If you have yet to hear Wesko’s top-notch tunes, he is the next big country artist with an even bigger heart, recently having his breakout moment with his Hurricane Helene-inspired song, “Helene.”
Sharing the stage at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina with “living legends” Luke Combs, Eric Church and more during Concert for Carolina — a benefit concert that took place on Oct. 26, raising nearly $25 million for Hurricane Helene relief efforts in the Carolina region — Wesko dished about the “completely surreal” moment and how it came to be in an exclusive interview with Music Mayhem.
Additionally, he detailed his musical beginnings, his future within the country music community and more.
Musical Beginnings
Born with the name Wesley, he kicked off the conversation by revealing the origin of his stage name, admitting that Wesko is a nickname he has had since he was three or four years old, stemming from his grandfather.
He then transitioned to talking about how music, specifically country music, became such a big part of his life. “I’m from a really rural town in Eastern North Carolina, and I’ve always been a really big fan of music… My parents were both in high school during the grunge age, so I was exposed to like Alice In Chains and Stone Temple Pilots, but at the same time, we would listen to George Strait and Keith Whitley and stuff like that growing up,” he explained.
Once he hit high school, Wesko “started to have a deeper appreciation of music in itself,” drawing inspiration from Concert for Carolina headliners Eric Church and Luke Combs, specifically in the songwriting department. “When I graduated from high school, I decided that I wanted to try to start playing the guitar… I would basically just play along to some of my favorite songs until I could play them proficiently, and then I moved to singing these songs, and eventually I started writing my own music,” he continued.
Releasing tunes like “Dreamer,” “Family Tree,” “Good Old Days” and more in the past, Wesko has been seeing some traction with “Helene” as of late, detailing how exactly the soon-to-be smash hit came to be.
The creation of “Helene”
About a week after Hurricane Helene impacted North Carolina, Wesko had a songwriting session with a close friend of his in his hometown. With this natural disaster heavy on his heart, the rising country star knew that “there was only one thing that he could write about” that fateful day, feeling as though it was his duty to spread awareness surrounding the tragedies North Carolinians often face, including the recent Hurricane Helene.
He explained, “I think we had that song written in maybe 15 minutes, and after that, we kind of just left in silence, because it’s such a heavy song… It was kind of born out of the tragedy that we were seeing, you know, on the news and all over TikTok and different social media sites… At that point, you were getting a more personal side of the events, and you were able to see what the people over there were actually actively going through.”
As a North Carolinian, Wesko combined some of his personal experiences with what he had been seeing about Hurricane Helene in the media, and the song “Helene” was born. “This song was born out of the tragedies that North Carolinians have faced for forever,” he concluded, passionately.
Getting the call from Luke Combs to play Concert for Carolina
After “Helene” started to get some traction via social media, Wesko’s life turned upside down, as Luke Combs was touched by the tune and asked him to perform “Helene” at Concert for Carolina.
After spending the day with Savage Freedoms Relief in North Carolina, Wesko was feeling incredibly touched by the impact of Hurricane Helene, putting on a “spur of the moment relief concert” where he performed five songs in front of the victims. The talented singer/songwriter admitted that he was “really beat up emotionally after seeing all the devastation” — adding that he was “feeling pretty heartbroken over everything”– as he drove the two hours home, which is when he was unexpectedly contacted by Combs’ social media manager.
“Hey man, you know, I’ve got two free tickets to go to Concert for Carolina. I’d really love it if you’d go,” he told Wesko at the time, but due to a family wedding, he had to politely decline. Well, that is until the “Beer Never Broke My Heart” singer joined the call, asking him firsthand to not only attend Concert for Carolina, but to share the stage with him instead.
“He put me on hold and added somebody else into the call, and this other person answers… He says, ‘Look, man. It’s Luke Combs,’ and I was completely shocked. Absolutely shocked that Luke was on the phone with me,” Wesko reminisced. “He told me what the song meant to him, and that he would love to have me out, and I quickly changed my plans.”
A “completely surreal” moment
Wesko then transitioned to talking about Concert for Carolina itself, describing it as “a fever dream to hang out with Luke in the green room and talk to his band members, and just sit and talk to Luke about the song, the things that he was feeling and all these different things.”
Sharing that he spent all day Friday and Saturday with the “Beautiful Crazy” singer, he could not help but gush about Combs, describing him as “one of the nicest guys he’s ever met” and “truly a genuine human.” He also got the chance to interact with Eric Church — someone who is on the top of his “Mount Rushmore for songwriters” — delving into the details.
“It’s just baffling to me to be on the stage at the same time as Eric Church, and to shake his hand,” Wesko recalled. “I think he’s one of the greats. He’s a living legend in my mind, and to be sharing the stage with him, the whole night, was just a dream come true. Playing for 82,000 people in my home state was a dream come true.”
What’s next?
Naturally, his performance at Concert for Carolina lead to a great deal of media attention, paving the way for a bright future for Wesko. He then told Music Mayhem what this bright future will entail, sharing that he is “going to have a steady stream of new music” to close out 2024 and begin 2025.
He teased, “Right now, my management team and I are trying to pick the song. I probably have 20 or 30 songs, and I want to cut all of them, but we’re trying to look and find the one that we feel would be good enough to put out there to the people.”
The North Carolina native has plans for future performances as well, adding that he is “playing a relief concert in Avery County — which is around Boone, North Carolina — on the 15th of November with some friends, and all the proceeds are going to be going to first responders who were affected by Helene.”
A Final Shoutout to all North Carolinians
If it was not obvious, Wesko’s home state of North Carolina is always on his mind, politely asking fans of “Helene” to direct their attention away from him as an artist, redirecting it towards the meaning of the tune itself.
“It wasn’t about me, It wasn’t about my career, It was none of that, It was for the people in Western North Carolina… We’re donating half the proceeds of the song to natural disaster relief in Western North Carolina,” he explained, prior to sharing a final, touching statement to close out our exclusive interview.
“I don’t want to take any of the spotlight away from Western North Carolina, I want to keep that conversation open [and] I want to keep the story going, so people don’t forget,” he gushed. “People can constantly remember that our statesmen in North Carolina are hurting, and they’re going to be hurting for the foreseeable future, and as North Carolinians and South Carolinians and all of those in Appalachia, we have a responsibility to take care of our own.”
He concluded, passionately, “The one thing that’s really important to me that is communicated is that it’s not about me. It’s about Western North Carolina. It’s about the people up there that need help.”
To keep up with Wesko, you can connect with the budding country star on Instagram @itswesko. Additionally, to help those impacted by Hurricane Helene, and to hear the emotional song for yourself, you can stream “Helene” wherever you get your music.
