The wait is finally over! After releasing Blue In The Sky in 2022, followed by tracks like “Wood On The Fire,” “Killed The Cowboy” and “Chevrolet (feat. Jelly Roll) to tide fans over, Dustin Lynch returns with his highly-anticipated sixth studio album, Killed The Cowboy.
Written for single people across the globe, Killed The Cowboy is unlike anything country music lovers have seen from the Tullahoma, Tennessee native before, and he dished all about it in an exclusive interview with Music Mayhem.
New Album, Killed The Cowboy
“Killed the Cowboy is a little bit of a deep dive into my inner conversations and thoughts and a timestamp on this chapter of my life. I’m excited. I was a little bit nervous to, you know, open up and be so vulnerable with where I’m at in my personal life and growth, but I realized, ‘You know what? It’s probably gonna help me if I am,’ so I think the fans that hear this album are gonna have a front row seat to whatever the movie it is that comes my way in my personal life and journey here,” Lynch shared, prior to diving into his own dating life as a 38-year-old who is still looking for his perfect match.
“There’s a pressure I think on all of us that, you know, don’t find the high school sweetheart, just culturally, but specifically for me amongst my friend circle and family and then my peers in the industry. There’s a pressure in country music of, you know, ‘Why isn’t he married? What’s wrong with him? Why didn’t he have kids?’ and a lot of artists that I grew up in Nashville with and kind of came up through the ranks with have found their person and are having kids, and the fans are super invested in that,” the CMA Award-winning artist prefaced.
Embraces Being Single
“I don’t really have that, but I’ve realized that’s okay,” the country crooner continued. “It’s my specific journey, and I’ve realized as I’ve started talking through and about this album and kind of what I’m going through that there’s a lot of other people out there like me, and you know, it’s okay to be single in this world and make sure that you’re sure before you sign up for the rest of your life with someone, and so that’s really, you know, if I’m pointing at where I’m at, that’s where I am… [It’s] okay not to know what’s next [and] It’s okay to be a little bit scared of not knowing what’s next.”
With 12 must-listen tracks that take a deep dive into the personal life of Dustin Lynch, Killed The Cowboy is arguably the most vulnerable project to come from the chart-topping artist.
Fans can listen to Killed The Cowboy in its entirety now on all music streaming platforms. The project is full of anthemic track and is certain to spawn several chart-topping hits in no time.
Killed The Cowboy Track List
1. “Killed The Cowboy” (Jordan Reynolds, Devin Dawson, Anderson East)*
2. “Honky Tonk Heartbreaker” (Dustin Lynch, Hunter Phelps, Zach Crowell, Ben Johnson)+
3. “George Strait Jr.” (Dustin Lynch, Hunter Phelps, Jordan Reynolds, Andy Albert)*
4. “Chevrolet (feat. Jelly Roll)” (Chase McGill, Jessi Alexander, Hunter Phelps, Mentor Williams)^
5. “If I Stop Drinkin’” (John Morgan, Dallas Davidson, Kyle Fishman, Jordan Minton)*
6. “Only Girl In This Town” (Devin Dawson, Josh Thompson, Kyle Fishman)#
7. “Breakin’ Up Down” (Hunter Phelps, Zach Crowell, Blake Pendergrass, Brent Anderson)*
8. “Trouble With This Truck” (Dustin Lynch, Hunter Phelps, Ashley Gorley, Zach Crowell)*
9. “Blue Lights” (Jameson Rodgers, Jake Mitchell, Brent Anderson, Hunter Phelps)*
10. “Lone Star” (Devin Dawson, Jordan Reynolds, Alysa Vanderheym)*
11. “Listen To The Radio” (Dustin Lynch, Hunter Phelps, Randy Montana, Ben Johnson)*
12. “Long Way Home” (Dustin Lynch, Kyle Fishman, Andy Albert)*
* Produced by Zach Crowell
+ Co-Produced by Zach Crowell and Ben Johnson
^ Co-Produced by Zach Crowell and Ben Phillips
# Co-Produced by Zach Crowell and Kyle Fishman
“Chevrolet (feat. Jelly Roll)”
One of the most notable tracks on Killed The Cowboy is not only the haunting title track, but also “Chevrolet,” which hit all music streaming platforms on September 15 and features a very special guest: the one and only Jelly Roll.
Jelly Roll is the only artist featured on Lynch’s 12-track project, bringing his signature sound to “Chevrolet” and making it truly one-of-a-kind.
“Making music together, it can’t help but bring you closer together with someone, you know, getting to create the magic that is song and music. That’s for sure brought Jelly and myself together closer, but we really started having conversations and hanging out over the course of 2021 and 2022 just through a mutual friend,” Lynch shared, detailing his relationship with the country superstar.
“I was already a fan. Jelly has been around as long as I’ve been in Nashville, making awesome music and representing this town in a unique way, and then ‘Chevrolet’ came across the table,” the country troubadour gushed, prior to sharing how this collaboration came to be. “I thought to myself, ”Chevrolet’ could really lend its, you know, Jelly could give it some soul, you know, and some magic, whatever his magic sauce is [and] I think the song could benefit from that.’ He graciously was like, ‘Hell yeah! I love the song. Let’s do it.’”
“Fast forward, he gets on a rocket ship to the moon with his career, and here we are with ‘Chevrolet,’ and the timing couldn’t be better. This is a career moment for me just to make music with a guy like Jelly Roll. He’s one of Nashville’s greatest treasures, and I’m just so blessed to get to do music with him,” the 38-year-old concluded with a smile.
“George Strait Jr.”
Another must-listen track on Killed The Cowboy is “George Strait Jr.,” a song that Lynch wrote to honor one of his musical heroes: country music legend George Strait.
“The title came about, and I’m like, ‘Man, how can I, in a cool way, tip my hat to a legend?’ George Strait is my hero, so I started there, I don’t know. ‘George Strait Jr.’ hit me one day, and I’m like, ‘Okay, how do I write that title?’ and started thinking about it, and it was a labor of love… It’s been about two years of trying to get it right and writing a song and then scratching it because it wasn’t right, completely starting over, and then finally identifying where it landed to where we were kind of tipping our hat and honoring, you know, my hero, but not doing it over the top where it’s too much,” the ACM Award-winning artist explained.
Lynch continued, “It’s also kind of embracing, you know, what we’ve had success with, with ‘Small Town Boy’ and ‘Ridin’ Roads,’ and just that scenario where a girl’s making the guy feel larger than life and awesome, and I don’t think you can get any more awesome or larger than life than George Strait, so that’s really how that song came to be and that concept. It’s a title that I know it’s going to make people want to click on it and listen to it, and that’s exciting.”
“Honky Tonk Heartbreaker”
Last but certainly not least, when asked which song is extra special to him out of all 12 tracks on Killed The Cowboy, Lynch gushed, “I love what ‘Honky Tonk Heartbreaker’ means to me.”
He then went on to explain why the song one of the most meaningful tracks on the project.
“I love that it takes me back down to my original days on lower Broadway, being an artist and trying to get one of the honky tonks to let me come in and play a set, and then pulling that off and turning that original, you know, terrible slot on a Tuesday night into ‘All right, why don’t you come back and try Thursday night? There’s a Predators game,’ and just building it from the ground up on lower Broadway. That’s where my career started. That’s where a lot of writers and artists in Nashville started, and this is a story song about that revolving door that is a country bar,” the talented singer-songwriter explained.
“You know, there’s so many guys and girls that it’s a melting pot of characters every night across this country [and] across the world at country bars. People meet each other for the first time, you know, old flings kind of rekindle the fire. There’s just so much action, and ‘Honky Tonk Heartbreaker’ is embracing those girls that run the show, and lower Broadway is no different,” he dished.
Concluding with a smirk, “I love the idea of that song being a part of our show every night. We bring the party to town on tour and ‘Honky Tonk Heartbreaker’ is a party jam” — it is already a fan-favorite!
Killed The Cowboy Tour
Aside from releasing Killed The Cowboy this Friday, Lynch has a plethora of live performances on the horizon that will keep his schedule jam-packed until further notice.
The country crooner will embark on an accompanying tour, the Killed The Cowboy tour, in early 2024 beginning at the legendary Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee on April 2 and concluding at Harrah’s Stir Concert Cove in Council Bluffs, Iowa on May 11, with 16 must-see shows in between.
“We’re going to continue to build on what the Party Mode tour was,” the multi-faceted performer prefaced. “As the fan base continues to grow, we continue to get to play bigger and bigger venues. It’s exciting, so we’re just going to keep building on what we started there… We really embraced some crowd interactive moments. I take pride in bringing a show that the crowd’s not only getting to watch, but they’re going to be a part of.”
“I think they Killed The Cowboy record and just the creative that song and those words and that title give, we’re going to be able to build in some really cool, visual, emotional moments on top of the party antics that we do, and it’s going to be a super well rounded show a night,” he concluded with a grin.
With a setlist that is sure to be nothing short of spectacular, consisting of the perfect mix of brand new tunes and Dustin Lynch classics, the Killed The Cowboy tour is sure to be one for the books!
Want to catch one of Dustin Lynch’s phenomenal live performances this spring? Fans can purchase tickets HERE.
Killed The Cowboy Tour Dates
April 2024
2 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
5 – Brookings, SD – Dacotah Bank Center
6 – Peoria, IL – Renaissance Coliseum
11 – Charlotte, NC – Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre
12 – Salem, VA – Salem Civic Center
13 – Youngstown, OH – Covelli Centre
18 – Spartanburg, SC – Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium
19 – Raleigh, NC – Red Hat Amphitheater
20 – Hiawassee, GA – Anderson Music Hall
25 – Minneapolis, MN – The Armory
26 – Indianapolis, IN – TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park
27 – Newport, KY – MegaCorp Pavilion
May 2024
2 – Boston, MA – Leader Bank Pavilion
3 – Verona, NY – Turning Stone Resort Casino
4 – Newark, DE – Bob Carpenter Center
9 – Cedar Rapids, IA – McGrath Amphitheatre
10 – St. Louis, MO – Saint Louis Music Park
11 – Council Bluffs, IA – Harrah’s Stir Concert Cove
Crash My Playa 2024
Before embarking on the Killed The Cowboy tour this spring, the 38-year-old will be making his return to one of the most iconic country music festivals of all time for the ninth year in a row: Luke Bryan’s Crash My Playa.
Taking place over the span of four days in Riviera Cancún, Mexico, Luke Bryan, Jelly Roll, Jon Pardi, Bailey Zimmerman and more country superstars will be joining Lynch for the experience of a lifetime.
“I love that it’s a bunch of like-minded people that are tired of cold weather, wanting to go celebrate country music,” the talented singer-songwriter gushed. “It’s for us festival-goers that, you know, are country music fans, that need more than just summertime festival shows. We go to Mexico and throw one in the sand.”
“Of course, we started the pool situation down there,” he continued, referring to the legendary pool party he throws at Crash My Playa every year. “It’s grown to be the most ridiculous party I’ve ever witnessed in my life. I was just going to be on stage throwing it and kind of leading the charge, but you know, it originated down there. We just continue to build it out [and] we brought it to Las Vegas and sold it out. We brought it to Nashville for CMA Fest [and] we plan on going back to those places, but we’ll kick off next year in Mexico.”
“As always, it’ll be full of ridiculousness, and some great memories to take back,” the country superstar concluded with a beaming smile.
To attend Dustin Lynch’s iconic pool party, fans can secure their tickets to Crash My Playa HERE.
