Jeremy McComb seems to be a jack of all trades, and to no surprise, he’s an expert at all of them!

Beginning in radio, his unique path involved becoming a tour manager for the famous Larry the Cable Guy/Blue Comedy Tour, a Grammy Nominated movie soundtrack songwriter, and now a full time career as an entertainer himself. The singer-songwriter has released his nostalgic latest single “Cotton’s Getting High” which brings you back to the wild and free days of youth, festivals, and live music.

Celeb Secrets Country caught up with McComb to chat all about his latest single, upcoming album, his “dream” experience with new label group Average Joes Entertainment, and why he has such a passion for Jujitsu!

Take a read at the full Q&A below and let us know if you’re loving “Cotton’s Getting High” by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or by sending us a tweet at @CS_Country.

You can also keep up with Jeremy by giving him a follow on Instagram at @mccombover.

Celeb Secrets Country: Can you tell us about your new single “Cotton’s Getting High?” Were you a writer on the song? What was the creative process like?

Jeremy McComb: “I didn’t write this one. This was one of the only ones on the record that I didn’t write. I was written by Shane McAnally, Luke Blair, and Josh Osborne. My producer played the song for me probably about 4 or 5 years ago and it was one that we just started doing live. I loved the song and I’d heard it but we weren’t really ready to make another record. We just made a record called Fm at the time and so we started playing it live and the reaction to it was just crazy. And it didn’t matter where. We were over in Sweden and London and we got this huge reaction even overseas. So when we went to do the new record over at Average Joes it was like, ‘Okay we definitely have to make this part of it.’ It’s super fun to play live with the way that festivals are now. People just have their whole camp set up and their whole crew out there and everyone’s camped together, drinking what they drink, and smoking what they smoke, and they’re having good time and not hurting anybody. They’re just out there to connect with each other and love music. So that song reminded me of where I grew up and of what we used to do out in the woods, and then going to see live shows so it really just kind of encompassed that festival thing that we’ve seen so much of.” 

CSC: You said “Cotton’s Gettin’ High” is off a new album. When can we expect the album to drop?

JM: “The album will be out early 2021. The single is the first release off the upcoming album over at Average Joes.” 

CSC: Is the single your favorite song off the album? Are there any other songs that stand out or are especially personal to you?

JM: “You know, the whole record was such an interesting process. We wrote most of it over in Sweden. We were playing shows for a thing called Live At Heart and we ended up doing a writer’s retreat which was just crazy. We ended up writing all these songs while we were there, came home and went to record demos and it turned into this record. So there’s a lot of personal stuff and a lot of nostalgic stuff. There’s a song on there I wrote about a private tour I got at Folsom Prison, which is called ‘Thirteen Steps’ and it alludes to the death row of Folsom Prison where they have 13 cells. It’s a super crazy story, and you would take 13 steps up to where they would hang you, there’s 13 knots on the noose. The guy in there asked, ‘Do you know why everything in here is 13?’ I had no idea and he said, ‘It’s 12 for the jury and 1 for the judge.’ So it was a really unbelievable experience to walk through Folsom Prison because you think about Johnny Cash when you’re going there and then when you get there you realize it’s just a prison.” 

CSC: Can you talk to us about the music video?

JM: “We took the whole film crew on my bus and we went up to Idaho. I had a show up at Nashville North, which is a club that I own up in Stateline, Idaho, and so we had a sold-out show. We’re fortunate enough that Idaho is open, and we did the live version of it for the official video along with B-roll and little glimpses of my hometown. It was awesome getting to share that with the record label and everyone that was out there with us. The last 7 or 8 weeks we’ve been out in Texas and through the Midwest, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wyoming, Montana, so we’ve been fortunate enough to be able to keep the tour going and be able to enjoy getting back out in front of people and getting the band out and everyone back together.” 

CSC: You were previously in radio and managed Larry the Cable Guy. What made you switch over to pursuing music as your career?

JM: “Well I’m a sixth generation musician and I think there was nothing else I ever really wanted to do. I was always just kind of looking at my angles of how I could get to where I wanted to be. I started playing in clubs when I was 16 and from there I went into radio just because it was one step closer to where I wanted to be as a songwriter and artist. Through radio, I met Larry the Cable Guy and we ended up becoming close friends. We were supposed to be out for maybe a week and I ended up staying for 4 years. It was one of those things where this was always the goal but it was finding the right road map to get here so though the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, thank God that thing blew up the way it did, and once the Grammy nomination happened through the soundtrack, it kind of raised my stock a little bit to where people kind of took notice and I got a record deal and management and all that stuff. That’s kind of how that first incarnation of me coming to Nashville happened 15 years ago. Everybody’s path is different and I always hear people talking smack about these reality shows and my thing has always been, ‘Everybody’s path is so different and unique. I just hope people just stay the course. No matter what it takes to get where you want to go, just keep  getting there and persevering through the tough times.'”

CSC: You were recently signed with Average Joes Entertainment. How’s it been being a part of their team?

JM: “It’s been amazing. To be honest, I didn’t know if I was going to do another deal again. Independent has been so good for us and the tours have been so good, but then Average Joes just had everything that we wanted and that we kind of lacked. Their team is so incredible, their publicity department is amazing, all their social marketing and everything that they’re doing. They’ve done things so differently from the beginning with Colt Ford and all their acts that they’ve had on there. It wasn’t a radio based format. Most record labels are like, ‘Okay let’s throw it at the wall and see what happens.’ If radio picks up on it, great. If they don’t then you kind of lose your deal. With Average Joes it’s a long term vision, it’s a process that record labels are just trying to get into now because their industry has changed and Average Joes is lightyears ahead of them. So it was just kind of a dream scenario to get in with a team that’s done this so many times and so many different ways and genres, whether it’s YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music or whatever it is they are deeply engrained in it. And they’ve been doing it in a way that these major record labels can’t do it and haven’t been able to do it. They’ve just totally embedded themselves in it. It’s really been a dream scenario for us.”

CSC: Looking at your Instagram, you seem really involved in Jujitsu. Is that something you’ve done for a long time?

JM: “It kind of came through this Stoic life philosophy that I’ve got about being really present in the moment and controlling what you can control and not letting things bother you that you that are out of your control. That’s something I’ve really been into the last 5 or 6 years and through that found Jujitsu. I’ve been trying to find more ways to remove ego and all the unnecessary things in your life and just focus on the moment. So Jujitsu has been about a year and a half for me and it’s just such an amazing experience. You’re in there with all walks of life, people who are super wealthy to having nothing, every nationality you could imagine. Everybody in there is focused on one thing which is making themselves better and bettering each other by demanding the best out of each other and being supportive humans. Just teaching each other to live in the moment because if you’re not you’ll get choked unconscious.” 

CSC: Since we’re Celeb Secrets Country, can you tell us an interesting fact or behind-the-scenes secret about you that fans wouldn’t know just by your music?

JM: “Outside of the Jujitsu stuff and podcast stuff I do on life philosophy, everything that I do is kind of philosophy based and is all about self betterment and bettering people around you and things like that. But I would say, if it’s one thing that people don’t know about me, is that I absolutely love 80’s and 90’s terrible movies. Like ‘Cry-Baby’ and just ridiculous ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll High School Forever’ with Corey Feldman. So that’s kind of the guilty pleasure on the road.” 

Author