Country music hitmaker Casey Beathard is opening up about the loss of his son and how his Christian faith helped him release his anger and find compassion for the man responsible.

Beathard, a celebrated songwriter whose hits have been recorded by Kenny Chesney, Eric Church, George Strait and others, lost his 22-year-old son, Clay, in a fatal stabbing outside a Nashville bar in December 2019.

In the new Fox Nation special “Chords of Faith,” Beathard explained that after turning to Scripture, he found a way to navigate his grief and eventually surrender his desire for vengeance.

“It was just going to kill me to carry all this weight, all this stuff,” Beathard said.

As he spent more time studying the Bible, Beathard said he came to believe he could trust God with justice.

“The more you dig into the Word of God, that He could be trusted with justice,” he said. “And vengeance, you know, it’s not mine, because that was just gonna weigh on me.”

That realization, he said, helped set him free.

“Vengeance was God’s,” Beathard said. “It helped me be free and let me let it go.”

Clay, a quarterback for the Long Island University Sharks football team, and his friend, 21-year-old Paul Trapeni III, were killed in an altercation outside The Dogwood bar in Nashville in December 2019. Michael Mosley was later convicted of first-degree murder in 2022 and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences plus 40 years.

Despite the devastating loss of his son, Beathard said he eventually found himself feeling compassion for Mosley.

“When I looked across the room at this kid, it was so sad for a young kid to have to spend his whole entire life in prison,” he recalled.

Beathard said he believed Mosley had grown up without the love and support that might have led his life in another direction.

“I think he was looking for love and found love in the wrong, wrong, wrong places,” he said.

Beathard’s faith has also left a powerful impression on his surviving children. His oldest son, NFL quarterback C.J. Beathard, said watching his parents endure Clay’s death provided an example for the entire family.

“It was hard on us, but for the parents, it’s tough,” C.J. said. “And to see the way my mom and dad handled that was very inspiring for us all as siblings.”

Long before tragedy struck his family, Beathard had built one of Nashville’s most successful songwriting careers. His credits include Tracy Byrd’s “Ten Rounds with Jose Cuervo,” Chesney’s “Don’t Blink,” and Church’s “Hell of a View.”

But his response to his family’s darkest chapter revealed another side of his story — one rooted in faith, forgiveness and surrendering justice to God.

For Beathard, forgiveness did not mean ignoring what happened to his son. Instead, it meant refusing to let vengeance become another burden he had to carry.