From a police officer to country music. Frank Ray to play in Idaho Falls this week.
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IDAHO FALLS — Frank Ray has traveled a winding road, taking him from a career as a police officer to his current trajectory as a rising country music star. This week, Ray’s road will lead him to Idaho Falls.
Ray will join Old Dominion when the “No Bad Vibes Tour” rolls into Hero Arena at the Mountain America Center. Ray’s career has been building momentum. His single “Country’d Look Good on You” entered the Billboard Top 40 Country Airplay chart. His recently-released EP, “Getcha Some,” serves as a preview for his forthcoming new full-length album.
It’s been quite a journey for Ray, taking him to the cusp of country stardom from his youth growing up in small-town New Mexico.
“I’ve been singing for as long as I can remember,” Ray told EastIdahoNews.com. “I’ve always, in some facet, been able to craft a song since I was in 5th or 6th grade. That’s something that I know I always wanted to pursue. But when you tell people you want to be a famous singer or a rock star in elementary or middle school, teachers look at you and be like, ‘Yeah, but what do you really want to do? Can you find something realistic?’”
Ray took a more practical path at first, serving as a police officer in Las Cruces, New Mexico for a decade. But his drive to make music never was never quenched and he decided to leave the police service to pursue music full-time in 2017.
“It’s the scariest thing I’ve ever done,” he said. “It was scary because I had my family that was depending on me for support. But my wife and I have always had a great relationship and she helped out a ton. When I asked ‘Hey, I want to try to do this but you might have to carry us for a little bit. Is that something that you’re willing to do?’ Had she not shown me the support she showed me, I don’t think I would have done it.”
Country music is not the only thing Ray is passionate about. He recently met with Congressional representatives in Washington, DC to try to discuss the issue of mental health awareness among the law enforcement community.
“People in law enforcement deal with (people with severe mental health issues) a lot,” said Ray. “A lot of people don’t know how to deal with these problems, so they wind up incarcerated or their family members don’t want to deal with them so they try to find facilities to put them in. It’s this vicious cycle where these people aren’t getting taken care of.”
Ray said that many times, police are called in to handle situations involving people with severe mental health issues that they aren’t qualified to deal with.
“Police officers don’t go to college for mental or behavioral health,” he said. “This isn’t part of the job description. But everybody expects you to deal with it like a trained mental health professional. And these people are putting on the uniform every day and going and dealing with trauma on a daily basis that most people can’t even fathom. Where’s the mental health resources for them?”
Ray’s goal is to use his platform to bring people in the right places together to raise awareness of these issues and help them get the help and resources they need. To that end, Ray and his partners have created an organization called FRAY to help gather needed funds and assist the law enforcement community in getting the resources and help they need. Visit frayoc.org for more information.
But Thursday night will be all about Ray’s passion for music. He said he is excited to get in front of an east Idaho crowd, sharing his music and having a blast doing it.
“(Being on stage) is my happy place,” he said. “That’s where I feel most comfortable. It doesn’t ever feel like work. I wish I could spend every waking moment out there with people playing music. I can hang my hat on that. I fulfilled my dream. I chased it and it’s working out.”
You can catch Frank Ray and the rest of Old Dominion’s “No Bad Vibes Tour” at Mountain America Center’s Hero Arena in Idaho Falls this Thursday, February 23 at 7:30 pm. Click here for tickets.
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