Cole Swindell: Pressure to Continue No. 1 Streak Is ‘Good Pressure’
Beginning with his debut single, 2013's "Chillin' It," Cole Swindell has earned six consecutive No. 1 songs. That success, Swindell admits, is wonderful -- but it also comes with quite a bit of pressure.
"You don’t want to break the streak," Swindell shared at a recent media event. "I want to give country radio and the fans the best music I can, whether I write that or not. I’ve been fortunate enough to write everything I’ve sent to radio so far, but I don’t expect it to always be like that. I want to be the one that Ashley Gorley and Zach [Crowell] are sending me songs I didn’t write, and that day’s coming, I think.
"It’s a good pressure," Swindell clarifies. "It keeps you motivated: 'What are you going to do to top that one? What are you going to do to top that one?' But I think that’s part of what drives us all as songwriters and as artists."
As much as the thought of being an artist propelled Swindell to move from his small hometown of Bronwood, Ga., to Nashville in 2007, so did the thought of being a songwriter. The success of Luke Bryan -- whom Swindell met while he was a student at Bryan's alma mater, Georgia Southern University, and worked for following his move to Music City -- helped inspire Swindell. He hoped to, in some way, emulate Bryan's success -- but he didn't imagine that he would have this much good fortune so early in his career.
"All I ever wanted to do was write songs, and I just dreamed of maybe putting out an album and having a single that did alright," Swindell remembers. "But to have that success on that first album, and to be able to release my sophomore album, and one that I felt like contained a lot of stuff I had learned and things I had been through, obviously, with "You Should Be Here" [and] "Middle of a Memory" ... It seems like I’ve had enough memories in these past three years to last a career. I hope that’s not the case, but really, I just feel so blessed."
Swindell's newest single, "Flatliner," is a duet with Dierks Bentley; it's currently in the Top 20 and climbing.
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