Kolby Cooper Revisits the Chaos of Touring and Traveling on New Single ‘Hello from the Road’ (Exclusive)

Kolby Cooper will never forget a game of pool gone wrong.

“Our ex-trade guy got knocked out,” Cooper, 24, recalled during an interview with PEOPLE about the wild night in Birmingham. “I called my wife when we got back on the bus and told her it was crazy here and I couldn’t wait to get home.”

Indeed, Cooper went home soon after, co-writing his new song “Hello from the Road” with David Garcia and Brett Tyler and ultimately serving as another part of a brand new chapter of music for the musical powerhouse.

“Really, it’s the music we’ve always made, just with an extra layer,” explains Cooper, who released his debut album on the acclaimed label Anderson County Boy to the Moon last year. “I used to write like an 18-year-old, but now I’m a 24-year-old with three kids.” He is laughing. “I guess I should be a bit older and I think the music definitely shows that.”

Colby Cooper.

Photo by Gabriel Muniz

Cooper is also in an impressive league of rockers including artists — such as HARDY and Brantley Gilbert — who have broken into the country music genre through sheer determination and heaps of talent.

“Obviously there’s a bunch of country people who have a pretty heavy rock influence,” says Cooper, who has shared the stage with acts like Jelly Roll and Koe Wetzel. “Most of my friends in the scene listen almost exclusively to rock and hip-hop. We’re all just country people, so the music kind of naturally comes out of the country.”

Right now, Cooper says he’s leaning toward a newfound writing style that has nothing less than an incentive for the future.

“We wrote a song that might be my favorite song that we haven’t released,” notes Cooper. “I felt in the moment that this s— felt so fucking magical, to hear music just like we were making. We stayed up until like 2 in the morning just getting high [my publisher’s] office, listening to him say, ‘Shit, man, that’s it. This is fucked up your.’ It really was so natural, you know?”

Hello from Kolby Cooper.

Courtesy of BBR Music Group

At 22, Kolby Cooper is a husband, father of two girls — and country music’s newest villain

This new chapter of new music and new creative philosophies began with the release of Cooper’s rock song “Kill Me” earlier this year. “It’s really about any addiction in life, in general,” Cooper says of the song, which he co-wrote with Michael Whitworth and producer Andrew Baylis. “Life is made up of vices, and for many people it is a struggle against those vices and addictions.”

Certainly, Cooper says he’s experienced some of that addiction firsthand.

“Growing up in East Texas, you see a lot of drug and alcohol addiction, just as much as you see people addicted to heartbreak, you know?” says Cooper, who made his Grand Ole Opry debut last year. “They depend on finding that next flame for a few weeks.”

It’s a family affair as Kolby Cooper makes his Grand Ole Opry debut! See all photos

Cooper laughs at the idea because he is happily married to his wife Jillian and lives as a father to their three children – daughters Josie, 5, and Charlee, 3½, and son Carter, 8 months. And yes, with three little ones following his every move, Cooper says he does his best to watch his tongue.

“It’s really hard for me to switch off from who I am,” he admits with a laugh. “I mean, I definitely try to watch my mouth. Jillian has a bad mouth too, so yeah. We’ve had kids talk to us with s— and stuff. We’ve learned!”

Country star Kolby Cooper and wife Jillian welcome baby boy, son Carter — see photos!

But Cooper is just who he is.

“I am the same person at home as I am on the road,” he concludes. “I just want everyone to be happy and have a good time.”

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Source: HIS Education