Nate Smith: The Song That Opened ‘So Many Doors’

Nate Smith is making a name for himself in country music, and it all began when his debut radio single "Whiskey On You" hit the airwaves. The song shot straight to the number-one spot on the country charts.

We talked with Nate today (10/13). He will open for Cole Swindell tonight in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Smith talked about that breakout song that put him on the country music map. He said, "That song really came out of a breakup. Just the frustrations of that, but really, of all my songs, that one has a sense of overcoming in it. I think that's what people really like about it because it's not just a rock anthem song. It has this thing about it where you are like, 'Yeah, I think everything's gonna be okay. I think I'm gonna get through this.' It just feels good."

The song's music video gets fans laughing. He said, "The music video, we just wanted to have fun. All we did was laugh the whole time. There's a scene where we're coming out of a van, and it looks like all this smoke piles out. It was burnt baby oil; that's how they were doing that, and it was the worst smell we ever smelled in our lives, and we were literally gaging.  I love how it came out; it's so fun."

The girl Smith broke up with who inspired the song has heard the song and has seen the video, and she's a fan. He offered, "Honestly, we talked, and she supports it, which is really cool. I thought she would hate my guts, but no, we're all good. She's happy about the success and everything."

The native Californian added, "That song has opened up so many doors for me."

Nate scored an opening slot on the Morgan Wallen "One Night At A Time Tour" next month (November), and he admits it's hard to comprehend. He said, "You don't wrap your head around it; you just kinda go, 'Oh my God.' I'm still in shock about it. We did the one show with Morgan this year when he lost his voice. We opened up, so we still got a little taste of what that might be like, and it was surreal. Just like the Cole Swindell tour and Thomas Rhett, my job is just to learn from everybody and watch how they interact with the crowd and watch management, watch leadership how it trickles down and how it affects every part of that tour."

He added, "Yeah, I'm just there to learn and completely grateful. I am second of four on the bill, which is unbelievable, so we're getting a little longer set than we did this summer, and I am really looking forward to connecting with his fans. I think it's gonna be really great."

Smith spent the summer in an opening slot on the Thomas Rhett tour along with Cole Swindell. On that tour, he realized what a good guy Rhett is. He told us, "Not only is he one of the nicest guys, he's one of the most generous people I've ever met. He will literally give you the shirt off his back. Everything about that tour has been absolutely incredible. I feel like everybody's got their mentor and their teachers. For me, it's been Thomas Rhett and Cole. We would talk and stuff, and I would ask questions like, 'Hey, what can I do to improve my set?' they watched my set every night. Then my manager would link up with TR's manager, and everybody had someone that they were learning from."

Nate concluded, "I feel like because of that tour, we are not even the same band anymore. It has grown us so much in such a good way."

Country music is like no other genre because country stars are very much like family. In that family, many lifelong friendships emerge between superstars and have been through the years.

Like Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings in the 1970s and Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn's great friendship before that. It's hard to overlook Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers's friendship that began when he first appeared on her 1970s Dolly TV show. Then they started to make music together when they recorded the iconic "Islands In The Stream" in the early 1980s. And who can forget Parton's friends and trio partners Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, who won a Grammy in 1988 for their Trio album.

Miranda Lambert has many friends in country music and even started a group with her buddies Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley to form The Pistol Annies. The trio of songwriting friends have released four albums together since 2011, including a 2021 holiday album called Hell Of A Holiday. Lambert has also made friends in a songwriting sense with Jelly Roll and Morgan Wallen, just to name a few. Her latest co-write friendship can be found on Brothers Osborne's latest self-titled album. The song they wrote with Miranda is called "We Ain't Good At Breaking Up," and she sings on the song.

Jason Aldean joined Luke Bryan, his friend for many years, to celebrate Bryan's recent 30 number one song party last week (9/12). Luke is also good friends with his one-time ACM award show co-host Blake Shelton and is friends with his current CMA Awards show co-host Peyton Manning, who might as well be a country star (although he doesn't sing) as much as he loves the music.

Darius Rucker has many friends in the entertainment industry and counts Lady A's Charles Kelley as one of his closest friends. Many of his country music friends have joined Rucker every June in Nashville for his annual benefit concert to help St. Judes Hospital. Past buddies helping out include Jason Aldean, Brooks & Dunn, Brothers Osborne, Kane Brown, Luke Bryan, Luke Combs, Sheryl Crow, Charles Kelley of Lady A, Ashley McBryde, A.J. McLean of the Backstreet Boys, Brad Paisley, and Kenny Rogers.

Let's look at five of country music's best friendships today.

These two friends will forever be linked not just for their duet "Never Wanted To Be That Girl" but because they won a Grammy for the performance in 2023 for Best Country Duo/Group Performance. When we interviewed McBryde recently, she told us of her friendship with Pearce, "We are opposites, especially in the way we enter a room. Carly always seems to me to be very well put together and has thought out what. She's about to say. I'm more likely to come in a room and be like (loud burst) 'Blahhhhh' and be kind of all over the place. I think that's why we got along so well. But that friendship started as a songwriter wanted. I wanted to write with Carly; I wanted to sing something with her."

These two sealed their friendship with a collaboration called "Famous Friends," which Young co-wrote. The collaboration's video for "Famous Friends" won the 2021 CMT Music Award for Collaboration of the Year. Early in his career. Kane told us about being a fan of Young's music. He said, "I probably did as many Chris covers as I did other people's covers. And then when I got signed with Sony, it was the same label that Chris was on, and they knew I loved him right off the bat."

Blake told us what Reba McEntire did for him early in his Nashville career: "The ACM announcements/ nominees three years ago (2009), way before they were asking me, host, she agreed to go, and Reba doesn't do this; she agreed to be on CBS' Early Morning Show to announce the nominees for the ACMs if they would let me be on there with her. Normally, they send a couple of new baby acts to go do that because nobody wants to wake up that early and go do that, but Reba did that for me. If there's ever a time she can lend a hand, she's always been that for me."

Reba sat in Shelton's chair in "The Voice" semi-final in May. She is a Season 24 Coach.

These guys have been friends since the beginning of their respective careers in Nashville. HARDY told us about when he first met Morgan after he heard Wallen's debut single, "The Way I Talk." He said, "I think it was like Top 30, and I was just a huge fan of the song, and I had not met him before, and it was just kind of the publisher route," HARDY explained that he called his publisher and asked to be contacted with Morgan's booker asking to write with him. HARDY said, "And two weeks later, he was on the schedule, and I got a text at like 10 am, and he was like, 'Hey, this is Morgan Wallen, what's your address?' and he just showed up to my house."

Lainey and Jelly Roll are not just friends; they have an award-nominated collaboration together, "Save Me." Jelly Roll recently told ET of his friendship with Lainey, "That's just my sister. That's how I look at her." He added that there's such a kinship with Wilson and noted that and the fact that they're both where they are in our careers right now, at the same record label, with a song together that's "Just on fire."