Joey Feek Cancer Update: Joey Explains Why Their Final Album Is So Important To Her

Joey and Rory have their final album Hymns That Are Important To Us coming out next month, and Joey recently explained why the album, which will be their last, is so important to her.

“A lot has taken place in a year’s time, but through it all, these songs have given me such strength,” Joey Feek said, according to Taste of Country. “They’ve given me such hope, and they give me something to look forward to. I think that a lot of times, when we don’t know what to say … you don’t know what to pray … you don’t know how to even begin … I think that’s, for me, where these hymns have come into play so much.”

The album features 13 of Joey and Rory’s favorite hymns, and was recorded all while Joey was undergoing treatment for cancer. Joey was determined to have the album completed, even if that meant she had to record the songs from a hotel room, which she did quite often.

“It was early in the spring when we started talking about the record,” Rory Feek, Joey’s husband and duet partner, said. “We began recording it in a studio in Nashville early in the summer, just after recovering from her first big surgery in Chicago. She championed it … and even with all she’s gone through, there might have been a few things that changed, but that record was not gonna stop.”

The songs included on the album are songs that Joey grew up with, and those that have touched her life over the years. For example, the song “I Need Thee Every Hour” was one Joey sang several days after her surgery as she thanked God for pulling her through.

“I’m hooked up to every machine possible; and out of just complete thankfulness that I came through, I remember having the strength to sit up enough, and my hands just elevated over my head, and I sang, ‘I need Thee, oh, I need Thee, every hour, I need Thee,’” she recalled. “Every hour, He got me through … and it was hard, and I needed Him every hour, and I still do to this day — there are days that are just hard.”

“People every day who don’t have cancer who are dealt with trials or family issues or whatever it might be … we need Him,” Joey continued. “It doesn’t matter what it is, and when we think that we can get by on our own, we’re so wrong.”

Below is the complete track listing for Hymns That Are Important To Us:

1. “Take My Hand, Precious Lord”
2. “I Surrender All”
3. “He Touched Me”
4. “Softly and Tenderly”
5. “Jesus Loves Me”
6. “It Is Well With My Soul”
7. “The Old Rugged Cross”
8. “I Need Thee Every Hour”
9. “How Great Thou Art”
10. “I’ll Fly Away”
11. “Jesus Paid It All”
12. “Suppertime”
13. “When I’m Gone”

The album is set to be released on February 12 at Cracker Barrel stores across the country. The album, which will be available as a deluxe edition, is currently available for pre-order exclusively at Cracker Barrel’s website.

“Joey and Rory have been a part of the Cracker Barrel family for many years, playing at our Home Office and releasing their sixth studio album in our stores in 2014,” Senior Marketing Manager Julie Ulmer said. “When they approached us about partnering on this album, we were honored to have the opportunity to support the project and share their music again, while also giving to a charity they care so deeply about.”

Joey+Rory – “When I’m Gone” from Hickory Films on Vimeo.

As the Inquisitr previously reported, Joey Feek was diagnosed with stage four cervical cancer in May, 2014, three months after giving birth to her daughter, Indiana (Indy). She later underwent a radical hysterectomy and several rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. Although it appeared as though Joey had a chance at beating cancer, an October, 2015, scan revealed that her cancer had not only returned, but had spread to other parts of her body, including her colon. Because there was little left for her doctors to do, Joey made the heartbreaking decision to stop treatment and return to her home to live out the remainder of her days surrounded by her family in hospice care.

To read more about Joey Feek’s cancer battle, visit Rory’s blog, This Life I Live. You can also follow the country music duo on Facebook and Instagram.

[Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP]