When fans head out to see Lauren Alaina in concert this year, they’ll see the singer do something she hasn’t done onstage in quite a while: Play the guitar.

There’s a very special reason for the change in her live show.

In a new video shared to social media, she Alaina explains that she’s bringing back her guitar as a way to remember her late father, J.J. Suddeth.

• Suddeth died in July 2024.
• Alaina shared the devastating news with fans, saying “I really don’t have the words yet” and canceling a handful of planned live performances.
• The singer had previously lost her stepfather, Sam Ranker, in 2018 after a cancer battle.

Alaina says that bringing her guitar onstage is a special way to honor Suddeth, since he was the one who first pushed her to learn to play the instrument as a child.

“My daddy grew up playing the banjo and he played guitar and he always tried to get me to sit down long enough to play with him,” she explains in the video. “And I would play with him sometimes, but I never really stuck to it.”

Those memories came full-circle after Suddeth’s death, when Alaina and her brother went back to their dad’s house to clean it out.

“We each took one of his guitars and I said, ‘I’m gonna start practicing and playing,’ so …” Alaina continues as she trails off in an emotional moment. “Here I am.”

She goes on to perform a snippet of her new single “Those Kind of Women,” accompanying herself on the acoustic guitar that she plans to bring on the road with her in 2025. That particular instrument has a sentimental backstory, too.

“Fun fact, this guitar was given to me when I was on American Idol,” Alaina continues. She placed second during her season of the singing show, earning the runner-up spot to champion Scotty McCreery.

“So I thought it would be the perfect one to play for the first time, where it all began,” she adds.

Read More: Lauren Alaina Believes Her Pregnancy Is a Heavenly Gift From Her Late Father

It’s been a big year so far for Alaina, who is on tour with Rascal Flatts and also recently announced that she and her husband Cam Arnold are expecting their first child.

Alaina has said that she credits her late father for sending her child to her as a heavenly gift.

“I do think that my dad passed away and got up in Heaven and was like, ‘Hey, we got to work something out down there to send the family something good,'” she reflected during a recent interview with People. “And it has been such an unexpected blessing.”