Brett Eldredge: Touring With Luke Bryan ‘Feels Kind of Like Summer Camp’
Brett Eldredge has been out on the road with Luke Bryan since the beginning of the year -- first for the 2017 leg of Bryan's Kill the Lights Tour, and now for Bryan's Huntin', Fishin' and Lovin' Every Day trek -- and he's not in any rush to change that. The singer, who has previously been on tour with Dierks Bentley and Miranda Lambert, Keith Urban and Little Big Town, among others, says he's "never had an experience like this."
"The way he treats a tour is exactly what I love, because he takes the pressure off of you. There is no pressure; that’s the thing," Eldredge says. "It feels like it’s so comfortable backstage. It’s almost so relaxed that you’re like, ‘Am I working right now?’ -- something feels wrong because it’s so right. And it feels kind of like summer camp: It’s so loose and so relaxed, and all you got to do is go up and sing songs and entertain people."
Eldredge says that Bryan's onstage and public persona is similar in a number of ways to his offstage, private-life one -- and, the two artists' personalities mesh together well.
"I watch him onstage, and he and I are cut from the same cloth; we’re the same kind of guys," Eldredge explains. "The backstage area is such a cool, laid-back atmosphere ... It’s a great environment just to have fun. Sometimes you get on tour and you’re like, ‘I don’t know what city I’m at, but I’ve gotta play another show tonight; I have to think about the show.’ On this [tour], you don’t really think about the show as much as you just feel like, ‘I love what I’m doing' ... If you don’t think about the show as much, then you’re just having a blast all the time."
Eldredge has some experience with being a headliner himself -- albeit in smaller venues than the ones he's playing with Bryan -- but he's still watching his tour boss for tips. Specifically, Eldredge says, Bryan works hard to make sure everyone at the show has a good time.
"He’s up onstage throwing beers at people in the crowd from a cooler. It’s a consistent party, and the environment is just consistently relaxed and everything I love about a tour and how I’d want to treat my tour," Eldredge notes. "I don’t worry about anything but going up and playing music ... You don’t think about the business aspect when you have a guy like that; from the top down, he just sends that message, and I love that about him."
During recent shows, Eldredge has been treating fans to a new song, "The Long Way." It hasn't been officially released yet -- Eldredge is currently at work on his third studio album -- but it's already becoming a fan favorite.
"I see big things in the future for that song, just because I feel like, it’s a love song, but it’s a much deeper kind of love song than anything I’ve written, in a certain way," Eldredge shares. "[It talks about how] I want to know way more about you: I want to go much deeper, and that’s the kind of love I’m looking for. And so, I think it’s such a deep lyric; I think it’s something I haven’t touched on yet."
Eldredge performs "The Long Way" alone onstage, just him and his acoustic guitar, because, he says "all you need is that lyric and that melody."
"I’m hoping for good things for that song," he adds.
A list of all of Eldredge's upcoming shows is available on his website.
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