Rising Country Music Star Maddox Batson Talks Whiskey Jam, Golf, and Lana Del Rey (Exclusive)

Maddox Batson is, quite literally, the future of country music. The 14-year-old rising star has been on a rapid ascension lately, after dropping a pair of hit singles -- "Tears in the River" and "I Wanna Know" -- earlier this year. Just this summer the Tennessee-born-Alabama-rasied teen delivered a headline-making performance at Whiskey Jam in Nashville, and he recently co-wrote a song, "Tough," that was picked up as a duet by Lana Del Rey and rapper Quavo.

PopCulture.com had a chance to chat with Batson, and he dished on writing "Tough," his groundbreaking Whiskey Jam set, and how he almost had a completely different trajectory in life. "I wasn't really incorporated in music, I used to do basketball," Batson told us, noting that his parents "raised me on music... but I used to do sports and that was my thing."

Batson's sports dreams came to a halt, however, after he received an unfortunate diagnosis from his doctor. "I got this thing, it's called Osgood-Schlatter disease , it's in my right knee," he explained, "and I literally could not play any sports anymore."

After discovering that he "really had nothing to do throughout the summer," Batson and his dad began performing music together, eventually going viral on TikTok . "I remember I was playing a song and I had almost 12,000 viewers just watching me at once," he said of one of their early TikTok live performances. "It was just crazy. It was crazy."

"From there,' Batson said, "the music stuff just kept picking up traction, and me and my dad started writing songs. I got the opportunities to go into some crazy rooms with some sick songwriters and write some songs with them."

While he had to put his sports dreams to rest, Batson noted that his musical rise brought a saying to mind. "When God closes a door, he always opens another. He closed my basketball and my sports dreams and he opened this one," he said optimistically. "So I'm very blessed to have that opportunity, and that's why I'm talking to you here today."

While he might not be playing basketball as much these days, he did pick up a new sport... golf. "I make a joke about it. All those sports guys, once they're out of their primes and we stop playing real sports, we pick up golf," he said with a laugh, comparing himself to peers like Chase Rice and Brett Young who traded sports for country only to their way to golf. "That's kind of like a country music thing, I guess."

"I'm playing four times this week. I play all the time," Batson went on to share. "I picked it up in March and it's definitely one of those humbling sports. I thought I could go out there and be like Tiger. Definitely not," he said, then quipping, "More like Tiger Lost in the Woods. I couldn't find my ball."

Though he might have liked to, Batson hasn't spent his entire summer on the green. Back in June, he made a groundbreaking performance at Whiskey Jam in Nashville, during CMA Fest. "It was insane because I found out two days before I was playing another show out at Losers," he said, then sharing the story behind how it came together: "I'm very blessed for this to happen, but Dierks Bentley has a couple daughters and he was like, 'Dude, I'm going to let people under 21 pull up.' And I was like, 'No way.'

"It was the coolest experience," Batson continued, "because I was like, dang, this has really never happened. And the fact that I've made that happen is just the coolest to me. And going in there and seeing all my fans, I'm just like, wow. So I just give it all back to all the fans for popping out, big thanks to them."

"Big thanks to Mr. Dierks Bentley because he is the man for letting people under 21 go," he added. "It was pretty sick hearing after the show that it was the first time it's ever happened and that I actually put it to capacity. That was pretty cool to hear."

Batson's big summer didn't end there. Last month, Lana Del Rey and Migos rapper Quavo dropped a new song together, "Tough," which Batson co-wrote. "It was the coolest experience," he said of helping to write the song. "We walk into the studio that day and I got the blessed opportunity to write with some of the greatest writers I've ever written with."

The word "tough," really stood out to Batson and he "started thinking about it on a deeper level," explaining, My family, my father and my father's side, my grandfather's side, they were all really tough growing up and they had a really tough upbringing, and that's how they wanted to raise me. So we started writing about that."

"This song is pretty much completely inspired by my mom and my dad, their dads," he added. "It was the coolest writing experience I've ever had because after writing it, I was like, 'dang, dude, this song is really slick.'"

Not long after they finished the song, Batson and his family got a surprise. "I got the news that Lana Del Rey and Quavo picked it up, and I literally started running around my house screaming," he quipped. "And my mom, she had no clue who Quavo was, so I had to explain that to her. She knew who Lana Del Rey was, but no clue who Quavo was. But it was so sick. I loved that writing experience."

Next up, Batson is working on releasing a full project, and he's also hitting the road starting this weekend. Click here to check out all of Batson's upcoming tour dates, as well as links to stream his music. Fans can also click here to watch our full video interview with Batson. Keep locked to PopCulture.com for more great country music news, reviews, and interviews!