It is that time of year when the UK’s biggest country music festival Country 2 Country (C2C) is just around the corner. This years line up is pretty awesome with many acts making their C2C debut and many making their UK debut. One of the artists making their long awaited UK debut is Dustin Lynch. Whether he knows it or not, Dustin has a pretty big fan base over here and fans are beyond excited to see him perform. Dustin has had an incredible career and released his most recent album Current Mood in 2017.

Dustin has been nominated for multiple awards and recently became a member of the Grand Ole Opry, an honour for any country artist to receive. With a new album on the way, Dustin released his debut single Good Girl from the forthcoming album last summer and it reached a very well deserved number one.

We caught up with Dustin to discuss playing C2C, hints on the new album, working with songwriter Ross Copperman (who will be at the CMA Songwriters Series on Thursday 7th March at the Indigo O2 before C2C starts), his Vlog, being an Opry member, baked beans and more.

Enjoy!

Hi Dustin – How are you?

Doing great thank you.

What have you been up to this week?

It’s been great, I have actually been in Nashville which is rare. I had a week to catch up on all my “to do” list before we go out and do my next music video.

You just played Crash My Playa – How was that?

It is a wonderful way to kick off our year. For whatever reason, Luke has made me mayor of Crash My Playa so we’ve been there every single year that it’s happened, all five years. The kick off of the year with Luke by the beach, on the beach playing music and just goofing off has been a great experience. The last five years we have kind of created this family of pirates haha down in Mexico. There are a lot of fans that come down who are repeat offenders, they know what to expect. It is kind of a loose formatting show where we are scheduled to play for an hour but we then play on through. We kind of feed off the crowds energy – if they wanna keep rockin’ then we are gonna keep playing through the night. It is a very special show, one of a kind. All my band, crew and families; we make it a family affair, so everyone is lying down and spending a week in paradise, it’s awesome.

And you swam with Dolphins….

Yes, which are my favourite animal on earth – they make me so happy haha. I don’t know if I used to be a dolphin or whatever haha but whenever I get in the water with them I love it! They are amazing amazing creatures.

You will be coming to the UK to play for the first time at C2C Festival in March. We have been waiting a while, so why now?

I have just been waiting on the invitation and the timing to be right. We have been blessed to be on some amazing tours over the last several years so the timing has never allowed us to come over. I have never been over to the UK period so I am really excited to get to travel over and experience everything you guys have to offer. I have had friends who have gone over and every artist has come back and said just how great the fanbase is over there and how passionate everybody is for country music. Not only do the fans know all the hit songs but every song on the album, I know I am in for a good treat and am looking forward to partying with everybody.

Yes, we will sing along to every single song and if you sing a new song, we will know the words by the next day.

Haha that is so cool, I love that. We are not used to that here in the states, that is very refreshing.

Will you get much time to sight see?

I am going to try. I am arriving right before the shows start but I definitely want to try out a few of the pubs. I want to go where the locals hang.

What can we know about the new album and how it progresses from Current Mood?

2018 was a very creative year for me. I wrote a lot of songs and was in the studio a whole lot this fall and this year we are going to continue to be in the studio. We are probably about half way done but still got a long ways to go. This is the first time I think that we are writing with purpose as far as what we want the songs to say and be. The past has been kinda a bit all over the map and whatever song moved us we kind of went with it and let the song dictate where the sound is. With this record, we are more deliberate with what we are writing and how we are recording it which is fun. With every album I have changed it up with the process of how we have gone about it but this album it feels like we have a bullseye we are aiming at that we have shot. Without giving too much away, that is kind of where we are and we are shooting a music video really soon.

Will you play any of the new music at C2C?

I don’t know, I haven’t decided yet, that is something we have to figure out. We might, we’ll see.

You will definitely play Good Girl though?

Without a doubt.

Can you tell us a bit about the process of that song?

Yeah that one fell out of the sky, it came out of nowhere. I was just writing and I had a couple of buddies out on the bus one of the weekends that we were touring with Brad Paisley. We wrote Good Girl one day and we were right outside of Chicago. Before we even had the lyrics done for the chorus I was jumping up and down celebrating. It might have been a little early to celebrate but I was just screaming that it was a special song, a hit song and that I knew it was going to be all those things deep down inside. We ended up finishing it that day and playing it after the show for friends that were there and some radio folks and everybody was just groovin’ along and giving it the thumbs up. Later I went into the studio and recorded it when I had some time off. The Current Mood album was only six months old at that point but we thought why not release a new song? Why wait? Let’s just put it out and see what happens. It was one of those things where you just follow your gut. Good Girl has been played all summer right through to now – here we are about six months later with a big number one in the states. It is definitely one of the most interactive songs that I have released.

Congratulations on all the success of the song.

Thank you!

You work a lot with Ross Copperman. What is it about him that makes you work so well together and what is it about his songwriting that you like so much?

Ross and I kind of ride on the same wave length. He is all about the groove and melody – it is kind of what we work on first. He is such a genius and oozes great melodies. We capture a mood and a vibe and the lyrics just kind of fall out and find us. That is what really happened with I’d Be Jealous Too on this latest record. He and I have had a lot of success together and have written together a couple dozen of times and we connect on a pretty regular basis as far as writing songs on my album or for another artist. There is a special bond there, we make a great team. I am glad you asked about him, yesterday I was thinking “I need to call Ross and see if he is up for getting back on the books” it has been a few months so he and I will get back in the kitchen and start cookin’ pretty soon.

Well he is coming over for C2C as well which is exciting.

Oh that’s great, I didn’t know he was coming, that’s good.

Yes he is doing the CMA Songwriters Series the Thursday before it all kicks off. We were all kind of hoping you would make a surprise appearance?

Well we’ll see, if he reaches out and asks.

That would be so cool. We love songwriters sessions over here.

Oh yeah me too. I rarely get to play songwriters rounds but they are a lot of fun for me.

Tell us about your vlog…

Oh gosh! It is something we just selfishly started doing to have fun and I did not realise how great these vlogs would take off with our fanbase. There is a deeper part now between myself and my band and my crew and Swiss who films everything and edits everything and there is a deeper connection with our fans now too. It is another level of relationship that exists because of these vlogs. We literally just roll camera; in my house or somewhere. It is a legit, behind the scenes video and you are kind of hanging out with us all day. We are not even doing anything special, just hanging around the house, or the farm , traveling or back stage. There is always something fun and exciting going on and that’s what we realised, just how special this life we have is and how many great adventures we get to go on. In ten, twenty years it will be great to look back on, reminisce.

And one vlog showed us you have a boat?

I do! I love the water! There’s something about it. Water gives me peace, it gives me a nice reset. I get out on the water as much as I can. It doesn’t matter if it’s a lake, river, ocean, I love being by a good body of water and looking across it.

We also saw you attempting a cooked breakfast on one of your vlogs – Have you improved on your breakfast making skills?

Yeah oh yeah, I just made one actually believe it or not. I think with practice comes perfection, I keep it pretty simple. I am one of those people that can eat the same thing everyday. I am a bacon, eggs, english muffin kind of guy. I like to start with a big meal in the morning, it kind of helps me stay on top of my game all day long.

Just to warn you as Kassi Ashton had a bit of a shock; if you have a cooked breakfast here in the UK, expect Baked Beans.

Baked Beans? Oh my gosh, hahahahaha. Ok…ok actually now I am looking forward to how much is going to hit the pallet. I will have to make sure I can get an English Breakfast with baked beans so I can actually be very judgemental and give it either a thumbs up or thumbs down haha.

You have to let us know.

Haha I will.

Congratulations on being inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, what was that like?

Thank you. That was a dream come true. You look at my bucket list, becoming a member of the Opry is on the top of that list. Having that so early on in my career is still amazing to me. When it did happen I felt like it was hard to believe it was happening. On another note it was like wow! We get this many more years to enjoy being a member. Being a part of a prestigious family where there is only several dozen of us who are part of the Opry family who are representing country music world wide is an awesome thing. What I love about the Opry is that we touch a world wide audience and people travel to Nashville from all over the world to the Grand Ole Opry. Being a small part of that is a lot of fun. I actually get next week my big display of all the momentous, the trophies, the programs to the tissues that Reba gave me when I was crying and she was crying. All of that is going to be showing up at the house pretty soon so I am excited.

l was going to ask if you would put anything up on the wall to always remember that moment ha!

It is gonna be a whole wall of stuff haha.

Sounds awesome. Thank you so much for talking today

Hannah it was my pleasure.

I can’t wait to see you in March it is going to be amazing.

Well the countdown is on, I can’t wait either.