, I want to make sure that it’s going to the right place. … Richard is the real deal. It was a no-brainer for me for the future to be a part of these events.”

The “We’ve Got History” singer, along with Patrick, Jameson Rodgers and more, also participated in the recent Purple Bag Project, which turns the iconic Crown Royal purple bags into care packages for the military serving all over the world.

“I’m always seeing the name around, and the Purple Bag, I’ve seen that for quite a while now,” Tenpenny says. “And the consistency of it really let me know how important it is to them. When you see the consistency of things like that, especially in this industry where things can go all over the place, it just really lets me know the foundation that they stand for. Crown Royal has always been amazing that way.”

Now that Tenpenny has partnered with Crown Royal for Military Appreciation Month, he is more committed than ever to continue supporting active military and veterans in the future.

“When you talk to these veterans, and you hear their stories, you hear what they’re not getting, and what they’re not receiving when they come back home, or what they’re struggling with on an everyday basis, it’s really eye-opening,” Tenpenny says. “It’s something you want to be a part of, because it’s just something we don’t hear about. It’s something you do not hear about in the normal everyday media. You have to get out there with these people and listen to them. That’s very important. I think that’s important in a lot of things.”

Find more information on CreatiVets by visiting their website. More information on the Crown Royal Purple Bag Project is available at CrownRoyal.com.