Photograph by Braden Walker
There was a time when multi-platinum musician Brantley Gilbert was sure he had seen it all. Turns out he hadn’t seen anything yet. “I didn’t know what life looked like above the Mason-Dixon line,” he says with a laugh. “We didn’t travel much when I was young.”
But once the Georgia native grew up and started touring the country in pursuit of a country music career, he quickly realized that the folks up in the Buckeye State weren’t so different from him after all. And that realization turned into a song that would change his life.
“Ohio was one of the first places we really came out and played, so we put Ohio in that song,” Gilbert says, referring to the hit “Country Must Be Country Wide” that he co-wrote with Colt Ford and the late Mike Dekle back in 2009. “It was like, Holy crap, we got country folks up here too. This is awesome. After that, I felt like Ohio became a second home to me.”
Along the way, Gilbert also struck up a friendship with Ben Ferguson, an Ohio businessman who had enjoyed success in children’s publishing. “I didn’t even know that until months into becoming friends with this guy,” Gilbert says of the founder and CEO of Bendon Publishing International, based in Ashland near Mansfield. “Ben and his family were such good people. Even when we aren’t on the road, I’ll go spend time with him. I’ve got several friends like that in Ohio now.”
Gilbert returns to the area with with four stops of his Real American Tour in the Buckeye State in October, including Rose Music Center in Dayton October 1 and PNC Pavilion October 16. “Ohio has kind of become a second home to us,” he says.
Heck, Gilbert’s love affair with the state of Ohio has even begun to seep into his love of college football. “I am a Georgia Bulldogs fan from birth, but I can’t even pull against Ohio teams anymore,” he says, adding that he was actually born in the hospital that sits next door to the University of Georgia’s stadium. “When the Bulldogs play Ohio State, obviously that’s the only time that I’ll semi pull against them. But even the team they had last year, I was like, Man, I can get behind this quarterback. I can get behind this Buckeyes team. It’s created a bit of a hometown problem.”
But while Gilbert continues to bend the rules a bit when it comes to his college football loyalties, he’s far less willing to budge with his music. He doesn’t sway too far from his truths, both on and off the stage. And one of his greatest truths is that he’s never been your average country music artist putting on your average country music show.
“Our live show right now is heavier than it’s ever been,” says Gilbert, who released his eighth studio album Sins of the Father in the summer. “It’s a little rollercoaster ride where we can dip in and out of just going balls to the wall and then sharing some songs that matter a little more on the heart side of things and on the addiction side of things and the not so pretty sides of life.”
It’s a balance Gilbert and his band have spent the better part of two decades perfecting––delivering the kind of loud, fiery show fans have come to expect while still finding moments to connect on a much more personal level. “To be able to put it in front of folks and it be as loud and as fiery and as energy filled as it’s ever been and still be able to dip back and reach you on a personal level is important to us,” he says.
And make no mistake, the hitmaker of such massive songs as “Bottoms Up,” “You Don’t Know Her Like I Do,” and “One Hell of an Amen” has made sure to create a family atmosphere out on the road. “We had the pleasure of touring with guys like Toby Keith who really showed us what building that 20-, 30-, and 40-year family out on the road looks like,” says Gilbert, whose current single “Good Damn” continues its trek up the charts. “We call it a family out here on the road, and we don’t just call it that––we mean it. I’m in a season of life where I surround myself with people who don’t have any trouble holding me accountable and questioning decisions I make. And I’m the same way with them.”
Gilbert is quick to point out he wouldn’t be here without them. “You don’t hear me say ‘I’ or ‘me’ often,” he says. “That’s for a reason. I really do have a top-tier group of people around me helping me build this thing. I didn’t do any of this by myself. I can write these songs all day, but a lot of stars have to align to get those songs to people’s ears. If it weren’t for everybody around me, I’d be writing my songs for an audience of just five or whoever was willing to listen.”
