Cole Swindell walked the red carpet ahead of the 2022 CMA Awards on Wednesday (Nov. 9) evening. But he wasn’t alone. For the big night, the Georgia native brought along his girlfriend, Courtney Little. The moment was a special one for the two of them as it marked their first red carpet-appearance together as a couple.
Swindell and Little have been dating each other for over a year now. And it sounds like things are going pretty smoothly for them. So much so that Swindell says he has thought about the future and whether or not the pair’s boyfriend/girlfriend status will ever change to husband and wife.
“I think that could happen,” the country crooner told E! Insider. “We’ll see. That’s something that I’ve obviously thought about. I’ve just been waiting on the right person. And I feel like we’ve been together over a year now. So it’s been nice. I’m happy. She’s happy, and we’ll see what happens.”
For now, Swindell is excited to be sharing his life with someone he enjoys spending time with. He says it’s been a long time coming since he’s been pursuing country music for more than a decade.
“I’m excited to just have her with me. You know?” Swindell says. “I’ve had some success. It’s been great, but to get to share it with somebody and to get to show them around what I’ve been doing for the past ten years almost, has just been special. I’m proud to get to walk with her and to see the show.”
Little, a former NBA dancer for the Charlotte Hornets and 2017 Miss Teen North Carolina, appears in Swindell’s music video for “Some Habits.” That video shows a romantic chemistry between the two, but Swindell says the pair didn’t become official until after they acted out their parts in the video.
“I met her years before that, but that was kind of like our first date, you know?” Swindell said of his girlfriend, who initially met him at a NASCAR event. “We kept in touch and just, kind of, reconnected. I thought, well, I’m about to shoot a video. We weren’t together yet, but I knew we were talking enough to know if somebody else was in that role or video, then it might not happen.”
“So, I just took a shot and asked her, and she said she’d be cool with that,” he continued. “She came down, and that was our first date having to act like it was a love song video, and we didn’t know each other that well, so it was a little awkward. We always laugh and say we wish we could go back and reshoot it now that we actually are together and feel the way we were acting in the video.”
READ: How Did Cole Swindell Meet His Girlfriend Courtney Little?
Aside from opening up about his romance, Swindell took time out during the 2022 CMA Awards to perform his current smash, “She Had Me At Heads Carolina,” alongside Jo Dee Messina. Before taking the stage, the 39-year-old artist admitted he was feeling a tad nervous about the live duet.
“I just know how big this moment is for my band and I and just everybody on my team that’s worked hard to get us here. So, I just want to do well,” he explained. “That’s the only nerves I got. But it will be great… This song has done a lot of things for us. So getting to sing ‘She Had Me At Heads Carolina‘ on the CMA Awards, I mean, I can’t imagine a bigger moment.”
“[Jo Dee Messina] has always been one of my favorite artists. I remember growing up on that song,” he added. “I think it was 1996 when it came out. To put my own spin on a classic like that with the original songwriters and then, later on, to get to collaborate with our own remix that just has been released has been amazing.”
