Brett Young: A Day in the Life of the You Look Good World Tour
Although he's only onstage for 30 minutes a day, Brett Young says life on the road for the You Look Good World Tour is busy, but rewarding.
When people think of life on the road, the KISS song “Rock N Roll All Nite” comes to mind. “I want to rock and roll all night, and party every day,” may seem like a glamorous lifestyle, but for artists, touring is a lot of hard work. Brett Young has spent much of 2017 out on the road opening for Lady Antebellum on the You Look Good World Tour, but what is he up to for the 23 hours and 30 minutes he’s not on stage? Quite a bit, actually.
Young usually starts his day with a 10 or 10:30 a.m. wake up call and a quick workout. That’s when the real work starts happening.
“Until you do it, you don’t realize how long those days are. I mean that in the best way,” Young told Sounds Like Nashville and other media recently. “Everything is music related, everything is career building. We load out of our trailer at noon, so that’s really when it starts. We hit the stage at 2:30. I’ll then have some sort of radio winner, contest winner that comes at 4. We have soundcheck at 4:30. I then have the other radio station in town, their winner does a different thing, which is like a Facebook Live interview and I then have about 25 minutes to shower and get ready before I go to meet and greet. Then I go to meet and greet. Then I go to the radio room and now it’s not about the winners, but it’s about the heads of the stations and then they’re in there. By that time, it’s usually seven, five after seven, I gotta go back to the bus, put my ears on and get ready for a 7:30 start.”
After his four-song set, the California native hangs backstage for awhile until it’s time to join the GRAMMY-winning band in the spotlight once again.
“Charles [Kelley] is having me come out and sing Tim McGraw ‘Somethin’ Like That’ with him in their set. So even though there’s a two hour lull, you kinda gotta keep the wheels on it until then. It ends up feeling kinda like a noon to 11 pm type day.”
In the middle of it all, Young is still finding time to write new music and prepare for the follow-up to his self-titled debut album. Kelley, Young says, also likes to jump in on whatever he’s working on and the collaboration offstage has been a highlight for the country newcomer.
“Charles and I have hung out quite a bit,” he shared. “Whenever I bring writers on the road, he’s going, ‘Hey, let me jump in, let me write with you.’ So I’ve written with Charles three or four times at this point. It’s been a blast. Probably some of it will wind up on their record, some of it will end up on mine.”
Brett Young will continue the daily grind through August and September until the You Look Good World Tour wraps Sept. 9 in Nashville, TN. The singer will likely find a new way to stay busy between more music and touring which has yet to be announced.
