Mitch Rossell is an incredibly talented singer/songwriter, so much so that country superstar Garth Brooks asked him to open for him on his tour in 2016. During the tour he won over many fans with his unique vocals and his ability to write hit songs, including Brooks. He impressed Brooks so much with his songwriting talent that he recorded a song that Rossell self-penned which was his No. 1 hit “Ask Me How I Know,” and he also has three songs (“That’s What Cowboys Do,” “All Day Long” and “Dive Bar”) on Brooks’ latest album, FUN.
The East Tennessee native has gone on to amass millions of streams on his own with songs like “All I Need To See,” “A Soldier’s Memoir,” “Then Again” and more recently his viral TikTok hit “2020,” which quickly climbed the charts to No. 1 on iTunes Country chart.
“2020” was co-written by Rossell alongside Dave Turnbull and Phil O’Donnell and finds the hit songwriter bringing a timely message into the spotlight as he prays for unity in the form of a piano ballad.
“For the last few months I’ve been really frustrated with myself. As 2020 unfolded, I have watched the divide in our country grow bigger and bigger,” Rossell previously explained of the track. “The hate, confusion, turmoil, violence and strife has been taxing on all of us. As a songwriter, I felt like I should be using my gift to say something. Be a light. Do something. Anything. I just couldn’t seem to ever find the words.”
You can listen to the popular track below.
Rossell shared 4 things that he learned during 2020 exclusively with Music Mayhem, which you can read below.
1. When a pandemic breaks out, saying to someone “let’s meet up in a couple of weeks once this blows over” is probably naive.
2. America is still an incredible country, but we have some ground to cover to get back to a healthy place. Seeing all of the division, violence, and outrage has made that very clear to me. It’s a big part of why I wrote “2020.”
3. Writing songs on Zoom is not as easy as I thought it would be. Still grateful we have it though cause it’s definitely better than nothing.
4. Not playing shows and hanging with my band really sucks. Being home with my wife and my boys does not suck.
