Drew Baldridge has accomplished something unprecedented for a self-funded artist this year. His hit single ‘She’s Somebody’s Daughter' soared to No. 1 on the Country Aircheck/Mediabase chart and No. 3 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, setting a new record for independent artists on both charts.
He told us in an interview in the summer that he was feeling the weight of deciding which song was going to be the follow up to such a legacy song for him and that choice turned out to be ‘Tough People' which has just cracked the top 40 and promises to be his second huge hit as 2025 progresses. A January run with Cody Johnson and a trip to Europe for his own headline shows and an appearance at the acclaimed C2C festival in the UK await. We were thrilled to catch up with him to talk all about it.
Thanks for your time today Drew, we know how busy you are. It's great to touch base with you again to follow up our chat earlier in the year. What a year it's been! Congratulations.
Thank you very much James, I appreciate your time and you sitting down with me today.
When we last spoke in June ‘She's Somebody's Daughter' had cracked the top 10 and was rising. At what point did you think it would go to number one or did you not like to think about it till it actually happened?
Man, I felt like when we hit the top 15 it started to feel really good. I kept telling everybody that we were going to to do it, there was just something in me that knew it was gonna happen! I was doing this alone….. something that had never been done before.
After I hit the top 30, it was all gravy, man. It didn't matter how far the song went at that point. We were already reaching people that we hadn't previously reached, the song was already doing way more than I had dared to dream it would do. It was always in the back of our minds that it could go higher but I didn't really think that that could be possible because it had never been done before.
What does having had a number one mean to you, practically, on a day-to-day basis, outside of the milestone of having done it and the accolades?
Our shows have gotten so much better, so many more people know the song now. Being able to go on tour with artists like Cody Johnson – and more to announce in the new year – is awesome. What we did for independent and aspirational artists was massive. The amount of messages I get from independent artists and artists on labels too is phenomenal, it makes me want to work harder and pushes me.
For me, it's such an amazing thing to have been inspirational to other artists. I never thought about that when I was doing this, I just thought about myself in that kind of selfish, ‘Oh man, I just wanna get a top 20 and then I just wanna get a number one,' but this is a win for all of us……. this is a win for Nashville and for Country radio too. That's what I've been blessed to see in the aftermath of having had a number one hit. Man, I'm so humbled and grateful to have been the person to have been in that position.
We're working on the second one right now. ‘Tough People' is top 40 now and UK radio is really supporting us too. Hopefully, by the time we get over to the UK and Europe in March we might well have another top 10 on our hands too. That's the goal.
You spoke to me in June about the pressure that you felt in choosing the follow-up to ‘She's Somebody's Daughter' in terms of getting the tone and message right. Why did you settle on ‘Tough People' above all the other songs you will have written and recorded?
Man, ‘Tough People' is such a real song. I felt like I had to follow ‘She's Somebody's Daughter' with a similarly appropriate song….. it couldn't be a drinking or cheating song, right? You have to be the same guy and when I wrote ‘Tough People' I knew it was special – the emotions and feelings in that song are all things that I lived through or my co-writers lived through.
The song is really my next story – I wrote the song last year after sending ‘She's Somebody's Daughter' to radio. The hook is ‘hard work pays off, good beats evil and tough times make tough people.' That became my mantra for the most of this year. It made perfect sense to me for this one to be the second single .
I recorded the song in December last year but I didn't have time to put proper vocals on it because I ran home to be with my family for Christmas. I was gonna come back in the new year and do the vocals but just after Christmas my co-writer texted me and said that Luke Combs was interested in the song. I was, like, ‘Oh man, this is awesome but it sucks at the same time!' (laughing) It was my song and I loved it but at the same time ‘She's Somebody's Daughter' wasn't even in the top 50 at that point! I thought maybe we could have two songs on radio, one for me and one recorded by Luke Combs!!
A couple of weeks later Lainey Wilson came over to my house and we were having some dinner and just catching up when she said to me, ‘Play me something you are excited by.' So I played her ‘Tough People' and we got through the first verse and chorus before she turned it off and said, ‘Drew, this is so good, what are you doing with it?' I explained about Luke Combs and she texted him there and then and asked him what he was going to do with it! (laughing) He wrote back that he still thought it was a smash and that maybe they should do it together? Oh my gosh, that would change me and my family's lives forever if I got a cut from a Lainey and Luke duet, right?
I sent Lainey the song but then they had their own world's going on – Luke had his song on the Twister soundtrack and then the ‘Father & Sons' album so we got to June or July with nothing really happening with ‘Tough People' and me beginning to need another song to follow up ‘She's Somebody's Daughter.' I just called up Luke and asked if I could use the song, I explained that it was the most important single of my life and I thought ‘Tough People' was it. He hit me right back and was, like, ‘Dude, this is your song, if you want it, you should have it and if it doesn't work out I'll still record it.' He's such a good dude, through and through. He's been so kind to me along this journey and I've been so grateful to him for allowing us to record the song.
You've taken on a partnership with Broken Bow and BMG record labels since we spoke last. Are you building up to releasing a bigger body of work in 2025 or will you be content with releasing just singles right now?
I'm pushing everybody to be able to release as much new music as possible. ‘Tough People' was my only release in 2024 because of ‘She's Somebody Daughter.' In 2025 I want to focus on my live shows and putting out more new music than I ever have before. That's my goal. I'm writing a lot and I have a lot of songs ready to go.
My last body of work was in 2022 and when you think about that in the context of the modern industry, that's a long time ago, so yes, I am building up to a bigger body of work but what and when I'm not sure of yet – I hope we get to release 20 songs next year, I have them! I'm sitting on songs that I think are really special and could make an impact, songs that I'm passionate about and stories that I want to tell. I have another song I've been sitting on that I've been playing live called ‘Rebel,' maybe you'll get to see us play it when we're in Europe in March and I love this song so much, I can't wait for the world to hear it.
Before, when it was just me, I would put music out as and when I wanted but now there's more of a plan instead of throwing things out into the abyss and hoping that something sticks. Navigating those waters in the first quarter of 2025 is what I'm trying to figure out right now. You're talking about music videos, visualiser videos, knowing who else is releasing music and when – there's a lot that goes into every release. On the independent side you can do that because because the main plan can be summed up as ‘Let's release as much as we can and see what works or what sticks,' but with a label, it has to work. It's a different strategy – it has to sound right, look right, the artwork is important – there's more to consider than just ‘let's throw it out there and see if people like it.' The brand has to be on point and that's the plan for my next phase in 2025.
It was great, although it took me by surprise, to see you nominated for the CRS New Faces 2025 class given a number of the other artists on that list are ten or so years younger than you. Were you surprised to receive the nomination?
You know, it doesn't matter how old you are, I think. It just happens to be my time, the timeline I have been put on. For me, I was super excited and felt very blessed. I first went to Country radio eight years ago and this has been a goal of mine ever since – just being nominated is a blessing even if it doesn't go any further.
I am so happy for us, the whole team, I would love to be a part of it. I just saw this morning that ‘She's Somebody's Daughter' was a top 20 played song on radio last year – we were in at number 16, which is absolutely mind blowing to think about. I'm not of the mindset that grumbles about how long they have been around – I'm blessed to be recognised. Everybody on that list, Ashley Cooke, Warren, Chayce, Bryan Martin – all of them deserve to be there – it's a great list to be a part of and I root for all of the artists involved. Yeah, I got recognised a little later than some of those guys after being around Nashville for 13 years but, man, I'm here for it! I'm pumped, I've been waiting for it for so long!
So you're touring with Cody Johnson in January and heading to Europe in March. Will the family be coming with you across the Atlantic, do you think?
We're talking about that right now. I have 9 or 10 shows across ten days in Europe so them coming across for the whole time is kinda outta the question, really. What they might do is fly into London for 3-4 days and meet me there. It's hard because I wouldn't be travelling with them and we're just working out what to do with it. It will be the longest I've ever been away from my son – most of the time we try to just limit the touring to 5 or 6 days at a time – I don't want him to be, like, ‘Where's dad?' the whole time. We have to get a passport for him and all that and figure a lot of stuff out but I hope they can come and join me in London for sure.
This will be our first time ever touring in Europe and I wanna grow that market to be able to come back once a year as the years go by. I've had messages for years asking me when I am going to come to the UK and Europe and now I can say that we are! It's so exciting.
We can't wait to see you at the C2C festival so I hope you have a great time out on the road with Cody in January as ‘Tough People' continues to rise up the charts! Merry Christmas to you and your family and we hope you get a well deserved rest over the holidays too!
