Brett Eldredge has written three of his five No. 1 singles -- "Beat of the Music," "Lose My Mind" and "Drunk on Your Love" -- with hit songwriter Ross Copperman. The two, who co-wrote nine of the 12 songs on Eldredge's recent sophomore album, Illinois, say it's their friendship more than their music skills that make them so successful as a team.

"I think it’s because we know each other so well," Eldredge recently told The Boot and other reporters. "He and I, we speak this language that somebody might sit in a room and hear us going back and forth with these sounds and all like that, and they’ll be like, ‘It doesn’t sound like they know what they’re doing at all,' but all of a sudden, it comes out. We just read each other in a way that’s so natural."

Copperman and Eldredge met six years ago, back when neither of their careers had fully taken off yet. After both being denied entrance into a party following a songwriters' event, the pair instead had a few drinks together.

"[We] drowned our sorrows and also dreamed a little more," Eldredge recalls. "I think it’s really cool to chase dreams with guys like Ross, because he is a real guy. He’s not chasing down money. He’s doing perfectly fine, but he doesn’t care about that. He really believes in the music and believes in my art and what we do."

Their lives are unconventional, so Eldredge feels fortunate that he found someone who understands his creativity and with whom he can collaborate.

"We’ve got crazy jobs, to go sit in front of each other and stare at each other and say, ‘Alright. We’re going to write a song today,'" admits Eldredge. "'We’re going to put music with it. And maybe, one day, 90 million people are going to listen to it on the radio.'"

In addition to his songwriting credits on Illinois, Copperman co-produced all but two of its tracks -- and Eldredge says that Copperman is just as gifted in the studio as he is in the writing room.

"He’s an amazing producer. We’ve produced stuff together, and somehow, he takes the crazy things I say and actually makes them sound good," he boasts. "I think you only find that when you know somebody really well as a person, too. We both started out with absolutely nothing, chasing this town down like it was gonna happen when it wasn’t happening."

Illinois is available for purchase on Amazon and iTunes.

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