Luke Bryan stopped by The Bobby Bones Show to talk about his new album, share how he feels about Carrie Underwood joining him as a judge on American Idol and more!
Bryan has been dealing with bad asthma and bronchitis for the last few weeks and is finally starting to sing at the level he enjoys. He’s always dealt with bad allergies and had childhood asthma, but it never came back until this year around the beginning of August. He had to move some shows around because of it and said there were a few he probably should’ve moved due to some bad Instagram comments he received from them. When he sings, everything has to work right and when it’s not, he can’t hide it and looks like he’s struggling. He hates having to cancel shows but said there is nothing worse than performing sick and that he’d rather “Televise a vasectomy than perform sick.” The hardest song for him to sing is “Roller Coaster” because it’s in a high register for his voice. When he’s having vocal trouble, he tries to sing over the band and it doesn’t work, so they’ve learned it’s better for him to perform a more toned-down version of the songs on his piano or do an acoustic set. He thinks when he’s 65 and performing it wouldn’t be a bad idea for him to change the key of his songs so he can sing them better, but right now he has no interest in doing that.
Bryan loves to fish and often sings about it, so it comes as a shock to most people that he is allergic to fish when he touches them. He can eat seafood and be fine but can’t touch it. Whenever he goes fishing, he has to take allergy pills before and then he’s good to go!
His new album, Mind Of A Country Boy, is out now. He’s writing 3-4 songs a month and is constantly logging in ideas for songs. He’ll wait for those ideas to meet the right co-writer, and he wants to start doing songwriter retreats to knock out more songs. “Closing Time In California,” is a song that has a fresh and different approach for him. He recorded it because he feels like it will help him stay in the game and the song stands out from his others. His main thing when recording songs is to make sure he can perform it live without trouble. The first time he heard, “Love You, Miss You, Mean It,” his latest number one song, it sounded like it was tailor made for him. He and his wife, Caroline dated for a little while in college, broke up for a few years and then got back together, and that kind of mirrors what the song is about. He thinks it’s relatability because a lot of people have been in similar situations is why the song had so much success.
Historically, October has always been his busiest month because of touring and tapping for American Idol, but this year, he’s taken Friday’s off so he can be at his son’s football games. Bryan will return for judge duties on Idol soon with new co-judge and Idol winner alumni, Carrie Underwood. He revealed her name had been thrown around a few times as a possibility early on in their search for who was going to replace Katy Perry. He’s confident she will do great in the role because of her ability to relate to the younger generation. She’s also always come back and uplifted the show and championed it. She’s very grateful for Idol and how it helped launch her career, so her coming back to help others is very important.
Bryan’s new album, Mind Of A Country Boy, is out now!