Last Thursday at Darlings Waterfront Pavilion, I had the opportunity to hang and chat backstage with Cole Swindell (yes, complete dream come true!). Swindell is a part of the Dig Your Roots Tour with Florida Georgia Line this summer and couldn’t be happier!

We got a bit of insiders info about his number one song, “You Should Be Here”, which Swindell says that is the song that he “came to Nashville to write” about his father who unexpectedly passed away in 2013, just as his music career was taking off. “You Should Be Here” was written with Ashley Gorley in the parking lot of Gillette Stadium in August of 2014 while Swindell was on the That’s My Kind of Night Tour with Luke Bryan. Gorley sent his daughter a text about being at such an infamous football stadium and told her simply, “you should be here.” The rest is history, and Swindell and Gorley drafted up the song right there at our very own Patriot’s stadium!

If you don’t have Swindell’s new album featuring the title track “You Should Be Here”, do yourself a favor and go pick up a copy! One of my favorite songs on the album is the first one, “Flatliner” featuring Dierks Bentley. It’s such a fun upbeat song, and I was lucky enough to hear it live for the first time on Thursday night during Cole’s set. I had to ask Cole if they had plans of releasing it as a radio single, and his response was that it’s difficult when they both come from different labels, however he loves Dierks and loves that song! Cole said he would love it if it were released as a single, but he’s not sure if it will happen. Hopefully I will be lucky enough to see them perform the duet together live one day! Have a listen for yourself!