Ashley Cooke will never, ever forget the gift Luke Bryan gave her at the end of one of his tours. Cooke was tapped to open for Bryan on his 2023 Country On Tour. To thank her, Bryan gave her something truly extravagant, while also very useful.
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"The last show on his tour, his tour manager said to come to his bus," Cooke recalls to Taste of Country. "So we all were hanging out. He walked up there and he was like, 'Thanks for being on the road with me, Ash. Love ya.' And I was like, 'Love ya, too.' He just hands me an envelope, and I'm like, 'What is this?' And it's just a wad of cash."
"He goes, 'Don't spend it all in one place,'" she remembers. "And I was like, 'Okay, thanks Luke. Love ya. See ya later.'"
Cooke still remembers thinking, "This is the iconic end-of-tour gift. Just a big old wad of cash," when Bryan handed her the money.
Ashley Cooke Opens Up About Her Health
Cooke is already having success in country music. Currently opening for Parker McCollum on his What Kinda Man Tour, the 28-year-old just dropped a new single, "The Hell You Are." Her successes and hard work are even more impressive, since she recently revealed she is battling Brugada Syndrome, a rare heart condition.
Brugada Syndrome is a genetic disorder, typically characterized by having an abnormal heart rhythm, along with symptoms like dizziness, fainting, and/or sudden cardiac arrest, often during sleep.
Cooke shares the news on social media.
"Mom had a heart attack, dad had cancer for the fifth time, both my grandmas passed away, went through a breakup, sister had a thyroid issue, I got diagnosed with a heart condition," Cooke says.
In a separate interview with Taste of Country, Cooke reveals that the most frightening part about the illness is the unknown.
"The crazy part is, it doesn't really impact anything about my daily life," Cooke maintains. "That's the scary part of Brugada syndrome. It just feels like a ghost around you. Because there's no warning signs, no symptoms. It's just one of those things where all of a sudden one day, this certain thing in your heart can just stop, and you're just gone."
"It's terrifying," she adds. "It doesn't impact anything that I do, or how I function, until one day, it maybe just could."
