Ten years ago, Rory Feek opened a deeply personal window into his life with Joey Feek through To Joey, With Love, a documentary that captured far more than music. Released in 2016, the film preserved moments of love, family, faith, motherhood, and the final chapter of a remarkable country music story — allowing audiences to see Joey not simply as a celebrated singer, but as a wife, mother, daughter, and woman whose presence meant everything to the people around her.
For fans who knew Joey through the music of Joey + Rory, the film offered something rare: a chance to experience the quieter moments behind the songs. Their music had always carried an unmistakable warmth, but To Joey, With Love showed the life from which that warmth came.
The story was made especially poignant by the circumstances surrounding its creation.
Joey and Rory had built their musical partnership around honesty and simplicity. They sang about love, home, family, faith, and everyday life, creating songs that often felt less like performances and more like conversations between two people who genuinely understood each other.
Then Joey became seriously ill.
After being diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2014, Joey underwent treatment and surgery before the cancer returned. During her final months, Rory documented portions of their family life, including the birth and early days of their daughter Indiana, known affectionately as Indy. Those moments became part of the emotional foundation of To Joey, With Love.
The film was not created simply to document tragedy.
It was created to remember life.
That distinction is important.
There were photographs, performances, family moments, laughter, quiet days at home, and memories that might otherwise have disappeared into the passage of time. Through Rory’s camera, audiences could see the woman behind the public story — Joey with her family, Joey as a mother, Joey sharing ordinary moments that became extraordinary because of what happened afterward.
Joey died on March 4, 2016, at the age of 40.
Only months later, Rory brought their story to movie theaters.
To Joey, With Love was released theatrically in September 2016 as a special event, giving fans an opportunity to gather and experience Joey and Rory’s story together. The documentary centered on the couple’s journey through love, music, faith, and family, while also preserving memories of Joey during the final months of her life.
For many viewers, that made the film feel profoundly intimate.
There was no need for a larger-than-life Hollywood narrative. The power came from the small details — a look between husband and wife, a family moment, a song, a child growing up, and the quiet routines of a life that suddenly became precious beyond measure.
At the heart of everything was music.
Joey and Rory had never needed elaborate production to connect with listeners. Their appeal came from the sincerity of their voices and the feeling that their songs belonged to real life. “When I’m Gone,” “That’s Important to Me,” and their other recordings became closely associated with the story fans followed.
But after Joey’s passing, those songs inevitably carried another layer of meaning.
They became memories.
They became reminders.
And for Rory, they became part of the way he continued to tell Joey’s story.
A decade after To Joey, With Love first reached audiences, its significance remains remarkably clear. The film preserved a period of time that could never be recreated. Joey was here. She loved her family. She made music. She became a mother. She faced an extraordinarily difficult final chapter with the people she loved beside her.
And Rory made sure those moments would not simply disappear.
Perhaps that is why the documentary continues to resonate with country music fans.
It does not ask audiences to remember Joey only because she died young. It gives them reasons to remember how she lived.
They can hear her voice.
They can see her smile.
They can watch her family.
They can remember the songs.
And through Rory’s eyes, they can understand why Joey was never simply half of a country music duo. She was the center of a family story that continued long after the final performance.
Ten years later, To Joey, With Love stands as something more enduring than a documentary.
It is a musical time capsule.
A husband’s tribute.
A mother’s memory.
A family portrait.
And above all, a lasting record of a woman whose life touched people far beyond the stages where she once sang.
The years have moved forward. Indy has grown. Rory has continued writing, performing, and sharing stories from their life together.
But Joey remains present in the songs, photographs, memories, and moments they left behind.
And perhaps that is the most beautiful gift of To Joey, With Love.
It allowed the world to say goodbye to Joey — while giving generations of fans a way to keep remembering her.