Meet Audacy 'Launch' artist, Kassi Ashton

Audacy Country stations across the nation are excited to shine a light on our next Launch superstar, Kassi Ashton .

LISTEN NOW : Meet Audacy 'Launch' artist, Kassi Ashton

As a Launch artist, Ashton and her music will be spotlighted across all Audacy’s platforms introducing her to millions of new fans eager to support the future of Country music. With her new title, Ashton joins Launch alumni Jelly Roll , Warren Zeiders and more who reached superstar status after their run as Launch artists.

Ashton , a 30-year-old singer-songwriter from California, Missouri has worked towards a career in Country music ever since she “popped into the world,” and is ready to finally break through with her new single, “Called Crazy,” the perfect song for fans to see her personality shine.

“This is as me as it gets,” she said of the song she wrote alongside Jared Keim and Emily Weisband . “You can write songs all day long, but writing songs that are good and also you all the way to your core can be a challenge.”

The tune shows Kassi’s versatile personality which stems from a widespread childhood of days spent at beauty pageants, theatre performances, and dance competitions with her mom, and shooting muzzle loaders, racing dirt bikes, and cruisin’ on Harley’s in “the boonies” with dad.

“I was always this weird mix of a kid, but music always branched those two worlds together,” Ashton said of her diverse upbringing. “I started singing when I popped into the world, I didn’t really have a choice. My mom sings, my older sister sings, so we sang more than we talked in our household,” she laughed. “It was power females on the radio all day long… it was Reba [ McEntire ], it was Loretta [ Lynn ] it was Stevie Nicks , it was Aretha Franklin — women who had probably been through some sort of struggle and came out, acrylic fingernail wavin’  in somebody’s face.”

That sass and feminism is exactly what shines bright through Ashton’s music, especially “Called Crazy,” which is all about her realization that guys who’ve called her crazy are always the ones to call her back. Coincidence? She thinks not.

“This wasn’t some fancy hook or poetic notion that I stumbled across, it was just the cold hard truth hit me one day,” she said of the inspiration behind the song. “Every man that’s ever called me crazy just keeps calling — so does that mean I’m crazy, or does that mean that they’re crazy?”

While the song is a playful look at the truths of modern-day dating, it’s providing Ashton with serious opportunity at County music success after a false-start at radio thanks to the pandemic and two prior singles falling flat.

“In 2019 everything was going great, I was on Girl: The World Tour with Maren Morris , it’s my first tour ever, I was two of three, we were supposed to go to radio at the top of 2020. BOOM. We know what happened,” the Belmont University graduate said of the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down not only live music but left the future of the industry a big question mark.

“Everything gets put on pause… everything just kind of stopped because I wasn’t at a place where I could keep going through the pandemic,” she expressed. During the pandemic, Ashton held on by a thread by releasing her song, “Black Motorcycle,” and becoming an ambassador for Harley Davidson, but her fight to make it on Country radio was really just getting started.

“Coming into 2022, we had my first single, ‘Dates in Pickup Trucks’… and I was like, ‘OK, we’re doing this,’” she said before sharing the single got pulled. “Then we did ‘Drive You Out of My Mind,’ and I love that song, still to this day — it’s a smash in my head… but unfortunately, it made it to like 42 [on the charts],” she explained before admitting she started to feel defeated.

“You kind of get down on yourself, you’re like, ‘I know I’m meant to be here, so why is it not working?’” she stated before shedding a few tears remembering the struggle. Come 2024, a magical writing session with Keim and Weisband brought “Called Crazy,” the song she’s more than ready to take another stab at Country radio with — this time, with the full support from Audacy Launch .

Listen to Launch: New Country to hear the rising stars of Country and the songs that are sure to be everywhere soon

“To bring it full circle, the day we wrote ‘Called Crazy’ I was like, ‘If this isn’t it, I don’t know what is,'” she said. “I just felt in my gut it’s me. So, if I go down the drain on this song, at least I will know no one told me to do this, no one made me into something that I’m not. My image or brand or whatever was not invented around a boardroom table, I have always been myself, I will always be myself and if I’m going to put my money and I’m going to put all my blood, sweat and tears into a song — this is going to be the one.”

One listen to the song and you’ll have the perfect introduction to the highly talented, creative, Beyoncè -loving soul whose talent goes far beyond her masterful songwriting and defined vocals. Fans can also see her creativity shine through the clothes on her back — many of them sewn by her own two hands.

Raised by a mom who had humble beginnings and had to sew her own clothes, Ashton was taught the art of being a seamstress from her earliest years and has used it as a form of self-expression ever since. “From a young age, if there was ever a creative option, I wanted to learn how to do that because I have always wanted choice — the freedom to choose, always,” she explained. “As soon as I got the label deal I was like, ‘Oh, I need to look great,’ so I started making clothes. A new artist budget is about $2.37, so at a fabric store you can do a lot with $2.37,” she laughed.

“Clothes were always armor for me of like, ‘Hey, I can come in here and I can look like a million bucks and then I’m going to act like a million bucks because I feel good and I made this and no one can take it away from me.’”

Always looking the part and now armed with a song that makes her feel even more confident, Ashton is ready to wow the world and welcome more fans to experience what she has to give through her music. All while never forgetting the fight to be standing exactly where she is.

“This is all that I have ever wanted to do — there was never a plan B,” she said of making it in Country music. “To get this today, I cannot say thank you enough because I feel like I have fist-fought to get here and I know that I will keep fist-fighting until they pull me off the stage when I’m wearing diapers with a cane,” she laughed before sharing her hopes for the next year.

“I’ve done a couple headlining shows this year… to see that people come and spend their hard-earned money in a recession when they don’t have much… I don’t think I’ll ever get over that,” she said through tears. “When they come and they spend their precious time and their money on me, I just wanna cry the whole time… I know that as this year goes on with the help of y’all and the help of everything that comes with this — those people are just going to multiply and I can’t wait… I’m honored.”

Join us in welcoming Kassi Ashton to Audacy Launch by checking out her full interview with Katie Neal above and listening to her single, “Called Crazy,” now playing on Audacy Country station nationwide.