Koe Wetzel fans are in for new music next year, with the singer revealing on a new episode of Country Countdown USA that he’s got “piles and piles of new music” set to drop in 2026.
“We’re coming,” Wetzel told Country Countdown USA host Lon Helton, sharing that he’ll be working on even more new music after the holidays. The singer/songwriter called 2025 a “rebuild year” for him, as he went on tour with HARDY and got in the studio to “cut as much music as possible.” The result was “one hell of a record,” which fans will get to hear next year.
“Every artist is going to say that their newest record’s the best one that they’ve ever done,” Wetzel noted. “But for me, this batch of songs and this sound that we’ve kind of come together with, it’s awesome. This whole new sound to me has continued, and it’s, I don’t know, we’re really excited about it.”
Wetzel’s most recent album was 2024’s 9 Lives, and he’s stayed busy in the interim, teaming with Corey Kent this year on their collaboration “Rocky Mountain Low.” “It’s been a fun year, man,” Wetzel told Helton. “But like I said, it’s been a rebuilding and getting ready for ’26, and we’re really excited for ’26 and can’t wait for everybody to hear all the new music.”
9 Lives contained Wetzel’s duet with Jessie Murph, “High Road,” which was the No. 1 country song for all of 2025. It was the most-played song on U.S. country radio for the entire year and marked Wetzel’s first major country radio No. 1. “High Road” actually topped the country charts in December 2024, but its continued popularity at radio kept the song going strong throughout 2025 to make it the most-played country track of the year.
“It’s pretty wild,” Wetzel admitted of the accomplishment. “It was our first stab at country radio and to have it go off like that was, I think, kind of shocking to everybody, myself included. But we’re very blessed and can’t thank all the stations for playing us and all the fans who requested it and listened to it as much as they did.”
Koe Wetzel added that he, Murph and their co-writers “had no idea” when they penned “High Road” that it would become such a success. “We knew it was a cool song, and we all really enjoyed it. But for doing what it did, we had no idea it was going to be on that kind of scale,” he reflected. “People kept coming back to it and continue to keep coming back to it, which has been great… it’s just a testament to how strong of a song it was for us. And man, it’s just been great, really.”
The 33-year-old explained that he and Murph had been wanting to collaborate, but the timing was never right until “High Road” came along. “I felt like it was a great tune whenever we had it just kind of me solo. And then once she sent her verse, I remember the first time I heard it, I got chills, and I was like, ‘Absolutely, that’s it,’” he recalled. “So I think us holding off on other songs that we had wrote for us trying to feature on each other’s stuff, timing was everything. And with Jessie, ‘High Road’ was definitely the right timing, for sure.”
