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It has been (another) good year so far for Bailey Zimmerman. The country artist reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 this spring with his feature on BigXthaPlug’s “All the Way” from the latter’s forthcoming country collaboration project. Then, Zimmerman followed that with “Backup Plan,” his inspirational new single featuring Luke Combs, which became his ninth career Hot 100 entry and has reached a No. 36 high in its six weeks on the chart.
Zimmerman and Combs debuted the stomping “Backup Plan” during Combs’ headlining set at Stagecoach in April — though the song’s roots were planted well prior to that performance. According to the track’s producer, Austin Shawn, it was initially created because people compiling the soundtrack to 2024 film Twisters asked Zimmerman to send along songs for consideration. “We sent that one, but ‘Hell or High Water’ landed better for the movie,” Shawn, 27, tells Billboard.
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“Backup Plan” is just the latest extension in the winning partnership between Zimmerman and Shawn, which started with the former’s first EP, Leave the Light On, and includes the hit songs “Rock and a Hard Place” and “Fall In Love.”
Below, Shawn talks about creating “Backup Plan,” his working relationship with Zimmerman and what listeners can expect on his second album.
What did you think the first time you heard “Backup Plan”?
We heard it around early 2023, and I immediately loved the song because it reminded me of “The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac. It had a bit of red dirt, a bit of country, a lot of the hookiness of modern country, which is exactly what me and Bailey tend to lean [to] when we make songs. The original demo was just an acoustic guitar and a vocal that Tucker Beathard [co-writer, along with Jimi Bell and Jon Sherwood] did.
Were you involved in the decision to add Luke Combs to the song?
It worked out really well because when Bailey did the vocals, we were thinking, “Who could feature?” When I finished the first rough mix on it, Bailey was like, “Should I text it to Luke?” Luke didn’t get back to him for a month — he was probably just living with it. And then he was like, “Song rips, I’m in,” out of nowhere. We had not gone to anyone else. It was either Luke or nothing.
Were you together in the studio for Combs adding his part?
Luke is, first of all, one of the best dudes in the world. I sent the session over to [his producer] Chip Matthews and then me and Bailey went over to Chip’s house and Luke cut the vocal. We spent about two hours talking and rambling on and laughing and telling jokes — and about 10 minutes doing the vocal. It was mostly just a big hangout session; barely any work was being done. Luke is so good, he can do three passes of the song, and it sounds like it’s a finished thing.
Thematically, it’s like Combs’ song “Doin’ This,” in that if being an artist is your path no matter what, you cannot have a backup plan. Is the end result similar to what the demo sounded like?
The original demo was just an acoustic guitar in a voice memo that Tucker Beathard did. Tucker is one of our good buddies, too, and we write a lot of songs with him, so he usually just plays his guitar and his vocal and sings it into his phone.
From the very beginning, the song felt like an overcoming adversity type of song, so we wanted it to be big. We wanted it to be like an anthem. We wanted it to be something that is charged up. We had to paint the picture from there and carry it into that big, beat-your-chest type of energetic song.
So that stomp feel wasn’t there, but you heard the possibility of that.
It was completely different. It was like someone sitting here in your living room just playing it for you or around the campfire. It was good, though, because the sentiment was there and it gave us all the runway to paint the picture the way we wanted to.
You’ve been collaborating with Zimmerman since the beginning. How has your working relationship evolved?
When you work on so much music together over the years, you learn how to communicate and decipher each other’s emotions, feelings, words — I know when Bailey loves a song, doesn’t love a song. He’ll know when I think a decision that he wants to make is good or when I don’t. That helps us get round the bend on songwriting, production, direction. We’re like brothers. He’s gone through a lot in his personal life; I’ve gone through a lot in my personal life. We’ve been there for each other outside music, too.
This is the second song we’ve heard from Zimmerman’s second album, Different Night, Same Rodeo, which is due out Aug. 8. Anything else you can tell us about the album?
Absolutely. A lot of the stuff is familiar, and then there’s a good batch of songs that go outside of the box where we’ve really pushed the boundaries. There’s a couple of awesome features on the record. There’s familiarity, there’s evolution and there’s a little bit of something for all demographics of music too, not just country.
A version of this story appears in the June 7, 2025, issue of Billboard.
This week’s crop of new songs features two sterling collaborations: the first, between Americana music darling Sierra Ferrell and blues-country singer Kashus Culpepper. Also, two traditional country-steeped artists, Randall King and Braxton Keith, team up for a barroom-ready track. Also issuing new songs this week are Tyler Childers, Tanner Adell and Kayley Green.
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Check out all of these and more in Billboard‘s roundup of the best country songs of the week below.
Kashus Culpepper (feat. Sierra Ferrell), “Broken Wing Bird”
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Culpepper melds his husky, soulful voice with Ferrell’s plaintive twang on this languid, tender song of loving an injured bird until it becomes strong enough to fly away, as the wounded bird brings back memories of an old lover who was emotionally wounded and stopped trying to spread her own wings. The pared-back acoustics here showcase just how well their voices pair together.
Tyler Childers, “Nose on the Grindstone”
Childers has long included this fan-favorite in his shows, and now fans officially get this song via this newly-released live recording. This theatrical feel and Childers’ gritty, rough-hewn voice tell the tale of a son recalling lingering lessons learned from a father who pulled long hours doing blue collar work, and the hardship in living by those words in a modern world as the son battles addiction. “There’s hurt you can cause time alone cannot heal,” he sings, masterfully weaving lyrics depicting the tension between a son’s desire to make his family proud and the insistent pull of addiction. The track previews Childers’ upcoming album Snipe Hunter, out July 25.
Tanner Adell, “Snakeskin”
Acoustic guitar and Adell’s pristine vocal wind together for a song that blends breezy instrumentation with a venomous warning for anyone who thinks they can easily capture her heart. “I’m a cowgirl/ I’ma gone do my own saving,” she declares in a sweet-toned vocal that also harbors an edge of hard-won toughness. Adell previously issued the heart-wrenching, intensely personal “Going Blonde,” but here she evinces how a tough childhood has long-reaching impact.
Kayley Green, “You’d Still Be Drunk”
On her latest, Green sings of rebuffing any notions that an ex-lover might have potentially followed a redemptive arc should she have remained in the relationship. Sonically, the song has a upbeat, throwback vibe soaked in girl power and attitude that further reinforces Green’s strong vocals.
Randall King (feat. Braxton Keith), “Cheatin’ on My Honkytonk”
Keith and King team up for this barn burner about a guy who has traded in nights at a beloved honkytonk bar for time spent with his enticing lover. “The old me probably wouldn’t know me/ He’d probably disown me if he could see me now,” they sing, with their distinctive twangy vocals weaving together effortlessly. This track has the potential to be a mighty summer lovin’ anthem.
HARDY has canceled the upcoming European leg of his Jim Bob World Tour.
On Monday (June 16), HARDY shared a post on social media, stating, “It wasn’t an easy decision but one I had to make for my band, crew and my family. Please know that I love you all and I will be back as soon as I can.”
The European leg of HARDY’s Jim Bob World Tour was slated to run June 19-July 3, starting with a show Copenhell Festival in Copenhagen, Denmark. The trek was to also include shows in Belgium, Ireland, the U.K. and the Netherlands. The statement noted that refunds for the shows will be provided at fans’ point of purchase.
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His Jim Bob World Tour launched May 22 with a show in Chula Vista, California. Currently, the next tour date listed for the singer-songwriter on his official website is a stop at Country Thunder Wisconsin on July 18, followed by several more stateside shows on his Jim Bob Tour, with stops in Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, Alabama, Mississippi and more, concluding with a show Sept. 24 at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
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Billboard reached out to representatives for HARDY for comment regarding the canceled tour dates.
The Jim Bob World Tour takes its name from a single on HARDY’s 2024 album Quit!! That album included the singles “Rockstar,” “Psycho,” “Jim Bob” and “Six Feet Under (Caleigh’s Song).”
In addition to touring and releasing new music this year, HARDY also saw new milestones in his personal life, as HARDY and his wife Caleigh welcomed their first child, daughter Rosie Ryan Hardy, in March.
Twenty-three years after the passing of country music great Waylon Jennings in February 2002, fans will get to hear the first of three albums’ worth of previously unreleased music from the late Country Music Hall of Famer.
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Jennings’ son, three-time Grammy-winning artist/producer Shooter Jennings, will release the first in a trio of albums of previously unheard Waylon songs, Songbird, on Oct. 3 via Son of Jessi/Thirty Tigers. The album’s title track is a version of Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 track “Songbird,” written by the band’s Christine McVie.
The project began in the summer of 2024, when Shooter Jennings was sifting through numerous high-resolution multi-track transfers in his dad’s studio recordings. Shooter noted that he discovered “an audio record of an incredibly profound artist and his legendary band through their peak period of creative expansion.” The albums will feature music recorded by Waylon Jennings and The Waylors from 1973-1984.
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“What became very apparent to me was that my dad was recording constantly with his band The Waylors between tours,” Shooter added. “Just having won the David-and-Goliath battle against RCA for creative control and artistic freedom, Waylon was awarded the ability to record his music on his terms in his own studios, with his touring band, and without label oversight and without any outside influence. There was just so much inside, my mind was blown! These weren’t demos, these were songs that were cut with the intention of releasing, and as time went on, not all of them found places on the albums that Waylon and the Waylors were releasing at the time.”
Shooter realized he had compiled enough music to fill three albums. While the majority of the recordings he found were already finalized, he did add a few additional touches to the recordings by bringing in several surviving members of Waylon’s band The Waylors: bassist Jerry Bridges, guitarist Gordon Payne, keys player Barny Robertson and background vocalist Carter Robertson. Meanwhile, contemporary country artists including Elizabeth Cook and Ashley Monroe came on board to add vocals to “Songbird.” Shooter mixed the original and newly recorded music on Sunset Sound Studio 3’s 1976 DeMedio API mixing board.
“Songbird is the beginning of Waylon’s return to the modern world,” Jennings said in a statement. “This is the first of three gifts from me to you: the fans that have kept my father’s voice, songs and legacy alive all these years. The next few years are going to be full of some of the most exciting musical moments that the world never knew they were going to hear. I hope that these records bring the kind of joy to you that they have brought me.
“This project has given me an entirely new chapter in my relationship with my father and working on this music has brought a whole new understanding about how, when and why my dad made music. The hard work is there on the tapes and the passion and the soul within is as alive today as it was the day it was recorded.”
Listen to “Songbird” below.
In advance of this weekend’s first Arkansas edition of Kid Rock‘s Rock the Country festival, the “American Bad Ass” singer sat down with the state’s Governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, to discuss why he’s bringing his “pro-American” event to the Natural State.
Describing the concept of the two-day fest slated for June 20-21 at the Arkansas State Fairgrounds as a “small town, pro-American… everything pro-American music festival for a lot of people I felt were underserved in this country,” Rock said he was excited when he heard from Trump administration press secretary Huckabee Sanders had invited him to her state.
The festival will kick off on Friday with a lineup featuring Logan Crosby, Mark Chesnutt, Shenandoah, Gavin Adcock, a house party set from the Ying Yang Twins and headline performances from Hank Williams Jr. and Nickelback.
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Saturday night will open with Deana Carter, followed by Little Texas, Lee Greenwood, Hudson Westbrook, a house party set from Afroman and then headlining spots from Travis Tritt and Rock.
“Any time you have an event like this an an opportunity to bring in such a huge headliner, that is something that will a big difference in the state, bring in a lot of revenue, tourism,” said Huckabee Sanders, who was seated in front of a mural of a giant eagle with the American flag painted on the inside of its wings alongside a short-wearing Rock. She added that she hoped people from “all over the country” would come to the show. “So not only are we excited to hear great music and see from people that love this country but also it’s a big win for Arkansas to have that kind of economic driver,” she said.
Rock the Country kicked off in April with shows in Louisiana and Tennessee, followed by gigs in rural Missouri and Florida and a stop in York, PA in May. The tour will march on after Little Rock with scheduled shows in Ashland, KY (July 11-12), Sioux Falls, SD (July 18-19) and Anderson, S.C. (July 25-26).
Check out Rock’s chat with Huckabee Sanders here.
Morgan Wallen fans are getting an early look at his setlist ahead of the opening night of his upcoming I’m the Problem Tour on June 20 at NRG Stadium in Houston, thanks to Apple Music Country.
The 27-song playlist features not only many of Wallen’s earlier hits, such as “Whiskey Glasses,” “More Than My Hometown,” “One Thing at a Time,” and “Ain’t That Some,” but also many songs from the tour’s namesake album, last month’s I’m the Problem.
Among the new songs on his tour setlist are “I Got Better,” “Love Somebody,” “Kiss Her in Front of You,” “I’m a Little Crazy,” “What I Want,” “Superman” and “20 Cigarettes.”
To Apple Music Country, Wallen said, “There’s a bunch of songs on there that I’m excited to play,” noting that he’s excited to sing “I’m a Little Crazy” (“I love singing that song,” he says) and “I’m The Problem” (“I already see how well it’s doing,” he says).
He also said it’s “the energy” that marks a major difference between hearing a song and seeing the artist perform it live in front of thousands of fans.
“I spend months at this point getting ready to get on tour, just getting in shape,” he says. “I don’t have to be in any kind of crazy shape to record in the studio. With how big my stage is, how much I run around, and how much effort that me and the guys put into it, I don’t think you would know that by just listening to the record.”
Wallen’s I’m the Problem Tour comes just over a month after the release of his I’m the Problem album and the launch of his Sand in My Boots Festival. The trek will conclude with two shows on Sept. 12-13 in Edmonton, Alberta. Artists set to open various shows on the tour are Brooks & Dunn, Miranda Lambert, Thomas Rhett, Koe Wetzel, Gavin Adcock, Corey Kent, Ella Langley and Anne Wilson.
Here’s every song listed on Apple Music Country as part of the setlist for Wallen’s upcoming tour.
“Broadway Girls” (Lil Durk feat. Morgan Wallen)
Four-time Billboard Country Airplay chart-topping artist Lauren Alaina and her husband Cam Arnold have welcomed their first child together, daughter Beni Doll Arnold, born Wednesday, June 11 in Nashville. Beni Doll weighed 7 pounds and 13 ounces, and was 19 inches long. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and […]
As he releases his 11th studio album Broken Branches, out today (June 13), Dierks Bentley knows more than a bit about constructing an album — and a career — that’s going to endure. After two decades spent notching 18 chart-topping Country Airplay hits and establishing himself as seasoned headliner, the artist, who spent nights early in his career soaking in bluegrass music at Nashville’s Station Inn and who collaborated with the bluegrass stalwarts Del McCoury Band on his debut 2003 album, says he’s tried to approach his career like a bluegrass band does a performance.
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“It’s very collaborative, and all the pieces are important. You can’t make bluegrass music without all those unique instruments and unique voices,” Bentley tells Billboard. “I’ve tried to work with great people in every aspect of my career. It’s mixing my love of bluegrass instrumentation with my love of playing big rooms, and that requires big electric guitars and drums and bass. The original idea was to mix the bluegrass with the kickass, and I’m still trying to do that.”
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On Broken Branches, he collaborated with a tight-knit group of fellow artists, producers and writers, including Ross Copperman and Jon Randall, and feted musicians including Jedd Hughes, Rob McNelly, Bryan Sutton and Charlie Worsham (who also plays in Bentley’s road band).
“They know my music and are able to take it places that maybe I hadn’t even thought about,” Bentley says. “They know it from underneath the car — I might be driving the car, but they know all the nuts and bolts of it, so it’s great working with those musicians.”
Bentley co-wrote four of the album’s 11 songs, infusing witty lyrics into “She Hates Me,” or examining the toils and rewards of working toward a goal on “Something Worth Fixing.” But most of the project finds him locked in on highlighting the songs of other writers.
“There’s people around me that are like, ‘Hey, you need to have some more songs on there that you wrote.’ I just want great songs,” he says. “I love being a big fan and proponent of the Nashville songwriting community. Nobody writes songs like Nashville. I have such respect for it, and I feel lucky [and] grateful to have some temporary ownership of some of these great songs on this record.”
Fifteen years ago, Bentley collaborated with Miranda Lambert and Jamey Johnson on “Bad Angel” from his 2010 Up on the Ridge bluegrass album. On Broken Branches, Bentley and Lambert reunite for the banjo-inflected “Never You.”
“She’s someone I’ve known forever and whose voice I love,” he says. “She’s exactly who she is offstage as she is onstage, and she is awesome. I sent the song to her, and she was in Scottsdale [Arizona]. She went into a studio we found out there and put down the vocal. She’s one of the true trailblazers in country music.”
When Bentley heard the song “Broken Branches,” written by Zach Abend, Beau Bailey and “Oil Money” hitmaker Graham Barham, he says it “gave us a story” to construct the album around.” He invited Riley Green and Country Music Hall of Fame member John Anderson to sing with him, linking together three generations of country hitmakers.
Green was Bentley’s first call. “Right away he was in on it and a couple of days later we were in the studio. While he’s singing, I was thinking, ‘How can I make this even more special?’” he recalls. “John Anderson came to mind, because the link between ‘Broken Branches’ and [Anderson’s 1983 hit] ‘Black Sheep,’ just subconsciously hit me. He came in the studio by himself like a week later. What a legend. He came off the road—he drives himself in his RV to all his gigs, which is so classic. His RV had broken down in Valdosta, Georgia and he spent three days in a motel—hard M—waiting to get it fixed. He’s the real deal and always has been.”
The song wraps with a bit of good-natured, ad-libbed ribbing as Bentley, Green and Anderson ended up recording the ending together. “You hear us talking [like on] Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett’s ‘It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,’ I like that stuff,” Bentley says. “It’s funny and it sticks out in my mind when I listen to those records. This song, it was all done together. It wasn’t no AI, no overdubbing or editing, just us around one mic kind of giving each other crap.”
The song naturally felt like the title track that tied the project together. “When I’m looking for songs, I’m trying to find those songs that are like little broken branches off the family tree,” Bentley explains. “Not the big popular ones, not the ones that sound like a big hit on radio. Those are great, but I’m trying to find songs that are a little bit different.”
He adds, “That really started with the [2014] Riser record and the song ‘Riser.’ I heard ‘Broken Branches’ and thought it’s a great song because I’m a broken branch. Most of my friends are broken branches. All the people I know that came to Nashville to do something in music are doing something that their family probably didn’t do. And they’re doing it; they love country music.”
Throughout his career, Bentley has prioritized lifting up the next generation of artists, sifting through sounds and championing those artists whose music catches his ear. Burgeoning artist Stephen Wilson Jr. co-wrote two songs on the album, “Cold Beer Can” and “Something Worth Fixing.” Bentley has also shared the stage with recent breakout artists like Red Clay Strays and Zach Top, the latter of whom is opening for Bentley on his the Broken Branches tour.
“I love the spot I’m in in country music. I’ve been around a lot of the older cats, and I love those guys—but I also love watching what the younger artists are doing,” he says. “I love what’s happening in country music right now and I love seeing those guys have that success. I first saw Red Clay Strays play at our Seven Peaks Festival a while back. I probably personally told like 500 people about those guys. Same with Zach. I’ve known about him since his bluegrass days, just [through] having a bunch of bluegrass guys in my band. Watching him come over to country and do what he’s done, it’s been fun to watch.”
The album ends with the reflective “Don’t Cry For Me,” which Bentley wrote with Jim Beavers. The song finds him taking stock of his life and career thus far and assuring that he’s happy with how it’s all turned out.
“It’s very personal for me just knowing that one day it all does come to an end, whether it’s your music career or your life,” he says. “I’ve been really blessed in my time here in Nashville. It’s just been a great career and I’ve still got a lot left, hopefully, to do.”
One thing not on that list? Making movies.
Though many of Bentley’s music videos, including the clip for “She Hates Me,” make use of his natural comedic talents, that’s as far as he’s likely to go as an actor. “I love making music videos, but I don’t have any desire to do anything beyond that,” he explains. “I get sent some stuff, and sometimes people think, ‘Hey, everyone just wants to be in a movie,’ and I just don’t. I love film and movies and shows, but I think I’m pretty good in my lane.”
But it’s likely fans could see him once again revisiting his bluegrass roots: “I think about that all the time when I’m listening to [SiriusXM channel] Bluegrass Junction. It’d be fun to make another record like that.”
Elizabeth Nichols could have been an author, an accountant or a lawyer.
Instead, she chose artist. And now she has a breakthrough song with the quirky kiss-off “I Got a New One.” The attitude-driven song about kicking toxic, possessive lovers to the curb got a boost recently when Kelly Clarkson gave it the “Kellyoke treatment” on an episode of her popular talk show The Kelly Clarkson Show.
Nichols independently released “I Got a New One” in December. Soon after, The Kelly Clarkson Show’s team reached out, asking for permission to use the song.
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“I signed everything, did the legal stuff and then I didn’t hear anything,” Nichols recalls to Billboard. “I thought maybe it was going to play in the credits or something. But then I woke up and Kelly was singing it on TV. I freaked out, alone in my house. I ordered Dickey’s Barbeque to celebrate — nothing like barbeque to celebrate.”
After her rendition, Clarkson expressed her happiness at being able to shout out a “fellow Texan” and heaped praise on Nichols’ song (“I love it so much. It’s so funny”). “I heard what she said on TV and it was so kind. It was a very huge honor,” Nichols adds.
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Nichols is No. 15 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart, and has already opened shows for Wyatt Flores. Her seven-song debut EP Tough Love comes out on June 20 on Pulse Records.
“I’m just counting down the days until [Tough Love] releases,” she says. “It comes out the day before my birthday, and I’m celebrating with a crawfish boil. That was my one request.”
The set, produced in part by Nichols, Travis Heidleman, Steve Rusch and Jackson Foote, includes the flirtatiious, quirky “Mama,” as well as another sterling track, “Somebody Cooked Here” — which Nichols wrote with Mags Duval, co-writer of Alex Warren’s current two-week Billboard Hot 100 chart-leader “Ordinary.”
Texas native Nichols, who grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, doesn’t see songwriting as all that different from her pursuits as an author. “I kind of look at songs as mini-books or stories,” she says. “There needs to be a cliffhanger or a plot twist.”
Nichols knows something about a plot twist; her own career journey is filled with them. A pastor’s daughter, Nichols grew up singing in church and started writing songs at age nine. But she put songwriting aside to focus on school and long-form writing, studying writing at Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma. She then earned her master’s degree in accounting in Melbourne, Australia. But even then, she was being pulled toward music. She began writing songs again, sometimes crafting tunes about various classmates, and putting out snippets of those songs under an alias account on TikTok.
Her homespun songs began connecting with not only fans, but with other artists. Her first-ever co-writing session, prior to moving to Nashville, was with “Indigo” hitmaker Sam Barber. She landed a co-write on his 2024 album Restless Mind.
“I got a DM from Sam’s manager, and they were like, ‘He likes your music. Do you do co-writes?’” Nichols recalls. “I had to Google what a co-write was — I had no clue. But I flew to Montana and met Sam and we wrote for a few days. Sam’s so talented and amazing. The first song we wrote was ‘Morning Time,’ which ended up on his album. Right after that, I went and got a guitar and was like, ‘This is my career now.’”
She moved to Nashville in August 2024 and enrolled in law school at Belmont University, but kept writing songs and setting up co-writing sessions. The first week she arrived in Nashville, a writing session with writer-producer Jackson Foote brought about “I Got a New One.”
“I’m kind of ornery,” she says with a grin, as she talks of co-writing the defiant song. “I had the story arc thought out. I was like, ‘Now, let’s just make the music and flesh it out.’”
By January, Nichols dropped out of law school to focus fully on music. In early June she experienced her first CMA Fest in Nashville. When her first official CMA Fest debut was rained out early on during the four-day festival, Nichols orchestrated her own plot twist, performing on the street in downtown Nashville for fans that same day.
“I got to meet everyone, shake their hands, take pictures with them. It was cool,” she recalls. “I just started playing shows a month ago, but I was recognizing people from my comments section, like, ‘Oh, you comment on my videos!’ My screen time is scary. I’m a little chronic.”
In addition to releasing her EP, she’ll be opening shows for Little Big Town and Russell Dickerson throughout the summer. Billboard caught up with Nichols, Billboard’s Country Rookie of the Month for June, at CMA Fest to discuss “I Got A New One,” the Kelly Clarkson performance, her EP and more. See our conversation below.
This EP also includes “Somebody Cooked Here,” a song you wrote with Mags, about a woman who visits her lover and realizes he was previously in a pretty serious relationship. What do you remember about writing that?
We wrote that the first month I came to town, it was the first time we met. It took us about 20 minutes to write the whole song. It was immediately like sparks flying. Songwriting is like a first date. Sometimes it takes you time to click with someone and sometimes you go in there and it’s instant. I had the idea for “Somebody Cooked Here,” and we were like, “Let’s make it literal.” That’s one of my favorites, and we’ve written so many songs that are soon to come out.
You signed with Pulse Records in March. How did you connect with them?
I’m such a fan of everybody on my team, and they make my job so easy. When “I Got a New One” first came out, I released it independently and then talked to so many people. It was the hardest decision. It was like giving me 20 great options and asking what cut of steak I want — filet mignon, rib eye? Pulse and I just connected. I saw the projects they were working on and they were just killing it.
You just wrapped a tour opening for Wyatt Flores. What was that like?
When I had just 300 followers on TikTok, he was one of the first people who followed me; he was the first person of anyone in the music industry. Wyatt Flores is the best A&R. He was so [supportive] early on and so, it’s a full-circle moment for me to be opening for him. And he’s such a sweetheart and so kind.
What are your favorite cover songs to work into your set?
I love Toby Keith. “How Do You Like Me Now?!” is such a good, fun kiss-off song. We throw a few ones like that in there. And his music is funny — I like funny singers.
What kind of music did you grow up listening to?
I grew up in church, so I listened to a lot of CeCe Winans, Marvin Sapp.
Is a gospel project in your future?
I would love to one day, because the sky’s the limit. You never know. My dad would be happy about that.
What did he think when you told him you were going to pursue music?
I was in law school here in Nashville, and I dropped out in January. I called my dad and told him, and he was like, ‘Oh, god.’ But he’s the most supportive. He’s been at every show. He has this calendar printed out with every date of every show I have for the next year and he’s already booked flights for every single one. He’s happy. He just wanted a free lawyer. But he’s fine. He gets free concerts.
What is a song you wish you had written?
Any Kacey Musgraves song. “Tin Man” from Miranda Lambert. It makes me angry when I listen to it, sometimes because I’m like, “I wish I could have written this.” It’s so beautiful.
Who would you love to collaborate with?
I’m a big Zach Top fan. Who isn’t? He’s killing it, and he does the cool, old-school thing.
What podcast or book are you into right now?
I’m reading The Hunger Games, which has been fun. I finished the first book before CMA Fest. I have the rest of the books and I made my roommate hide them so I wouldn’t read them during the Fest. So I’m excited for Monday after the festival because I can read [the series’ second book] Catching Fire.
Billboard celebrated the genre’s top executives, impact makers and rising artists on Wednesday, (June 4) during the annual Billboard Country Power Players Awards, which were held at venue Category 10 in downtown Nashville. Reyna Roberts hosted the Country Power Players party, which launched with a performance by Latin artist Carín León. Brooks & Dunn’s Ronnie […]
