On the song selection for the new album, he said, “We filtered it through the character a small-town boy. We had this challenge in our brains to figure out who that guy is and what songs he would dig and who would be riding shotgun with him.”
With this album, Lynch pays homage to his roots, coming from the town of Tullahoma, Tennessee. “All of these songs and what inspires me all pointed back to my hometown of Tullahoma,” he said. “I feel the town deserves a little tip of the hat for making me the man that I am today.”
At the moment, he listed “Thinking ‘Bout You,” his duet with Lauren Alaina as his personal favorite song on the album. “Lauren is so much fun to have on a song. We have great chemistry and our voices work well together,” he said. “Lauren liked the song and she agreed to sing on it and she absolutely crushed it.”
Lynch also shared that “Momma’s House” was the song that got this album cycle started for us. “It is new territory for me and it allowed me to wrap my head around what I wanted to do. I’ve never done a breakup song like that yet. The lyrics are classic country,” he said.
He also noted that he wrote “Country Star” with Brian Kelley of the hit country duo Florida Georgia Line and described it as one of his “favorite melodies” that he has ever written.
His latest single “Ridin’ Roads” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country charts. “Sarah Buxton, who sings background vocals, is so sweet. She has one of my favorite voices on earth and she was so sweet to come and sing with me. I just wanted to add an element of having somebody in the front with us as we are singing the song. She added a new texture to the song. That’s what the song is about,” he explained.
Lynch shared that he enjoyed being featured on Martina McBride’s “Vocal Point” podcast. “That was so much fun. It was one of those ‘pinch me’ moments to be in the studio with Martina. It was really cool,” he admitted.
On being a country artist in the digital age, Lynch said, “The industry has changed. When I first started out, it was a totally different game: the way we wrote songs and the way we recorded songs, and the way people consumed songs is completely different from what it is now. It has been a fun learning experience. These days, we are recording music in much more convenient ways.”
Regarding the title of the current chapter of his life, Lynch said with a sweet laugh, “Fat and happy.” “I recently came back from vacation and I put on a lot of weight, so there ya go,” he said.
His New Year’s resolutions for 2020 are to “put on the best tour” that he has ever put on. “We are going to be taking on a lot this year,” he admitted. “I want to give people a great night that they are never going to forget. I want to give them a reason to come and see us again.”
On Tuesday, January 21, Lynch will be hosting his iHeartCountry album release party at the iHeartRadio Theater in New York. He is looking forward to touring extensively in 2020.
Last month, on December 4, Lynch was a part of New York’s Country 94.7 “Stars & Strings” event that was held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. “It’s always great. That was my first time to hang and really spend time in Brooklyn. It had great energy and those fans were absolutely off the hook for us. What great fun. I think I found my new home whenever I come to New York,” he said.
Lynch defined the word success as “feeling comfortable and confident with who you are becoming.”
Tullahoma by Dustin Lynch is available on Apple Music and on Amazon Music. “There is a song for everybody on this album. I think everybody can relate to one or two songs since everybody has a hometown, and all of these songs point back to what my hometown is and I am very proud of what it made me. I hope the fans feel the same sense of pride that I do about the town that made them,” he told his fans.
In September of 2018, Lynch was officially made a member of the hallowed Grand Ole Opry.
To learn more about country star Dustin Lynch, his new music and tour dates, check out his official website and his Facebook page.
