When you think of Brantley Gilbert, you think singer and hit songwriter. In addition to writing his own chart-topping hit, ‘Country Must Be Country Wide,’ Gilbert is also responsible for penning Jason Aldean‘s ‘My Kinda Party’ and co-writing ‘Dirt Road Anthem’ with Colt Ford.

Not even Gilbert envisioned he would be where he is today in regards to being one of Nashville’s most respected tunesmiths, especially judging by his very first song, which he wrote at the ripe age of 13.

“[That song] didn’t make any sense at all,” Gilbert tells Taste of Country with laughter. “It was a song called ‘Red Bird Drive.’ It talked about everything from having family problems to girl problems … it wasn’t about anything, really … it was about everything [laughs]! Just whatever rhymed.”

But Gilbert stuck to the craft of songwriting as he fell deeper in love with music, and for very good reasons. “I was just too lazy to learn anybody else’s songs,” he admits. “It was that, and it gets girls, too. It works [laughs]! No, I always had an itch to write my own stuff. I don’t really know where that came from. It’s just something that I’ve always enjoyed doing. It’s therapy for me.”

After ‘Dirt Road Anthem’ topped the charts, Gilbert experienced what it was like to have his first No. 1 as a songwriter, which helped brace him for how it felt to be the writer and artist of his own chart-topping hit.

“It was a little strange,” Gilbert says of the commotion surrounding his songwriting successes. “It caught me off guard. It was a lot of fun, and it was really exciting. To hear some of the things that people had to say about me was definitely really cool. People had a lot of really good things to say. It made me feel good.”

Gilbert’s latest single, ‘You Don’t Know Her Like I Do,’ is the second release from his current album, ‘Halfway to Heaven.’ Click here to read the inspiration behind the song’s lyrics.

 

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