One of country music’s brightest new stars hangs his hat here in Murfreesboro, although he doesn’t get to do it as often as he likes.
Chris Young, 21, and winner of 2006 Nashville Star contest has been very busy. He has signed with RCA, cut a record-setting album, debuted on The Tonight Show in October, and this March he received his first career nomination for Top New Male Vocalist at this year’s Academy of Country Music Awards. (The ACM Awards show, telecast on CBS, will take place on May 15 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.)
But throughout this race to fame Chris has remained down to earth.
“To a point you change just naturally throughout the course of your life, but I don’t think that my morals have changed,” he said. “I am still a new artist; I have along way to go.”
Now this classic country voice, with a rich, sweet, contemporary twist is preparing for a tour that runs all summer long.
On April 6 he kicked off his well-rounded tour with a meet-and-greet and a performance at the Grand Ole’ Opry.
Chris first played the Opry in June 2006 and has already performed there six times! He says the excitement of playing on a stage where so many great artists have performed never wears off.
“It’s such an honor; some people only get to play there one time. It is different from any other gig out there!”
RCA has just released “You’re Gonna Love Me,” the second single from his self-titled debut album. It also features his hit single “Drinkin’ Me Lonely” a song Chris feels “validated me as a song writer.”
Chris has been successful not only because of his music but the brains behind it. He studied Music Business at MTSU and Belmont University.
“I learned a lot about copyright law, contracts and publishing, a lot of things that have really helped me out. There are many things that I wouldn’t have known to do if I hadn’t taken some courses. It was definitely time well spent,” he said.
Other keys to his success have been strong dedication and hard work.
“The biggest thing that helped me was going to listen to songwriters if they came to speak, or if a really big artist was playing I would go and watch their show. I like to see what kind of things they did on stage and how they interact with the crowd. And anytime I got a chance to play I’d go and play. It cost me gas money and I wouldn’t get paid to do the show. I just did everything I possible could to learn about performing, singing, and writing, you need every piece of information.
“In the past six months I have been home about two and a half weeks. A lot of people don’t realize I travel that much,” Young said.
“When I have free time I like to do normal stuff like fishing with my dad and I like to go dancing, but I don’t get a lot of free time, so right now my favorite thing is sleep.”
