PITTSBURGH ― Drake White heads to Stage AE on Friday, poised to satisfy country music appetites.
"We're excited to come out there to a city as vibrant as Pittsburgh, and just getting ready to have some fun," White said. "It'll pretty much be like a revival. It's going to be some good Southern chicken-fried country music. We're having a good time, sweating along in the middle of the dog days of summer."
White will fire up fans for headliner Jamey Johnson ("In Color") in a 7 p.m. outdoor show. Tickets cost $42.50 to $105 at promowestlive.com.
White, who landed on the Billboard Country charts with "Livin' The Dream," "It Feels Good" and "Makin' Me Look Good Again," has a general gameplan for Pittsburgh, though stage audibles are inevitable.
"We've got a new record coming out in September or October, so you'll be getting some of that. You're getting some of (2023's) "The Bridge" EP, which is kind of stripped down. But live is where we live," White said. "We just kind of freestyle it from there. If I feel like doing a couple acoustics, that's what I'm going to do. If we feel full bore ... a lot of times Pittsburgh likes to get loud, so we'll have to bring it full bore. Whatever the show demands that's what we follow. It sounds different every night."
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"The Bridge" EP includes a remixed version of the Alabama native's 2015-16 "Makin' Me Look Good Again." Accompanying that reworked song was a music video showing touching and inspirational footage of White bedside in a hospital, supported by his wife, as he learned to regain the use of his left side following complications caused by a rare brain condition called Arteriovenous Malformation (AVM). Doctors told him that he might never perform again, but White defied the odds, successfully undergoing multiple procedures and intensive physiotherapy.
"Man, we've been through a lot of stuff since 2019," he said in a July 9 phone interview. "I suffered a hemorrhagic stroke on stage in Roanoke, Va., and was paralyzed for a period of time. I kind of had my dominoes set up to be packing out arenas and doing really big stuff and just my whole life switched before my eyes with the hemorrhagic stroke, and I had to learn how to walk again and my wife was a huge part of that. The patience and tenacity she showed through that was pretty damn awesome. So that was my inspiration, resharing 'Makin' Me Look Good Again' because she damn sure made me look good. As good as I could. So that was the inspiration behind that."
This past Father's Day weekend, White released “Life, Love and War,” a big-picture ballad with a homespun message of hope from a proud father to his newborn child.
White and his wife, Alex, had their first child, William Hawk, in early 2023 and shared their fertility journey and exclusive photos with People magazine.
"After the stroke and after the pandemic and after we had about seven years of infertility issues, we just did a lot of praying," White said. "We just felt still inspired to pursue having a baby, and we ended up being successful and it changed the way I write songs. It's pretty easy to become a father, it's pretty hard to become a dad so I want to be the best dad I can be. My dad is an unbelievable dad. I'm much blessed to have that. and 'Life, Love and War' is just that. Boats and cars and late-night bars, that stuff is fleeting but if you'll grab onto the good stuff, that's what that song is about. Like let me give you a bit of advice. Even if you didn't ask for it."
"Bridges" includes White's "Power of a Woman" collaboration with pop singer Colbie Caillat.
"Colbie is amazing. I've been a huge fan of hers. I enjoy the beach, and surfing kind of culture. During the pandemic, we did a collab at my barn called Wednesday Night Therapy and she was just awesome and exactly who you'd think she is. Just a laid-back, surfer girl from California. And we vibed. I thought she was a pretty badass woman, and I just asked her to be on that song and she obliged."
Another of the EP's tracks, "Happy Hour," was co-written with Texas songwriter Hayes Carll, and playfully questions why happy hours at saloons and taverns only last an hour.
"That was embroidered on a pillow at a party I was at," White said. "It literally said, 'How come happy only gets to last an hour?' and I just wrote that down and brought it into Hayes and we had a lot of fun writing that song."
Like the fun he has nightly touring with Johnson.
"I've known Jamey a long time and I think it's unarguable he is the true country American outlaw," White said. "He's an unbelievable songwriter who gives those Waylon, Willie, Kris Kristofferson, Highwaymen vibes and I'm just learning from that. I'm an Alabama native and so is he so we share that common bond. He's just in a great place making music again and everybody's excited. I don't want to overplay it, but I consider him a country music Mozart."
Maybe Hayes or Johnson should add a bit of "Rock Me Amadeus" to their set.
"For me, it's a party," White said. "I think people come to shows for a lot of different reasons. There's a lot of healing going on. There are more good people than bad, that's the message that I'm bringing. We get a chance to go to about 130 cities a year and to turn the TVs off and shake hands and come see the people out there: the camaraderie. It's a little bit of rock, a little bit of soul, a little bit of Jesus, a little bit of country and a little bit of funk."
White's most prominent Pittsburgh memory is from Labor Day weekend 2017, when he took a walk along the North Shore with members of the rising country band Midland when they both played a Heinz Field rib festival.
"Just being in that city that's so proud of their pro teams. Whether it's yawl's Pirates or Steelers or your Penguins, there's so much camaraderie and pride that comes with that," White said. "And I think it comes from the steelworkers and that hard knocks, hardnosed mentality where you know we're going to outwork you and out-party you and out-drink you, and that's it. That's Pittsburgh to me. Seeing the spirit of that city when one of your beloved teams is in the atmosphere. It's magnetic. Like God, this is truly America."
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