By Mike Romero
A welder by trade, Spanish Fork country artist Clayton Smalley has spent his career injecting his songs with a healthy dose of working man realism. Smalley grew up listening to artists like George Strait, Keith Whitley and Reba McEntire, which galvanized his love of traditional country music and helped define his own style.
That style can take a song like Niall Horan’s “Slow Hands” and immediately make it feel like a cute exchange between husband and wife on a wraparound porch in the middle of a golden summer. His cover of that song racked up an impressive 100,000 streams on Spotify alone. His original music has racked up hundreds of thousands more.
Smalley is a husband and father who cares deeply for his family and works tirelessly to balance his artistic career with his professional career, even while being signed to Nashville country label YN Records. Recently, everything in his life was upended when he found out his son, Austin, was diagnosed with heart failure.
Austin, an 18-year-old high school student who’s passionate about baseball, was actively being recruited to play in college. When he received the diagnosis, he was forced to miss his senior season. After months of tests and specialist appointments, it was determined that he wasn’t a candidate for a left ventricular assist device and would require a heart transplant.
The transplant occurred this week and was a success. Austin is expected to return home tomorrow.
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However, the family has a long road ahead of them. According to the January 2020 Milliman Research Report, the average cost of a heart transplant in the United States before insurance was $1,664,800. This includes pre- and post-transplant medical care, hospital charges, organ procurement, fees, and medications. Private insurance coverage of the surgery varies from one provider to the next. While Medicare does cover heart transplants, people must pay coinsurance and deductibles.
TLDR: Heart transplants are not cheap.
A GoFundMe for the family has already raised over $16,000 and is still accepting donations. To further support the family, The Angelus Theatre and a cadre of Utah country artists are throwing a benefit concert on Saturday, July 8th at 7:30 PM. This show will be packed with talent, with artists like John Griffin, Cody Robbins, Whitney Lusk, Pat Swenson, Maddie Wilson, and Hayden Cluff. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door.
All proceeds will help the Smalley family with increasing medical bills, lost wages, meals, and the new day-to-day costs associated with a heart transplant operation and recovery.
“Country artists in Utah County are a small family,” says Provo country musician The Real Doug Lane. “We take care of our own, and Clayton’s one of the best. No one should have to endure what his family is going through, and we just want to help where we can. Austin got a new heart, but that’s not the end of all the troubles. So we just want the Smalleys to know we love them, and we want to relieve any financial pressures we can. I hope folks will join us in that.”
Make sure to follow Clayton Smalley on Instagram and check out “These Boots Were Made to Dance” below.