Hometown: Tenino, Washington
Lives: Nashville
Single: “Just a Phase”
EP: Adam Craig
Twitter: @AdamCraigMusic
Instagram: @AdamCraig08
Influences: Tim McGraw, Travis Tritt, Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, Garth Brooks

A baseball player in high school who dreamed of being a catcher for the Seattle Mariners, Adam Craig gave it all up for a career in country music. After moving to Nashville, Adam found success as a songwriter, penning Parmalee’s “Close Your Eyes” as well as album cuts for Dustin Lynch and Love and Theft. Now the Washington native is trying his hand at performing. Adam dropped his self-titled EP in 2016, and recently released its second single, “Just a Phase,” a soulful ballad about a guy who realizes he’s just a phase that his girlfriend is going through. Ready to make a splash on the country music scene, Adam will be opening select dates for Luke Bryan as part of his Kill The Lights Tour, which kicks off Feb. 16.

GROWING UP COUNTRY

“I grew up on a cattle farm, and my parents had a little beach house. I say it’s a beach house, more like a beach trailer. It was about an hour away [from home], which was fantastic for the summers. And then in the winters, the mountains were an hour away. So it was just really cool growing up there. Country music was always the go-to for, I guess, relating to the lifestyles of all that stuff. I loved it out there, and I started a little three-piece band when I was in high school and kind of juggled that along with playing baseball and football and all that stuff. I thought I was going to be a [Seattle] Mariner. I was going to be the catcher. I was the next Dave Valle. But that didn’t work. I kind of quit everything and just focused on music.”

EVOLVING SOUND

“[My sound is] always evolving. For one, I always try to just sing the heck out of whatever I’m writing. But my sound is always going to be changing. It’s always going to be—I don’t quite know yet. We’re right in the middle of writing the album, and we’ve already cut 20 songs, and we put this EP out, but the songs that we’ve saved for the record, other than ‘Just a Phase,’ they’re way different from the EP. I cannot wait to really put all this music together, and learn exactly what sound that is. But right now, it’s just . . . I love the hammer hooks in a song. I love the storytelling in a song. And then I also love the party song where you don’t have to think. You just absorb it.”

THE STORY BEHIND THE SONG

“I remember we wrote that October of ’15. And I remember driving in that morning, and I’d heard this Justin Bieber song. The ‘Love Yourself’ thing. I had to do some research on it. And Ed Sheeran wrote it. I was like ‘OK, that makes sense how it’s just crafted so well and has so much raw feeling and emotion in it.’ I remember listening to that song, and getting to my writing session. We started writing a whole completely different song because we got the pitch sheet to see who was cutting songs. We saw somebody was cutting the next week, so we wanted to tailor it to that artist, and start chasing that idea. We got to lunch time, and we were kind of just stuck—couldn’t think of anything. And I remember just pulling that song out, and saying ‘Hey, you guys heard this song? What do you all think of it? I kind of have an idea of a hook that might go with it.’ It was ‘I’m just something you’re going through.’ And one of the other writers were like ‘I’m just a phase you’re going through.’ Then we just started talking about it, like ‘what does that mean?’ Usually you would be saying that. But if we had the girl saying that, then you’re the phase. It was really cool—the different angles on it. I’m very thankful that that’s the single.”

OPRY DEBUT

“I have nothing to compare it to. My family flew in for it, and—all those emotions. You’re walking those halls that so many people that you look up to have gone in. They put you in the circle dressing room, which is where everybody that debuts, goes in. It was just really, really heavy. I just wanted to touch everything. I don’t even know what happened. I was saying a prayer before I went on, and about got emotional ’cause I was like ‘OK, let me not forget the words or make a fool out of myself.’ Then walking out, I don’t remember any of it. So, I’m so thankful there’s so many videos and audio from it, ’cause I don’t remember it. It’s just crazy. I can’t wait to do it again. Take it in even more. Because that’s what people kept telling me, ‘Just take it in, be emotional.’ It’s the Grand Ole Opry, it’s not a place in Connecticut called the Opry. This is the Grand Ole Opry. I’m very, very thankful for that.”

DREAM TOUR

“I want to play so much, and I’m very thankful that Luke is letting me come out and open some shows for him. I cannot wait to play. I’d play eight days a week, if there was another one. I always say, if I can put together a tour, it would be, of course, me first. I’d be the opener. And then Eric Church, Keith Urban, and Tim McGraw. That would just be pretty insane.”