Raised in music-fertile Georgia, he also discovered homegrown country artists like Travis Tritt and Alan Jackson. “I remember being home sick from school one day listening to my clock radio and I heard Travis Tritt’s ‘I’m Gonna Be Somebody’ come on and then Alan Jackson’s ‘Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow’,” he remembers. “That’s when I really felt that country music was cool and might be the road I needed to travel down.” His love of music grew and he eventually began playing in a jazz band in high school and at church. “A lot of people got into sports—and I did too—but it wasn’t as fun to me as playing drums or listening to music,” he says.