Five Questions with CRS Keynote Speaker Noah Galloway

Every year, Nashville, TN hosts the annual Country Radio Seminar (CRS). The seminar gathers radio programmers from across the country so they can hear the latest in country music and discuss industry trends.

This year, the seminar’s keynote speaker was United States Army Veteran Noah Galloway.

Galloway left the Army after obtaining injuries from an IED explosion while in Iraq in 2005. He lost his left arm at the elbow and his left leg above the knee. In spite of his injuries, the Birmingham, AL native has participated in numerous 5K and 10K races, become a personal trainer and travels the country as a motivational speaker. His success is credited to a “no excuses” attitude, one that he highlights in the speeches he gives. Because of his resiliency and can-do spirit, he’s landed the November 2014 cover of Men’s Health magazine and competed on season 20 of Dancing with the Stars, where he earned third place.

Sounds Like Nashville got to speak with Galloway to see how he prepares for his speeches, who he’d like to see on “Dancing With the Stars,” and who his favorite country artists are. Check out our five questions with CRS keynote speaker Noah Galloway below…

Sounds Like Nashville: How do you prepare for a speech like the one you gave to CRS attendees?

Noah Galloway: Just like any of my speeches, I do a lot of thinking of what my speech is going to be, but the main objective is: who’s my audience and what do I wanna get across, and that determines what I’m gonna bring up in my speech and how I’m gonna close it. How am I going to get this point across to these people and is it relatable to them? I want them to enjoy it. So that’s what I think about whenever I give a speech. With this group, these are program directors and people from different shows in country music and I’m such a huge fan of country music and this being a market of free radio, I stressed how critical that is and that’s why it’s so powerful because no matter how much Pandora and Spotify and things like that improve, nothing compares to local. That’s where we find out where our concerts come from, what’s going on around town and we relate to those people on air who are playing the music for us. I was like, ‘Y’all are powerful, but when things get powerful, you job can get lost quickly.’ And I said, ‘If you wanna keep it, you’ve gotta live by this mentality that you want it and someone’s gonna take it from you.’ In my speech, I talked about dedication and things like that, so I was able to reel it in to say that I use that a lot in speeches when it comes to being successful. You have to make sacrifices. They’re going to happen. If you’re don’t want to make sacrifices, you don’t need to be surprised when you lose your job.

SLN: Is there a specific thing you do to get ready before addressing the crowd, like listening to music?

NG: No, I like to not have any distractions at all. I’ll just think about it and leading up to the drive up from Birmingham, I thought about my speech the whole time. Then, I’ll think about it again leading up to it. Then, right before I go on, I’m going through it in my head again and I’ll change things. Like there’s been several times where I’ve been seconds from walking on stage and something will cross my mind like, ‘Oh, that’s good. I’m going to use that.’

SLN: You mentioned that you love listening to country music? Who are you currently listening to?

NG: There’s so many different ones, but people like Jamey Johnson, Chris Stapleton, they have that similar sound. I’m a big Blackberry Smoke fan. That genre of country, that draws me in.

SLN: What is it about those specific artists that draws you in as a fan?

NG: I was thinking about it the other day. I think it kinda goes back…like, if I were to look at old country and what I like, I’m in the Waylon Jennings category. Not saying they all sound the same, but something I feel like they relate to with that comes the Jamey Johnson or Chris Stapleton. And then Blackberry Smoke, they look like 70s rock stars, like they stepped out of a time machine. But Chris Stapleton and Jamey Johnson have that kinda soulful, bluesy type country to them and I love that.

SLN: Congratulations on your success on Dancing with the Stars, by the way. If you were casting, what country star would you like to see on the show?

NG: Luke Bryan was the first person to cross my mind. Yeah, because he likes to dance and is very entertaining and I think that definitely would be it. That’s the first thing to cross my mind was him.

Fans can keep up with Noah Galloway through his website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.