Justin McBride
Don't Let Go
Real country music and cowboy songs from a Two-Time Professional Bull Riding World Champion.
Justin McBride
As a little kid, Justin McBride always envisioned where his road through life would take him – being a real life cowboy. McBride took that passion and turned it into a career at 18 when he began bull riding for the PBR (Professional Bull Riders, Inc.). By the time he was 28, McBride was a two-time World Champion bull rider and had released his debut country album Don’t Let Go.
In 2007, before winning his second world title championship, McBride spent a lot of time in Nashville getting to know some of the music industry’s heavyweights, including songwriters Wynn Varble and Phil O’Donnell.
“Something that I really loved to do that I hadn’t done was music,” notes McBride. “I just got around the right people, and I enjoyed hanging out with them and picking and singing. I felt like there really wasn’t a whole lot of cowboy music getting out to people. That’s what kind of pushed me over and made me want to give making an album a go. People love Chris LeDoux and cowboy music. There’s something honest and real about it. People get that whether they’re cowboys or not.”
With his influences ranging from Lefty Frizell and Marty Robbins to Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams, Jr., McBride went into the studio with O’Donnell and Varble producing the project.
“We wrote a few songs, found a bunch of them that I loved, and made a record. I was coming to town about once a week,” McBride recalls. “I would go to an event, leave the event, go to Nashville, leave Nashville, go home, change out my bag, and go to another event! It was crazy and hectic, but a lot of fun!”
After winning his second world title in 2007 and finishing out the 2008 season, McBride hung up his spurs and retired from the bull riding business.
“I just didn’t have that fire for it that I had my entire life. I always promised myself once that was gone I wouldn’t just hang around and be mediocre,” says McBride. “Bull riding has got to be about more than winning a buckle or more than making a living. It’s got to be something that you truly love more than anything else. It’s too dangerous of a sport to just make a living at it.”
It was then when McBride was finally able to put his country music career on center stage and give it the same passion he gave his bull riding days.
“I didn’t want to step over and go ok, I’m not a bull rider anymore…I’m a country music guy, but tomorrow I’ll be a bull rider. That’s a fine line to juggle.”
Out of the album’s 12 songs, McBride took part in writing two – the title track, “Don’t Let Go,” and “God’s In Oklahoma Today,” which he wrote about his working ranch in Western Oklahoma.
“It felt natural because of the songs I did. It’s what I believe, and it’s the way I lived. I don’t have to try to sell something that I’m not. I’m no Frank Sinatra, and I don’t try to be,” laughs McBride. “I don’t do a bunch of love songs and stuff like that. If the right one comes along I might, but it’s going to be a cowboy love song! I sing about drinking beer and being a cowboy. That’s pretty much what I’ve done my entire life…well, I haven’t drank beer my entire life, but I’ve been a cowboy my entire life!”
The album’s first single, “Beer Drinkin’ Songs,” is an uptempo honky tonk song that tells the story about a bull riding cowboy searching for that certain song to drown his sorrows in. The song’s video is scheduled for a summer release. In the meantime, McBride has been taking his live show to select markets and is humbled by the warm response country music fans have given him.
“I got lucky,” he says with a smile. “I kind of brought my own audience with me from bull riding to country music. They have been very supportive of it, and I’ve gotten a lot of really great feedback from them. That’s been a really cool thing.”
“I think the music will be the same way as the bull riding,” McBride continues. “If I make some money at it, great, but if not I’ll sit on my back porch and still be doing it. I would’ve always been a bull rider…I just got lucky enough to do it on a really big stage. I’ll always play country music…the size of the stage will just be decided.”
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