Breland Talks ‘My Truck,’ His Unique Brand of Music and Stage Fright on ‘Country Heat Weekly’

Country singer/songwriter Breland was recently featured on Amazon Music’s Country Heat Weekly podcast, where he chatted about his upbringing, his journey to country music and the unique music he aims to make. The singer, who was recently named an Amazon Music Breakthrough Artist, rose to fame with the release of his country rap-infused song, “My Truck.” He shared the story behind the viral tune, telling hosts Kelly Sutton and Amber Anderson that it came together after he was stood up by an artist at the studio. 

“I was in the studio all day waiting on this other artist to come to the studio, and she just kept hitting me and saying, ‘Sorry, I’m running an hour late,’” says Breland. “Eventually, it was 10 p.m., and I was like, ‘Girl, I’ve been here for 10 hours waiting for you to come to the studio and you never showed.’ So, I was just kind of bummed out, and I was like, ‘I’m out of here.’”

Breland said his friends urged him to stay at the studio and create something before he left, and that is when “My Truck” was born. Since that viral track was released, Breland has gone on to collaborate with other artists, including country superstar Dierks Bentley, as well as pave his own unique lane in the genre. Of his sound, which he dubs “cross country,” he told Sutton and Anderson that he hopes to create his own genre that will act as a “unifier” for people. 

“I think that country music is such a segmented genre in that there are lot of people that feel like they can’t listen to country music or that country music doesn’t include them or that country music isn’t marketed to them, or whatever their thing is,” he says.

“I want to make music that solves that problem,” he adds. “I want to be a unifier between cultures to be able to have music that has a diverse audience of people from all different backgrounds and different music interests. Me being a Black person in country speaks to that, but also the actual sonics of what I’m doing, I think, do that even more.” 

Reaching his goals of making music without borders hasn’t come without hard work, however. The Georgetown University grad shares that he often skipped class to work on his music, and he had to overcome a lifelong case of stage fright. 

“Historically, not recently, let me preface that — but historically, in my life, I have peed my pants onstage,” Breland admitted, adding that he was 7 years old when the situation occurred.

“That kind of got me off performing,” he said.

He eventually went back to performing, reasoning that he wouldn’t let stage fright keep him from reaching his goals. Although he still felt nervous before shows, it was a piece of encouragement from fellow artist Mickey Guyton that helped him shed his stage fight. 

“Right before our performance at the CMT Awards, I was like, ‘I know she knows what’s going on,’ and she was just like, ‘Hey, you’re supposed to be here.’ And that was it,” he shares. “I was like, ‘Okay. I’m not going to argue with you on that.’” 

To hear more from Breland, including the text he received from Dierks Bentley asking him to collaborate on “Beers On Me,” listen to the full episode of Country Heat Weekly on Amazon Music.