Country

On his 2023 full-length album, Pretty Little Poison, Warren Zeiders covered a little-known 14-year-old Chris Stapleton song, “Inside Your Head,” which Stapleton had recorded as part of rock duo The Jompson Brothers.

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While many artists would regard a Stapleton-sung song as beyond anything they would dare attempt, the task was undaunting to newcomer Zeiders.

“It’s full circle for me. I’m a huge Stapleton fan,” he tells Billboard. Zeiders includes another Stapleton song, “Love on the Line” on his new album, Relapse, out Friday (Aug. 23) via Warner Records. Zeiders is perhaps one of the few country music newcomers with the growl and grit in his voice capable of making such a song his own.

The Pennsylvania native grew up playing lacrosse and while a student at Maryland’s Frostburg State University, a series of sports concussions forced him onto the sidelines permanently. Zeiders, 24, turned his interests to music. In December 2020, he released the original song “On the Run,” and soon signed with Underscore Works’ Charly Salvatore for management. He quickly followed with his breakthrough hit “Ride the Lightning,” which has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. His EP The 717 Tapes followed in 2021, and this February, “Pretty Little Poison” become his first No. 1 on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart (the song has also earned RIAA double-platinum status).

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On his new 10-song album, Zeiders seems poised to continue that surge, with the title track currently sitting at No. 36 on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart. The album centers around a heart-shattering arc from romance to betrayal on songs including “Intoxicated” and “Stone’s Throw Away.” Scattered across the album are one-word titles, such as “Addictions,” “Betrayal” and “Intoxicated,” which draw on drug and/or alcohol-fueled imagery, but often delve more into entanglements of the soul.

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“In ‘Addictions,’ it’s about choosing my addictions over a lover — and when I wrote that song, I was thinking about the addiction I have for the music industry,” Zeiders says. “I’m choosing that over being with someone. It is saying, ‘I can’t be the person you want me to be right now, because I’m in my 20s and focused on this career.’ It’s fun to take that concept, like a drug term, and flip it on its head.”

Outside of the Stapleton-written song, Zeiders co-wrote very song on Relapse. Sonically, his new album, which Zeiders co-produced with Mike Elizondo and Ross Copperman, traverses a number of genres. Some of the newer songs stem from a June writing retreat in Miami, where he worked with pop hitmakers J Kash, Blake Pendergrass, and Ali Tamposi, who have written tunes for acts like Justin Bieber, Maroon 5 and Selena Gomez, as well as for country hitmaker Morgan Wallen.

“It’s been fun for me, stepping outside of that box and watching those people come into the country scene and want to be part of it,” Zeiders says. “Between JKash [co]-writing one of the biggest songs in country music, ‘Last Night’ for Morgan Wallen, it’s been cool to see.”

As with many songs in today’s data-driven music ecosystem, fans led the way in deciding the release of his new radio single, “Relapse,” after Zeiders and his team saw the response on Instagram and TikTok.

“It was definitely very clear to see on TikTok and Instagram that people were very much so connecting with ‘Relapse,’” Zeiders says.

In-person, Zeiders’ laid-back, joyous persona belies the tough-guy persona crafted in his press materials and album artwork — but his collection of breakup-driven songs are heartfelt.

“People like to joke about it, but I’m a lover boy. I’m a teddy bear at heart. But I know with the long hair and cowboy imagery I give off a different perception. I do have a tendency of breaking my own heart,” he says. “I fall for these women and these kinds of things and maybe it’s not the right fit. It’s like, ‘I’m going away for two months on tour — and can they handle the distance?’”

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“Betrayal” is a song Zeiders relates to all too well, alluding to a past romantic breakup: “That was an interesting part of my life. Not a fun one, but it is what it is. We all got our stories — but more than anything the overall process has been a fun one, and a totally different vibe from the first record.”

Zeiders will soon open shows for Jelly Roll on his The Beautifully Broken Tour this fall, while gearing up for a jam-packed 2025 — which includes both a slate of headlining U.K. shows beginning in January, followed by his stateside The Relapse Tour, which launches in March, with shows in cities including Nashville, Atlanta and Pittsburgh.

“I’m going on the biggest tour in the fall and being a direct support artist for Jelly Roll, who is touching so many lives, and [he’s] just massive in pop culture right now — the man is everywhere,” he says. “I feel that being in front of that many people night after night, whether it’s [playing for] my fans [or] having a chance to win over his and bring them into the fold, what’s going to be on my mind night after night is leaving a lasting impact, being a great opener for Jelly, making sure the fans are ready for him.”

Zeiders notes that he’s never traveled to the U.K., but as with picking songs, he’s letting fan demand lead the way on the European tour.

“Just looking at the numbers and looking at the demand, what’s super cool is I’m able to skip some steps. I’m not just going into 400, 500-seat rooms. We’re doing 1,000 and 2,000-seat rooms for my first appearance. It’s exciting to see the fan base and the people supporting my music and wanting me to come over there. The demand is there, and it’s going to be a fun experience.”

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“I’m here for a day then we’re back out, just coming here long enough to run a few errands and repack a bag,” Lainey Wilson tells Billboard in her signature Louisiana twang, on a rare day in Nashville for the singer-songwriter. She’s preparing for a slate of West Coast dates on her headlining Country’s Cool Again Tour — but even during her brief time in Music City, she’ll also attend the ACM Honors and make a surprise visit to her Bell Bottoms Up Restaurant & Bar, which opened in downtown Nashville earlier this year.

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At the same time, the four-time Billboard Country Airplay chart-topper is gearing up for the release of her new studio album, appropriately titled Whirlwind, out Friday (Aug. 23) via BBR Music Group/BMG.

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That swirl of touring and recording has also come with a swiftly accumulating pile of accolades. In November, Wilson became the first woman since Taylor Swift in 2011 to take home the coveted CMA entertainer of the year honors. In February, she earned her first Grammy win, with her 2022 album Bell Bottom Country taking home best country album. In May, she doubled up on her entertainer of the year win, taking home the same accolade at the ACM Awards. Less than a month later, she was inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry. On Wednesday (Aug. 21), she was honored with the ACM’s coveted triple crown award and the organization’s milestone award.

The momentum has been hard-fought for this small-town Baskin, Louisiana native, who found work as a Hannah Montana impersonator early on (she recently had a full-circle moment, honoring Hannah Montana actress/singer Miley Cyrus during a Disney Legends event). She moved to Nashville in 2011, living in a camper near Bellevue while pursuing writers’ rounds and co-writing sessions. She released two independent projects before signing with BBR Music Group/BMG in 2018. In 2021, she released her major-label breakthrough, Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin’.

That same year, almost exactly a decade after moving to Nashville, she earned her first Country Airplay No. 1: “Things a Man Oughta Know.” She’s followed that with a steady stream of both solo and collaborative hits, including the top 5 hits “Heart Like a Truck” and “Wait in the Truck” (with HARDY), her three-week solo chart-topper “Watermelon Moonshine” and the two-week chart-toppers “Save Me” (with labelmate Jelly Roll) and “Never Say Never” (with Cole Swindell).

She says the process of writing for Whirlwind was markedly different from her previous projects. “I realized very quickly as my career grows and changes, there are a million other parts of this job that I just didn’t know existed,” Wilson says. “For this, it had to be quality over quantity. I couldn’t write 200 songs to get to my 14 [songs on Whirlwind]. I had to map out what I want to share, where do I want to get vulnerable, and really figure out the message I want to bring.”

While the new album includes some of Wilson’s mainstay co-writers, including Dallas Wilson and Trannie Anderson (who, collectively known as the Heart Wranglers, co-wrote “Heart Like a Truck” and several songs on Whirlwind), Wilson also was intentional about adding new writers to the fold — including Aaron Raitiere and Jon Decious, writers on songs like “4x4xU” and the funky kiss-off track “Ring Finger.”

“I knew they had this quirkiness to their writing that I wanted to tap into,” Wilson says, noting that they were going for a Jerry Reed feel on “Ring Finger.” “I had been telling them I wanted a song that showed my speaking voice, because a lot of people talk about my accent — whether they love it or hate it, they talk about it.”

“It’s fun for me to step out of my comfort zone and write from someone else’s perspective,” she continues. “But as I got deeper into the song, I think it was like verse two that I realized maybe I’m not stepping into someone else’s shoes—maybe this is really me. I do have a bit of a crazy side and a little spunk, and I haven’t gotten to show that side of my personality as much as I have with ‘Ring Finger.’”

Despite her success with duets, Whirlwind features just one collaboration—with a woman she calls “my sounding board for a lot of things,” Texas native and fellow singer-songwriter Miranda Lambert. The two, along with songwriter Luke Dick, wrote “Good Horses,” an ode to the pull of both the adventure of the road and the comforts of home, while spending a day at Lambert’s farm outside of Nashville.

“Miranda said, ‘Come hang out and take a nap. Me and Brendan [McLoughlin, Lambert’s husband] will feed you and then maybe we can write a song.’ They made burgers and pasta, we had everything,” Wilson recalls. “I had this [song] idea for quite a while and a lot of people had passed us up on writing it. Looking back on it, I’m glad they did because it was supposed to be us who wrote it together. But I think the magic kind of came from me and her having a lot in common when it comes to that love of the road, having a gypsy soul.”

“As we were sitting up on her balcony, three bluebirds flew up and landed on the balcony,” Wilson adds. “She and Luke were sitting in the same spot where those bluebirds had landed when they were writing [Lambert’s 2019 hit ‘Bluebird’].”

Lainey, who has become a mentor for rising women artists like Anne Wilson and Ella Langley, says of Lambert, “She’s become that girl in my life in the industry that just calls and checks on me. Even yesterday, she just sent me a text and said, ‘Love you. Wherever you are, I’m thinking about you. Sending you all the good vibes.’ I think it’s really important to have women like that in your corner in general, not with just the music industry, but you just got to have those folks around you. I met her about three years ago, and I’ve been able to go to her and she just has some good insight. I try to make sure that I go to people like that who have been there and done it.”

Another album standout is closer, “Whiskey Colored Crayon,” sparked from a word exercise from co-writer Josh Kerr, who took lists of hundreds of words, mixing and matching them to see if ideas spark. Landing on the words “whiskey” and “crayon,” they began etching the tearful-yet-hopeful story of how a young child’s innocent question to his teacher — asking for a whiskey-colored crayon to complete a drawing of his father — catalyzed change in his father’s life.

“I come from a family of teachers. My mama was a teacher, all my aunts, my grandma, my daddy taught for a minute,” Wilson says. “I see how much of a difference they make in kids’ lives and I know they hear so many different things from these kids. In country music, I think of sad stories and storytelling, but even when I’m telling a story like that, I can’t help but have some kind of triumph or resilience.”

Of course, some songs lean into Wilson’s own life, from the title track to a few love songs inspired by her boyfriend of over three years, Devlin “Duck” Hodges. “It is really fun to sing about love when you mean it,” she says of songs such as “4x4xU” and “Call a Cowboy.”

Simultaneously with her surging music career, Wilson has further been elevated in the spotlight through her role as Abby, a musician, on the hit series Yellowstone. This week, it was revealed that Wilson will be a part of the upcoming season of Yellowstone, through an ad calling for extras for a concert scene featuring the singer. The second half of season five, the final season of the show, premieres Nov. 10.

“I’ll tell you, I’m so excited,” Wilson says of her upcoming work on the series, though she’s mum on specifics. “We’re waiting to hear all of those details about how much involvement I’m going to have. But as soon as they let me know, I’m going to learn the lines and do my thing.”

Beyond Yellowstone and a seemingly ever-expanding slate of brand partnerships, which have included Kendra Scott, Wrangler, Charlie 1 Horse and Stanley, Wilson says she’s “starting to realize other opportunities are coming that I never knew existed. There is so much I want to do — I want to try voiceover acting. I would love to do a country cartoon; if you need a redneck cartoon, I got you. I’d love to play another role of some sort or write a whole soundtrack.”

She adds, “There’s so much I want to do, but as long as I can get up and do what I love to do every day, this ain’t a bad life to live.”

Having forged a reputation for relentless work ethic and having piled up accolades and milestones over the past few years, Wilson has allowed herself at least one splurge — though, true to her nature, it’s a practical one.

“I got me some land,” she says proudly. “I’m going to try to develop it here [near Nashville] soon and get it going, but it’s got some beautiful trails and eventually I’m going to build a barn on it and get some horses of my own up here. All of my horses right now are back home in Louisiana. Those are the things I guess my family just taught me to be super proud of — owning a piece of America. I don’t see myself going out and splurging on ridiculous things. I enjoy doing things for my family and stuff like that, but I don’t see myself changing much.”

For Thomas Rhett, creating his new album, About a Woman, out Friday (Aug. 23) via The Valory Music Co., was a family affair.
The singer-songwriter, who has four children with his wife of nearly 12 years and childhood sweetheart, Lauren, tells Billboard, that his “two oldest [daughters, Willa Gray and Ada James] are starting to form their own opinions on what they like. If they go to hip-hop class and a Luis Fonsi song comes on, that’s what they think is fire. Or they’ll hear kids at school talking about Luke Combs or Morgan Wallen. When it comes to my music, they’ve become a little bit of my little A&R team. On the way to school, I’m playing a new demo and I’m watching if they start moving or if they’re asking to hear it again. So in a way, they influence a lot of the music. They can point out a bop. They love ‘Gone Country,’ ‘Back to Blue’ and ‘Don’t Wanna Dance.’”

Those songs are among the key tracks that represent the new album’s breadth of sounds, ranging from ‘90s country to pop and soul. “Don’t Wanna Dance,” which interpolates the 1987 Whitney Houston classic, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),” presented a challenge for the singer-songwriter, turning the pop anthem’s bubbly yearning for romance on its head.

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“It was not an easy feat… when you’re about to put arguably [one of] the most-listened and covered songs ever in one of our songs, and by one of the most amazing voices to ever live on this planet,” says Thomas Rhett, who has notched nearly two dozen Billboard Country Airplay No. 1 hits, including such pop-fueled love songs as “Die a Happy Man” and “Angels Don’t Always Have Wings.” “Don’t Wanna Dance” was co-written by Matt Dragstrem and Ryan Hurd, who texted Thomas Rhett the song file, along with a note that just said, “Whitney.”

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“I was driving down Music Row and heard it, and when that chorus came on I was like, ‘I can’t not try this,’” the 2020 ACM Awards entertainer of the year recipient says. “It’s heartbreak, but it also makes you want to punch a hole through a wall, because you’re so jacked about the melody.”

Helming the album was the production team of revered producer Dann Huff and Julian Bunetta, who has produced recent albums for Sabrina Carpenter and Teddy Swims. About a Woman was recorded at Berry Hill’s Blackbird Studio and at Bunetta’s Nashville home.

The album’s songs, such as the rhythm-driven “Fool” and laid-back “Overdrive,” draw inspiration from artists ranging from Steely Dan to the Oak Ridge Boys. Thomas Rhett recalls aiming to “channel ‘Beast of Burden’ and ‘Miss You’ by The Rolling Stones” when writing another album track, “Can’t Love You Anymore.”

“The vision for this album was just joy,” he says. “It’s this weird melting pot, and Julian and Dann figured out a way to make it feel progressive yet timeless. They’re both old souls,” Thomas Rhett says of Huff and Bunetta, recalling the “neat old school versus new school collaboration that came with knowing the same music and the same sounds in the same way.”

Like many of his previous albums, About a Woman draws much of its inspiration from his own love story with his wife. He keeps things upbeat and romantic with “Beautiful as You,” the midnight-velvet of “All the Bars Are Closed” and slow-burning “Somethin’ ‘Bout a Woman,” before closing out the album with the tender ballad “I Could Spend Forever Loving You.”

On “Church,” Thomas Rhett nods to his and Lauren’s high school love story through the lens of Eric Church’s music, lacing the tune with Church song titles including “Springsteen,” “Love Your Love the Most” and “Talladega.”

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Though Thomas Rhett isn’t one of the original writers on “Church,” he rewrote the song’s final chorus, transforming it from a heartbreaker into one more closely aligned with the couple’s own story.

“This is Lauren’s favorite on the album, because when we were in high school, I bought [Church’s] Carolina record, which was his second album,” he says. “I had to buy a new copy every three months because I just wore it out. It kept skipping — but he was like our Zach Bryan. He was that dude who kind of got played on the radio but could care less if he was or not, and he was kind of grungy and would say things in songs that most people weren’t saying. I learned the entire album on acoustic guitar, and any time we were at a party, that’s all I played — so this song means a lot to us, because he was the soundtrack to our teenage years.”

Still, he says how involved Lauren is in hearing new music early on has shifted through the years.

“Even three years ago, I used to be at the point where every time I’d come off the road, I’d play her everything we wrote and she would sometimes get attached to [a song] that I wasn’t attached to — so it became this awkward conversation when it came time to record. She’s like ‘Oh, are you putting that on there?’ and I’m like ‘No,’ and she’s like ‘Why?’ So lately, I’ll slowly seed her things that I know for a fact that I love. I’ve even kind of quit playing demos because she’ll get attached to the demo [version] of a song. So, on this record, I might’ve played her a couple of demos but for the most part, I’ll play her rough cuts in the studio first.”

Meanwhile, the life vs. social media balance is one that Thomas Rhett and his family continue to refine. At one point, “Every bit of [social media] was off my phone,” he says. “I approved everything that went out, but I couldn’t look at it anymore.”

A recent conversation with his longtime manager, G Major Management’s Virginia Bunetta, helped him reframe his relationship with social media. “She said, ‘Everything is for sale.’ I thought, ‘Yeah, if one post doesn’t do well, you’re thinking, ‘What else about my life can I share that might get engagement?’ I think for me, for better or for worse, a lot of my engagement on social media is about my family,” he says. “You can go through this spiral of ‘I’m going to film this and this,’ and then you haven’t lived your day—you’ve just been capturing content. I’m trying to figure it out.”

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The fact that music consumption among Gen Z has tilted toward social media and streaming as opposed to terrestrial radio, has only enhanced that challenge. “Artists that come from my generation, it was like there’s sort of one master to serve — if my song goes top 10 on radio, people are going to hear it,” says Thomas Rhett, 34. “Now, the landscape is so vast that it feels like when you speak on social media, you’re competing with a million voices. Some kid from Nebraska can put a video on social media and immediately have stardom. I think some of us are kind of sitting there going, ‘What is our voice today?’”

Ahead, he’ll launch a mini-residency at the BleauLive Theater inside Fontainebleau Las Vegas, with four shows on Dec. 6-7 and 13-14. He took inspiration from watching one of Miranda Lambert’s The Velvet Rodeo residency concerts in Vegas, as he was considering the new opportunity.

“I love the freedom they had,” he says of Lambert’s show. “They built a set that they probably would never take on the road, played songs that might not play a lot on the road, and did renditions that felt very old-school Vegas. When you go to a Vegas show, you want to see something different. I’m glad we are doing these shows, because it will be a different crowd. Yes, your fans will be there, but also it might just be the random dude playing blackjack who says, ‘I’ll go see a show.’ I think I’ll play longer, more obscure songs, get diligent with the covers, more Bakersfield, older country tunes with our spin on it.”

Meanwhile, back in Nashville, it seems the slate of downtown celebrity bars doesn’t seem to be slowing down soon — but don’t count Thomas Rhett among those with plans to add to the cluster.

“There were a couple of people who brought it up to me a couple of years ago, and I mean, I wake up every day and there’s a new bar,” he says. “I kind of think, ‘Would it be cooler to just open a sick brunch spot that doesn’t have my face plastered on the wall?’ That’s never been my vibe — I don’t want someone to walk into my restaurant and just see me everywhere. I’d want to serve the most banging biscuits and breakfast tacos and mimosas and call it ‘TR Tequila Bar’ or something. But it’s not really my style to do the Broadway thing, and people have too many options as it is.”

While a star bar may not be in the plans, ultimately releasing an album in another genre could be. Earlier this year, Thomas Rhett teamed with Contemporary Christian artist Brandon Lake for a cover of Elevation Music and Maverick City Music’s “Talking to Jesus.” During the pandemic years, he collaborated with another CCM luminary, Chris Tomlin.

As for releasing his own CCM album, he says, “That question has come up a lot lately. My thing is that I just want it to be the right version of that. I’m not trying to lead a church service, but my faith is extremely important to me. I do write a bunch of worship, Christian-type songs, and worship music is changing so much today. Brandon sort of renewed my love for it and my buddy Forrest Frank just came out with a banger of an album — I was talking to him like, ‘Do you think I could do this?’ and he was like, ‘Absolutely.’ So I think it’s nice that those two folks could maybe help me one day find what that version is for me. It’s a pipe dream that hopefully happens in this decade.”

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