Brantley Gilbert is an integral part of Nashville these days, but he admits before he came to Nashville and signed with Valory Music Co., he was really reluctant to do so. Brantley says, “People would say, ‘if you wanna make it, you gotta go to Nashville, Nashville’s where it’s at.’” But he says, “We were doing our own thing in Georgia, and in the southeast and we were selling out clubs and makin’ a decent livin’. Don’t get me wrong, we went way, way, way broke for a lotta years in the beginning. But I was happy where I was at and I was just a little hesitant about Nashville.” Brantley says his big fear was that people would try to change him. “I was scared to death somebody’d try to slap some wranglers and a bucket hat on me and tell me to sing somebody else’s songs. So, I was a little standoffish but eventually we grew to the point where those things were a necessity.”

Fortunately things have all worked out for Brantley by coming to Nashville. He has a new single, “Bottoms Up,” a new album coming out in May and a new tour kicking off in March.

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Brantley Gilbert – hesitant about Nashville :46
“You know, in the beginning of my career there was a lot of pressure to move to Nashville. People would say, ‘if you wanna make it, you gotta go to Nashville, Nashville’s where it’s at’. We were doing our own thing in Georgia, and in the southeast and we were selling out clubs and makin’ a decent livin’. Don’t get me wrong, we went way, way, way broke for a lotta years in the beginning. But I was happy where I was at and I was just a little hesitant about Nashville. I didn’t want management, you know, in the beginning, a booking agent or a label. I was scared to death somebody’d try to slap some wranglers and a bucket hat on me and tell me to sing somebody else’s songs. So, I was a little standoffish but eventually we grew to the point where those things were a necessity.”