Tucker Wetmore is on the ride of his life after entering the Country music world with his debut single, “Wind Up Missin’ You” which is currently top 15 and climbing.

While it may look like it’s all success right now, Wetmore recently opened up to Audacy’s Katie Neal revealing his music career is the result of a life-changing injury that kept him from seeing his dreams of becoming a professional athlete.

“I was in Montana, I played a year of football there and I’m gettin’ scout player of the year — they’re like, ‘Hey you’re the number one guy for the next four years — you’re the number one receiver, let’s roll.’ I was like, ‘Alright, let’s do it,’ but it just didn’t feel right for a couple months towards the end.”

The Washington native continued to recall, “I remember sitting down after coming home from practice and… I locked myself in the bathroom and I just started bawling. Like, weeping crying.” In the midst of his meltdown, Wetmore tapped into his church-based upbringing for guidance and confided in God, asking for “a sign.”

“I was just like, I need a sign,” he shared. “The next day, I went to practice like I would any other day and very first play, run a post over the middle and snap my leg in three places.”

A career-ending injury for the now 25-year-old was a tough pill to swallow at the time, but looking back, he says’ it’s “exactly what I needed.” While the sign to part ways from football was clear, the next step wasn’t necessarily revealing itself. That is, until Wetmore’s mom encouraged him to spend time at the piano - a habit that he used to have in his younger years to decompress after school, before homework.

“She was like, ‘just go sit at your piano — that used to ease your mind back in the day,’” he shared before remembering how much music helped him through his childhood after learning to play “by ear” and YouTube tutorials.

“I started to teach myself when I was 11, never had a lesson on anything,” he shared. “I would just sit down and play for hours. Literally every single day I'd come home from practice and before I could wrap my head around homework, I'd have to decompress on piano.”

Mama Wetmore’s advice following’s Tucker’s injury is just what he needed to propel himself to the next step. Later that very night, Wetmore wrote his very first song and a few months after that, he packed up and moved to Nashville to chase his new-found dream of being a Country artist.

“Five months later, I was like, ‘Mom, I want to do this, I believe I can do this.' And then she was like, 'I never doubted you for a second, go do it,'” he said.

It was a big move for Wetmore, who prides himself on being a big family man and moved to a town where he didn’t know a single soul. That didn’t stop him from integrating himself into the town quickly. Twenty years old at the time, and in the midst of a global pandemic, Tucker defied the odds and started seeing things take shape. He was quickly signed to a publishing deal which was later followed by a record deal that he signed Summer 2023.

Just over a year later, Wetmore is celebrating his debut single at Country radio, “Wind Up Missin’ You,” in the top 15 as well as the recent release of his album, 'Waves On A Sunset,' available now.

“First and foremost, I wanted to portray who I am as a person and as an artist,” Wetmore said of his intentions with the project before simply stating he needed more songs to fill his already sold-out shows. Fans will also be excited to know there’s a lot more where this album came from as he shares it is a direct lead into his next project which will dive deep into some of his biggest, present-day challenges and most tumultuous relationships.

While there’s lots to look forward to, Wetmore does his best to take things one day at a time, and recently, that means getting ready to hit the road with Thomas Rhett for the 'Better in Boots Tour' in 2025. Th ...

Audacy's Katie Neal welcomes Kane Brown to our airwaves as this week’s co-host for the 'Superstar Power Hour' on all your favorite Audacy Country stations nationwide.

The new year will kick off with new music for Brown as he recently revealed he’ll release his fourth studio album, 'The High Road,' on January 24, 2025. The project will feature Brown’s most-recent hit, “Miles On It” featuring Marshmello in addition to “Fiddle In the Band,” which he recently performed at the People’s Choice Country Awards in September. Additionally, the album will include the 31-year-old’s new single, “Backseat Driver,” which is available now.

“It’s a beautiful song,” Kane said of the new single that marries his worlds of being a Country singer and girl dad together perfectly. “They said they’ve showed it to everybody and the first time I listened to it, I was like, ‘This is me!’ I think God just held it for me.”

His daughters aren’t the only ones with a “moment” on the album, Kane also highlights wife, Katelyn in a special way as she joins vocals for two tracks as a featured artist.

“We’ve got ‘Body Talk,’” Kane said, sharing the title of the first song he and wife Katelyn sing together. “It’s going to go to Pop radio — super sexy song. Kinda got like a little Latin vibe in the beat,” he shared. “Then you have ‘Do Us Apart,’ which is a Country vibe, which we love to duet,” explaining the inspiration came from Carrie Underwood and Randy Travis’ rendition of “I Told You So.” “We tried to come as close to that as we could. And this song reminded us of it.”

With a wide array of sounds and styles on the project, there’s a little something for everyone and also importantly for Kane — everything is a fit for his live shows.

“This album, I just really wanted to have every song that I could play live,” he shared. “The last couple albums — I like the songs, but some of them were used or years old so I had already grown as an artist so I don’t want to perform them. Or, I feel like they don’t have a big enough message for everybody — but this album, there’s so many great songs. Even the slow songs…. I feel like I could do a whole tour on this album and be happy.”

Kane will take all the songs on the road next year with his recently announced 2025 High Road Tour which kicks off March 13 in San Diego and wraps July 13 in Chicago. Along for support on select dates are Mitchell Tenpenny, Scotty McCreery, Dasha and Ashley Cooke.

Hear additional details about the tour, Kane’s evolving style choices, his new life as a father of three and so much more by checking out his entire conversation with Audacy’s Katie Neal on the Superstar Power Hour above.

Words by Monica Rivera Interview by Katie Neal

Few things are stronger than Country music friendships - Justin Moore and Blake Shelton being a great example.

During his appearance on the Superstar Power Hour with Audacy’s Katie Neal this week, Justin Moore opened up about how much Blake Shelton has helped him with his career and regularly puts friendship over stardom. “He’s always been really, really go to me,” Moore said of his longtime friendship with Shelton. “I went on tour with him, man, it was probably back in ’10, ’11, ’12, something like that and he’s always been really kind to me.”

Beyond their time on the road together, Justin credits one almost-cancelled appearance on NBC’s The Voice for showing him the level of commitment Blake had to their friendship.

“I was on The Voice in — I think it was maybe 2014 or something. Long story short, I was supposed to be on and they had to cancel for — I don’t know if it was another artist — but, what ever happened and he went to them and goes, ‘You’re gonna have Justin on. I called him and asked him to be on — you’re gonna have him on.'”

He continued, “I was on the finale, actually, which was huge at the time for us and that was all his doing. I say that to say, he is probably the most unaffected superstar I’ve ever met. He’s really just a super nice guy.”

Their friendship is also just as strong out of the spotlight, says Justin who calls Shelton a “nut.” “He’s a nut. Some of our text threads are — we couldn’t put them out — they’re pretty funny,” Justin laughed.

While they may not be able to release the texts, what they did release is a brand new song together featured on Justin’s new album, This Is My Dirt, available now. “I sent him a text and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got this song.’ I actually sent him two songs and I said, ‘which one do you want to do?’ He goes, ‘Let’s do the beer one,’” Justin recalled, laughing. “I go, ‘That’s what I figured you’d pick.’ For him to do that, he don’t have to do that.”

Blake wasn’t the only Country pal who fans can hear featured on the album — Justin also shared his gratitude for long time friends, Randy Houser and Dierks Bentley who appear on “The Worst” and “Time’s Ticking,” respectively.

“Same with Randy [Houser] and Dierks [Bentley],” Justin continued. “For them to lend their talents and time and energy to this project is really cool.”

Words by Monica Rivera Interview by Katie Neal