Luke Bryan Gave Cole Swindell the Best One-Word Songwriting Advice
Cole Swindell recalls a one-word reply email he got from Luke Bryan that stuck with him since.
Cole Swindell has certainly had many full circle moments. From selling merch for Luke Bryan, writing songs together, getting some No. 1’s of his own to now, opening up for the American Idol judge on his Sunset Repeat Tour this summer.
But recently, during an interview, Swindell recalled the time he emailed Bryan for songwriting advice many years back, before he moved to Nashville.
It was during Swindell’s first year of college that the Georgia native developed a deep passion for writing songs, which encouraged him to email his fellow Georgia native for advice. However, the reply he got was not what he was expecting, but turned out to be one of the best career advice he’s ever received.
“All he wrote back was ‘live.’ He just wrote ‘live.’ I was like, that wasn’t a very in-depth answer,” Swindell shared with a laugh, thinking he was being sarcastic.
But now that a couple years have passed for the “You Should Be Here” singer, he realized that it’s the best advice.
“Looking back now and getting older, that’s advice for life, not just writing songs. We are writing our songs pretty much the way we live, and that’s the best advice that I’ve had before I moved to Nashville,” Swindell recalls. “It certainly shaped my songwriting career.”
Jon Langston, who is accompanying both Bryan and Swindell on the Sunset Repeat Tour this year, also recalled the advice he’s got from the headliner.
“I remember back when we first met a couple years ago, he was like ‘if I could tell you one thing, [it’s to] just have fun, man. If you’re not having fun, what’s the point in this whole deal?”
Reflecting further, the 28-year-old shared his gratitude for the friendship Bryan and him share and the encouragement he’s received along the way. “If I’m stressed out, trying to figure out this whole crazy journey, I’ve got somebody like him. It’s pretty special. I can call him up and he’s talked me through things and just gave me advice on whatever the situation is.”
Kicking off the tour in Philadelphia, PA, at the end of the month, the Sunset Repeat Tour stretch across the entire summer before wrapping up in the fall on October 12 in Raleigh, North Carolina. For information on the upcoming tour and to get tickets, go HERE.
