So how much of a country boy is Luke Bryan?
He doesn’t have to think long about that question. On this particular day, he recounts spending the morning at the bow shop chatting with a bunch of other hunters. He says his best evenings are “rocking on the porch” with his wife and boys and watching the sunset. He mentions the bass fishing lake on his property, where he regularly releases a line with the children.
Then for good measure, this son of a peanut farmer adds another good faith: “Just talking to my mom and dad once a day is all the earth affirmation I need.”
There’s no doubt that Bryan has earned the right to call his latest album — out Friday — Mind of a Country Boyand of course he has the heart and soul of a country boy. The album, his eighth, is full of all the rural themes that influence his life: good times, the outdoors, the love of a good woman and family loyalty.
Luke Bryan announces new album Mind of a Country Boy and says that the project ‘has a bit of everything’
Yes, he assures, he’s still the guy who can easily turn an arena concert into a huge party with one spin of his ball. But as he winds down his fifth decade — he turned 48 in July — he also feels increasingly drawn to what he calls “mature-type themes,” with family at the heart of it.
That impulse can be heard in the nostalgia of “Pair of Boots” and “Fish on the Wall,” two remarkable songs that highlight moments between father and son. But Bryan gets even more serious on two other memorable songs: “Jesus ‘Bout the Kids” and “For the Kids”.
The father of two boys, Bo, 16, and Tate, 14, and custodial uncle to 22-year-old Til Cheshire, his late sister’s son, Bryan says the lyrics of “Jesus” hit home: “I used to tell my kids about Jesus / Now I talk with Jesus about his children.”
“When you become a parent, the anxiety of getting them through this life never goes away,” Bryan says, speaking to a dozen reporters at a recent press conference in Nashville. “You can do so much. You have to hand it over to Jesus or your higher power to take care of them, because at the end of the day, that’s what you have to plant your flag in – for God and Jesus to take care of them.”
Luke Bryan, “Love You Miss You Mean It”
Bryan himself lost his beloved older brother in a car accident in 1996. Now 16, Bo is driving, and Bryan says he and his wife Caroline are constantly praying for his safety.
“She won’t go to bed until Bo rolls in the door,” Bryan says (although he admits he tends to “go nuts”).
Bryan is the author of “For the Children” and reveals that he was the one who came up with the idea of an unraveling marriage with co-writers Justin Ebach and Brad Tursi of Old Dominion.
“I’m like, people… I feel like this is something we have to write,” Bryan recalls. “Me [married couples] we do all these things for children, and we invest all our energy in these children. And the next thing you know, you’re married for children. … So this song, I think, really touches on that as really as any or any song I’ve ever heard.”
The three songwriters also made sure the song ended on a hopeful note, and when Bryan performed it live, he says, he could see the couples “waking up” because they recognized each other in the lyrics.
“That’s the beauty of country music,” he says. “These songs can enter people’s lives and help them through their ups and downs.”
But is this also Bryan’s story?
He quickly dismisses the idea: “It’s ridiculous. When I wrote ‘Do’, Caroline and I had just got married and everyone was calling us ‘Are you okay?’ I said, ‘That’s a song, everybody.’ So I’m sure everybody’s going to be checking us out when they hear ‘For the Kids,’ but all’s well in that world.”
However, he adds, when he played the song for his wife, “it hit her hard.” I think he understands the art in it and how well it’s done. It’s a difficult thing ’cause she says: ‘People will think we’re like that’. I mean, well… we can’t control it. But I think she appreciates it because of the great song.”
The serious side of perhaps country’s best cheerleader can only be shown for so long: Bryan fills the 14-track album with the fun-loving music fans have come to expect, including his latest Top 5 hits: “Country On ” (chart-topper), “But I Got a Beer in My Hand” and “Love You, Miss You, Mean It.” The album’s title track, also the title of his current tour, is a journey through the life of a country boy, and “Kansas” and “She’s Still Got It” showcase Bryan’s deft approach to the love song.
Luke Bryan, “Country On”
While the album’s more reflective music reveals “a lot of where I’m at,” Bryan admits, “that doesn’t mean that when the real big party numbers come along, I’m not going to still say yes to them… My biggest challenge is trying to play music that catches people’s ears.”
A new project for Bryan has been a long time coming — it’s been four years since his last album — and even he can’t believe how much time has passed.
“When you go to do a residency in Vegas, and [American] Idol and all of that, your mind gets a little messed up,” says Bryan.
Indeed, his successful two-year stint in Las Vegas just ended this past January, completing seven seasons as an umpire on the american idol. He is currently in the middle of his Mind of a Country Boy tour, which runs until October; his two-week Farm Tour, his 15th, ends at the end of this month.
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For next season Idolpremiering in the spring of 2025, Bryan will be joined by ex Idol winner Carrie Underwood, who replaces Katy Perry, and Bryan says he’s excited that he and Lionel Richie will welcome another country artist to their panel.
“Our love of country music and our brand of country music really match,” he says of Underwood. “Obviously I’m more like” — Bryan stares, stretches his arms and lets out a crazy “AAHHH!” — “and Carrie is very graceful and elegant. So we’ll see how they treat me. … She certainly has all the qualifications for an excellent job. You look back on her days hosting the CMAs. She knocked it out of the park. And even now, after hosting the CMAs,” he adds with a laugh, “a lot of fans really want him back!”
(Bryan has hosted or co-hosted the awards show for the past three years, and he and former co-host Peyton Manning are expected to be selected again this year.)
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Without a doubt, Bryan’s life is busy and full. But he also notes that what fills his life now is very different from his early career, when he was doing up to 320 shows a year. Now he makes sure he has time to sit on the front porch as a family and take his boys hunting or fishing.
Bryan is grateful to be in such a rare and enviable place: “I came to this city with goals, dreams and expectations, and somehow I pulled it all off and made it all happen.” Still, that didn’t stop him from trying: “If I can finish the tour and get a little better on the piano and get a little better on the guitar or be a little better performer every year and grow a little bit, those are some of my goals.”
Luke Bryan’s Mind of a Country Boy.
Jim Wright
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Success also hasn’t stopped Bryan from dreaming: “I still have a lot of good things to think about.”
One move, he says, is towards movies. He reveals that he turned down some acting roles, but also wrote a “little movie idea” that might one day turn into something. “If it happens, it happens,” says Bryan, adding that the book could be his future. In fact, the only thing he rules out – with a hearty laugh – is “swimsuit model”.
Whatever he does next, you can bet this country boy is going to have fun doing it.
“I know I had fun when we were broke,” he says. “I was delighted in the 15-passenger van. We were all looking forward. We still have fun today.”
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Source: HIS Education