Brett Eldredge has had quite a year. Last summer, he released his self-titled album, notched a top 10 single with "The Long Way" and kicked off his first headlining tour. Now the singer is prepping for the fall leg of his The Long Way Tour and riding high from the release of his latest single, "Love Someone." During a candid interview, Eldredge discussed what led him to choose the song as a single. Spoiler: Amazon's Alexa is partly responsible.
Videos by Wide Open Country
"You're picking a song that you're going to sing for hopefully the rest of your life so I want it to be the right one to pick. When I woke up that morning I said 'Hey Alexa, play 'Love Someone' by Brett Eldredge.' I just want to see how I feel the first moment I hear this and it just hit me. The summer was just kicking off and it just feels like the right song for this moment for me," Eldredge told Wide Open Country. "I think the simple message of the song of just having someone there for you all the time and to laugh at you when you dance like an idiot and smile when you're holding their hand and to be there in the middle of the night...that kind of stuff is something that I think we all crave and want. Either you have it or you want it and it has a lot of hope in it too."
Eldredge wrote "Love Someone" with Ross Copperman and Heather Morgan, two songwriters he's struck gold with before.
"We have that thing that I'll be forever grateful for that you can't even put into words," Eldredge said during a round table interview. "It's just a chemistry. It's a relationship and we go back a lot of years and those years come out on pen and paper and through the speakers. I think that's special."
Eldredge also shared his excitement to return to the road with tour mate Devin Dawson, who he called "one of my favorite artists out there." The "Beat of the Music" singer said he and Dawson bonded over their off-the-beaten-path approach to the music business.
"We see eye to eye on doing things a little bit different than maybe our peers sometimes, zigging when everybody else is zagging -- we're going different directions and I love that about him," Eldredge said. "I love that he's not afraid to do that. I certainly always try to do that and just try to embrace--just be myself. I think that's where we connected."
Since wrapping the first leg of his tour, which kicked off last year, Eldredge has gained some perspective on how his approach to life on the bus has changed.
"For years, I would spend more time on the bus. You sit there and watch movies and you just wait around all day for a show. And I figured out that's the worst thing you can do when you're in these different cities and all these different places. It's easy to get in the comfort of your bus in the AC and sit there and Netflix for hours," Eldredge told Wide Open Country. "You're not seeing anything. You're not living the way you should live. I started to really become conscious of that and the more and more I get on the road, the more I enjoy spending time with my crew and my friends. The people that are out there are passionate about what I'm doing and I'm passionate about what they're doing."
"I'm trying to expand my comfort zone. I'm getting more comfortable with this whole life of music," Eldredge continued. "I've always loved it but I'm loving it a lot more now. I'm just kinda realizing I'm not going to be able to do this forever. I want to do this forever and I'm going to try to do this forever. But I'm never going to get to go on my first headlining tour again."
If you need any more proof that Eldredge is living in the moment, look no further than the star's Instagram page, where he shares backstage hijinks, on-the-road adventures and photos of his now-famous dog, Edgar, with his 1.3 million followers.
Eldredge told Wide Open Country that social media is his way of encouraging others to live life to the fullest.
"I guess I just hate the feeling of no one knowing the real me. I want to encourage everyone to accept themselves. It's not like I'm perfect at it but I always try to just -- the realer you are the more people are going to love you because that's just who you are. The ones that don't love you for that, well that's just... that's alright. There's always going to be people that care for you and the ones that don't like you for that aren't meant to be in your life," Eldredge says. "Goof off when you want to goof off, speak your heart when you want to speak your heart and just never leave any regret out there."
