Opening a stage is always a tough gig – the crowd is half full and people are getting their drinks and catching up with friends, waiting it out until the headliner comes on. However, for Garrett Gregory opening the Nashville North stage for Calgary Stampede, this was not the case.

With the (kind of) hometown advantage, the Alberta native played to a tent packed out a queue already past the barriers. We caught up with Gregory just before his Sunday set outside the Nashville North tent to talk about his dreams of playing this stage, his must have Stampede item and whether or not there are plans for a UK tour

Garrett, we’re here with Building Our Own Nashville for our readers back in the UK. We’re at Calgary Stampede and it is day two. How was your set yesterday?

Amazing, it was unreal. We played two sets so we started at 4pm and it was probably the busiest we have ever seen Stampede at this time. It was absolutely unreal. Had an absolute blast. We have videos of everybody just going crazy and all that stuff it was just…it was wicked, it was so much fun.

Yeah it looked wild from your Instagram stories! So how many years have you been performing here?

So we’ve done it about four years now. We got back into it I guess after Covid happened. So starting up after Covid was a little bit slow, it was still pretty busy but nothing like it is today. Right from day one at 4pm people are just ready to go. It was jammed in there, nobody could get in, the lines were just unreal so, yeah, it’s pretty crazy how we hopped back.

And did you come to Stampede as a kid?

Yes I did.

Did you have dreams of being on the stage over here?

Actually, Nashville North was one of the biggest stages that was on my bucket list. I always wanted to play Nashville North. I saw Default for the first time on the Nashville North stage – Dallas Smith I guess – and I was like, ‘man, I want to get up on that stage one day’. And never in a million years thought that we’d be up on that stage, and sure enough they were like, you need to come down and play for us and I was absolutely stoked when they let us in.

So you’re from Hanna, Alberta, right, which is quite a small town?

Yeah Hanna, Alberta!

What’s that like going from that small town to Calgary Stampede?

It’s wicked, it’s unbelievable. We live in a town of like 2400 people – actually the hometown of Nickelback – so everybody there is pretty high expectancy for music there. We don’t get the same crowds. We get a lot of our friends that are there and they’re all just chirping and everything – they have a good time but it’s not like coming here. We come to Calgary Stampede and play here and people just go absolutely nuts the whole time. It’s really good, it’s awesome.

So in the UK, Stampede isn’t really well known. Everyone goes nuts for CMA Fest but no one really knows Stampede. If you could sum Stampede up in three words, what would they be?

Three words? Oh my goodness…absolutely friggin crazy. That is about it, that is the best way I could summarise it. It is wild.

It is! I’ve been here one day and I was not ready – I don’t know what I was ready for but it wasn’t this.

I don’t know how people do it for ten days. It’s absolutely crazy. After four days I’m like…shut her down.

I need a dark room, a cold flannel

Yeah. That’s enough!

For people coming to Stampede, what is the must have item to have in their bag?

Cell phones. Or! A Portable charger for their cell phone because oh my god the amount of cell phones that are dead and people needing to charge is just ridiculous. Being stranded without a cell phone during this time is not good.

And have you tried any of the crazy food round here?

Yes. I tried the octopus squid ink thing and I was like…no beuno. It’s not for me. I’ll stick to the corn dogs I think I’m good with that.

So you have a new song out – Flip Off?

We have that one and I actually just released a new song yesterday on radio and it’s kind of a surprise thing I wrote with Aaron Goodman out of the United States and it’s called ‘She Don’t Need a Drink to Dance’. We’re going to be playing it tonight. We just released it to international radio and everything and so far it’s already been doing really good so we’re super pumped.

That’s cool! We’ll see what people think of it inside there tonight.

Oh they’ve liked it so far. Hopefully it keeps going.

Do you have any plans to come to the UK and give us a little treat?

Yes! We’re going to be heading to the UK. We’re planning a tour probably for next year and we’re thinking about Australia and New Zealand as well. We’re trying to plan something that’s cost effective but to make sure we get down there for all you guys. We have such a strong fan base over there – you guys love us, and we love that.

Is there anything else you’d like to say to our fans in the UK back home?

Absolutely love you guys, thank you so much for supporting Garret Gregory, if you haven’t already added me to all the socials, do it. We love you so much, we cannot wait to come and play for you guys.