RISER Brett Young Holds Nothing Back, Onstage and Off
By the time Brett Young finishes just about any acoustic performance, you want to rush the stage and give him a hug. Few singers, let alone newcomers, can give as raw and emotional of a performance as Young does during "In Case You Didn't Know."
The song is one of two performances the California native cut during a recent Taste of Country RISERS video shoot in Nashville. The love song, Young says, was inspired by writer Trent Tomlinson's mother, who used to tell him, "In case you didn't know, I still love you." They turned it into the second single from the Brett Young album, the follow-up to the chart-topping "Sleep Without You."
"My parents have been married for 37 years, and I've never heard them raise their voice to each other," Young says during his video interview for RISERS. "I've never seen my dad come home from work and not walk straight to my mom and ask her about her day."
"My parents' example of a loving, caring relationship, I think, has affected my songwriting a ton and allowed me to start writing love songs that people could connect to without sounding like you're being cheesy, because they're coming from a real place, something that I saw coming up. I think they're a huge influence on my songwriting."
Young embraces his gift of being able to write great, honest emotional love and love-lost songs. His debut album is filled with them. Surprisingly, music wasn't his first love. While his first performance came as a 15-year-old leading a church worship, Young didn't pursue music as a career until after his baseball dreams died due to elbow surgery.
"It's funny how God will change your plans for you when he's ready," Young says smiling, with not even a faraway look of regret in his eye. "Because baseball, up until 22 years old, it was all I knew."
Young started his career in Southern California before trying Nashville. The cultures couldn't be more different. What he found in Music City fits him well.
"It's funny, in L.A., it might have been the case where they would criticize your approach or what kind of song you wanted," Young says. "In Nashville, everybody just wants to write the best songs. So it's a very inviting songwriting community."
Young has the songs, the voice and the temperament. An oft-told joke is, "If only he were a little better looking." This 2017 RISER and ACM New Artist nominee is poised to explode this year.
Brett Young On Set at the 2017 RISERS Shoot
Brett Young Opens Up About How Shattered Baseball Dreams Led Him to Music