Nate Smith’s deluxe version of his debut, self-titles album is out today (April 28.) To celebrate, he stopped by The Bobby Bones Show to talk about making the record, tour life and confess his ironic childhood nickname.
Smith’s life has changed a lot in the past year. His first song “Whiskey On You” was number-one for two weeks, and today, he will be performing at Stagecoach for the first time. He will then join Thomas Rhett on his Home Team Tour 23 which will kick off May 4th in Des Moines, Iowa, and play in a total of 40 cities this summer. Smith said when he gets a day off, he becomes a hermit and goes to his bunk on the bus and shuts the world out for a few hours, and he’s always the first one in his band to go to bed. Smith has learned to put together a set list for his shows that can keep the audience's attention by making it energetic. Since he was a former worship leader, he’s also able to make some moments feel like church. Overall, the crowd has been reacting to him well. With his growing success, he said it’s been cool to go to different cities and hear fans singing along to his songs. But he knows he’ll truly have a hit when it’s on a Kids Bop Album he joked.
Smith describes his album as having a lot of emotion and country. When putting together the track list for the record, he chose to open with “If I Could Stop Loving You,” because he felt it was a good way to introduce people to his style, and said it felt right to start the project on that note. Fans will get 26 new songs from Smith today, and due to fan demand after a clip of his song “World On Fire” went viral on TikTok, it will be featured on the deluxe version. Smith wrote over half the songs on the record and was sent a lot of demos from songwriters. He is always looking for great songs and has a lot of respect for songwriters, so if he heard a song he didn’t write but really loved and connected with and felt like it was meant for his life, he chose to include it. Like his song “Better Boys” that was written by Taylor Phillips and HARDY. Phillips sent Smith a note message with the song, and he said it felt raw and real to him, so he immediately agreed to record it.
Smith is one of the most common last names in the world, so he did consider going by a different name at first. He thought about using his middle name, Dean, but there was already fellow country artist, Jackson Dean. He recalled the childhood nickname he gave himself, Speedy, which was ironic because he was not fast or good at any sports he said. Smith’s biggest advice throughout his journey has been to be yourself and if it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.
Smith was nominated for New Male Artist of the Year at the upcoming ACM Awards. The show will stream live on Prime Video on May 11th at 8 p.m. ET from the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, TX.
While in studio, he performed “Whiskey On You” and “Wreckage” which you can watch below!