Jordan Fletcher Wants His New EP to Tell His ‘True Stories’
As Jordan Fletcher walked around backstage in a dreamy daze before his Grand Ole Opry debut last month, he couldn’t help but notice Vince Gill’s plaque hanging on the wall. Coincidentally, Fletcher happened to have the country legend’s number saved in his phone.
So, the country music newbie texted the Grand Ole Opry member a pic.
And two hours later, the unthinkable happened.
“He called me back,” Fletcher says with a laugh during an interview with Taste of Country. “He was like, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ and I was ‘Well, I just made my Grand Ole Opry debut.’ Just the fact that I was on the phone with Vince Gill pretty much blew my mind.”
It’s been a time of many mind-blowing moments as of late for the Florida native, who recently released his debut EP True Stories, a Dave Cobb-produced project that is already being bolstered by the success of his current single, “Rather Be Broke.”
“It's kind of a blessing to have many songs that you love,” says the 27-year-old of the song his Triple Tigers label picked as his first single amongst a crowd of single-worthy cuts on his EP. “It's probably because they're all so autobiographical. It's just the story that I want to tell.”
“Rather Be Broke” was a song that Fletcher wrote long before getting his record deal, when the country music hopeful was simply trying to tell his story.
“I basically was trying to write a project to my son,” explains Fletcher. “My father passed away when I was young, and there is still a lot I still don't know about him. I mean, I now have a son, but at the same time, I know what it's like to not know a ton about your dad. So, if something were to happen to me and I don't get to do this forever, I wanted to have a body of work that would tell him my story while I was in town writing with the best writers on the planet. It just so happened that the label got behind it and wanted to turn it into a project.”
Fletcher's son, Maverick, joined the singer and his wife Kelly in January for a picture in the very circle so many legends have stood on.
“We all just stood there in the Grand Ole Opry circle and soaked it in for a second before the show started,” remembers Fletcher, a former drummer who ended up falling in love with songwriting and moved to Nashville in 2016. “That, to me, was my favorite moment before what ended up being my favorite performance I've ever done.”
The family also took a pic in front of the Grand Ole Opry awning, with Maverick looking happy and content. But looks can be deceiving.
“Kelly had to wake him up a little bit from his second nap, so he was a little grumpy in those photos,” admits Fletcher, who penned Riley Green’s “Better Than Me” and Chris Bandi’s “Leave It to a Song” before embarking on a career of his own. “He wasn't too sure about all the people around him, but by the time the show happened, and he had all his snacks, he was pretty happy to be there.”
And so was his dad.
“He’s too young to remember it, but just to have him there standing in the circle with me is something I will never forget,” Fletcher says.