Brett Kissel Was ‘Eating Toast and Jam’ the First Time He Heard Himself on the Radio

Brett Kissel's experience of hearing himself on the radio for the very first time is a little bit unusual because he was so young -- in fact, he was just 11 years old! Read on as Kissel recounts the first time he ever heard his music on the radio as a kid, as well the first time he ever heard a single he'd put out, when he was a little bit older.

It was two different [times]. The first was, there's a local radio station that's basically the WSM of Canada...CFCW was what it was called. They played a [cover I did] of a Hank Snow song called "I've Been Everywhere" -- Johnny Cash did it.

So they played that on the radio after the morning DJ saw me play a show in Edmonton, and I played that song. [They] found out I had given them a cassette recording of me playing it, and they played it on the air. I was getting ready for school the next day, eating toast and jam, and they gave me this glowing introduction and then played the song. And I lost my mind. I couldn't believe it. And my brother, who was older than me, we just stopped to listen, in awe. I was on the radio, as an 11-year-old.

And then the very first time I heard my single on the radio, I was traveling through Canada. I was on a really, really great promo run, when I first signed my record deal. And they played my single, "Started With a Song."

I remember asking [the person who was driving] to pull the vehicle over on the highway, so that we could listen to it in its entirety, no distractions. I'll never forget pulling over and just thinking, "This is a real story, because I'm getting played now, not just in my home area, but I'm getting cross-Canada airplay."

We were in the vehicle, pulled over, and other vehicles whiz by, and you've got a billion people going by and they had no idea that it was me on their radio station, pulled over listening to himself. I cranked it up.

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