A Conversation with Easton Corbin – HuffPost 8.3.12
Mike Ragogna: Are you excited about this Pepsi/Billboard event?
Easton Corbin: I am, man! It’s a great opportunity to get out here and work with some great people and, of course, we get to play out here in Nashville, which we don’t get to do very often.
MR: Let’s go into your history a little. You came to Nashville as an Ace Hardware store worker.
EC: I did. After I graduated college, I came up here. I was very fortunate to get a job with Ace Hardware here in Nashville.
MR: How did your career progress? How did you get into country music?
EC: I have always loved country music. I have always been around it, so it was just something that has always spoken to me and it’s just kind of a natural thing for me to come up here and try it. I was surrounded by a lot of great people that helped me out and got me where I’m at today.
MR: From where?
EC: I’m from Gilchrist County, Florida.
MR: And you went to University of Florida, right?
EC: I did, go Gators!
MR: (laughs) Easton, what did you study?
EC: I studied agricultural business.
MR: What got you into country music as far as influences?
EC: I love Merle Haggard, Keith Whitley, George Jones, and I think when you listen to my music, you can see that. It’s definitely a down the middle of the road traditional thing.
MR: What is it about Twitter’s element of interaction with your fans that intrigues you the most?
EC: It’s a cool way to interact with your fans. It used to be you had fan mail and stuff like that, but now you have an instant way to communicate with them, and for them to communicate with you. It’s especially important when you’ve got a record coming out; it’s like, “Hey, September 18th, got a new record coming out!” and they can communicate with you. It’s just a great platform.
MR: What’s the name of the new album?
EC: All Over The Road.
MR: And your single’s got, oh, some “fun” associated with it.
EC: Yeah, it’s “Loving You is Fun.”
MR: What are you looking at as far as your future?
EC: I just want to keep on making music that I love and gain as many fans as we can.
MR: As far as this event, and focusing on social networks and Twitter, how do you see that interacting with your career?
EC: It’s very important. I’d say it’s the wave of the future, you know? It’s getting more and more instant. You’ve got to be able to communicate with your fans as much as you can.
MR: Is that part of your routine, spending some of the day returning Tweets?
EC: Absolutely. I’ve got to make time for that every day because if it weren’t for those fans doing that, I wouldn’t be out here.
MR: Easton, what advice do you have for new artists?
EC: Get out there, be true to yourself, and meet good people. Good people…keyword.
Transcribed by Galen Hawthorne