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Adam Doleac isn’t letting the coronavirus pandemic stop his grind.
The country music star discovered his penchant for crooning and songwriting while in college at the University of
Southern Mississippi, where he not only played baseball as a standout Major League Baseball prospect but also penned songs with his teammates and learned to play guitar.
Doleac began performing locally around Mississippi and eventually posted a performance of one of his songs to YouTube – and as the phrase goes, the rest is history.
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Adam Doleac performs during 2019 Live in the Vineyard at Peju winery on November 02, 2019 in Napa, Calif. (Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)
The video accrued millions of views and would catch the attention of music executives in Nashville who wanted Doleac. Now, after landing co-writing credits on records by Kenny Chesney, Kane Brown, Rascal Flatts, Darius Rucker, and Hootie and the Blowfish, the 32-year-old performer is dropping “Famous,” his second EP project following his 2017 debut “Adam Doleac EP."
In speaking to Fox News, Doleac said that this one was extra special given the current state of the world because he simply wanted to make music folks could enjoy during these trying times, which he’s certainly felt the brunt of as well.
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“I'm good, man. We were supposed to show this weekend and next weekend, but they obviously all got canceled. So we're just kind of hanging in Nashville at the house and taking it easy,” Doleac told us last month while wrapping up the finishing touches on his latest release.
He told us that the mounting live-event closures have had a lasting impact on not only him, but the folks who work alongside him on a routine basis.
Adam Doleac 'Famous' EP cover (Courtesy of Adam Doleac)
“It kind of funnels down the chain more than you would ever think because, you know, you get shows canceled and obviously that's one thing. But then it affects everybody who is working for you and your band and you've got hotels booked and flights booked and travel booked and all kinds of stuff that you have to take care of after that happens," he explained. "So, yes – it throws a mighty big wrench in the plans.”
“It kind of funnels down the chain more than you would ever think."
However, Doleac didn’t let the work-stoppage inhibit his drive to be the best musician he can be and credited his time as a collegiate baseball player for shaping his penchant to win and for the Nashville native, Hattiesburg, Miss., served as a proving ground for him to get to this point in his professional music career.
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“I wasn't the kid that was 5 years old and knew he wanted to move to Nashville and be a singer or performer,” the “Whiskey’s Fine” crooner said. “It kind of all started with my teammates and roommates in college, they all played guitar, and we actually had a couple of little bands we did but I was always the drummer.”
“And so I just kind of started picking up the guitar and I never really did leave the house,” he continued. “And it was just kind of moving around on it and trying to teach myself. I've actually still never had a lesson, even today. I just kind of – I'm self-taught.”
In addition to crediting his teammates who pushed him to play gigs around Mississippi, Doleac gave great praise to the city itself and added that the overall competitiveness that comes with performing, played a catalyst in shaping his view of the music business for the better.
“I would say, it is a very slow-moving place. Life is a lot simpler there then it is in Nashville or some of these other big cities that I've spent a lot of time in,” he said of Hattiesburg. “But I think that it's something that's really influenced me in my writing and my music.”
“I will say that playing baseball in college definitely helped and kind of changed the way I look at the music industry,” he continued. “I think you see this a lot with former athletes that go on into the music world and whatnot and there are a lot of similarities with being a Division I athlete. You know, you're always – you have to manage your time. You have little free time, you're always in front of people, you're always doing interviews, you're handling people, you're performing in front of people. You're kind of living off the rush of the crowd all the time.”
“I wasn't the kid that was five years old and knew he wanted to move to Nashville and be a singer or performer."
“And there's a lot to be said for the work ethic of it, because as an athlete you just kind of expect not to lose. It's just kind of how you're brought up,” he added. “If you've played sports all your life, you're taught to win. You're just expected to get it done.”
Doleac certainly got his job done and has reaped the emotional benefits of having his music played everywhere he turns. He gushed about hearing his song during the MLB season last year which snowballed into Bachelor Nation’s Colton Underwood and Cassie Randolph landing cameos in his music video for his title-track single, “Famous.”
“Not many people are overnight successes, but there was a sense of ‘finally,’ when you hear it after you've done all this work and you put all this time into this craft and slowly and slowly, more and more people start to believe in you, and kind of join your team and that just happened with me with signing with Sony and my first record deal and everything last year,” he said.
“And with that comes your first song going to radio. You never know when it's gonna happen. You can be, like you said, in the supermarket or in the car or at a game. You know, Joc Pederson from the Dodgers the entire last year used 'Famous' as a walkup song for the season."
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On his unlikely chances of connecting with Underwood and Randolph, Doleac said he couldn’t believe the pair loved his song, but admitted that he initially didn’t know who they were.
“It was completely organic. People think that I reached out to them and tried to get them with a video, but really, when I put 'Famous' out – and I'm not a 'Bachelor' watcher, so believe it or not, I did not know who they were,” he explained. “But they posted a video while on a road trip to Aspen and then they held their phone up in the air and they posted a video and said, 'We don't know the words yet, but we love this song,' and [it] ended up being 'Famous.'”
Colton Underwood, Cassie Randolph, and Adam Doleac attend the 53nd annual CMA Awards at Bridgestone Arena on November 13, 2019, in Nashville, Tenn. (Taylor Hill/Getty Images)
Doleac continued, “It got sent to me and a lot of people and I said, 'Well, that's awesome. They have millions of followers, but who is that?' And it turned out to be Cassie and Colton from 'The Bachelor.’”
“So I just reached out to them because I was still an independent artist at the time, and said, 'Thanks so much for sharing the song. It obviously means a big deal to me,' and we just kind of kept in touch and when it came time to do the video, I told them, 'Y'all were the first famous people to post 'Famous,' would y'all want to be in the video?'
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“And you would have thought I was letting them be in the video,” he said. “I mean, they were so excited, and they were like, 'Absolutely, we'd love to do it.' And they flew down to Nashville and we shot the video and they've become really close friends of ours now.”
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