The Story Behind Singer-Songwriter Mitch Rossell

Hi Mitch Russell Russell wrote Roselle, Miss Roselle and this is the country music minute. Hello everyone, cm Johnson, here with the country music minute. We're dating

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Mitch Roselle. I've been very excited about this interview for a while now and you know it, I appreciate it. I've been quite excited too. I'm going to say I've been more excited than you. Well, East Tennessee is worried about how you ended up heading to Nashville. I knew I wanted to come. to Nashville when I was a sophomore in college I wanted to finish school I started so I wanted to finish and it was literally 15 days after I got my degree in I moved to Nashville so we didn't sit well talking about college I think.

I read somewhere that you were skipping class, staying in your dorm and learning to play the guitar, no, no, I, no, it must have been someone else, you read and I was, I was guilty of that, for sure. I started playing guitar when I, when I went to college, freshman year, right before freshman year, when I started, it was a love

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, so I mean, I just didn't want to go out and play guitar and write a song in the first big exam. If I had been in chemistry, which I'm terrible at anyway, but I was writing a psalm, oh, he was the first one to write it and I was so into it that I didn't even study and I ended up not doing a great job. grade on that test, but hey, you know, I don't think it matters anymore, yeah, and I'm not, I'm not, gutted about it, so why did my dad always want me to play guitar when I was a kid?

My dad and I were really close while he was growing up and he played a little bit by ear and he always wanted me to play a little guitar, at one point he just wouldn't pick it up. I was... I was a sporty kid. He touched everything. I loved you. know baseball, basketball, anything, football, everything, golf, so it was all over the place, I couldn't sit down and take the time to learn something like that and he happened when I was younger, so when I graduated from the high school just to honor him, the only reason I understood it so well was that I was at your show at Bridgestone Arena here in Nashville Tennessee when you were opening for Garth Brooks, we'll get to that later fans and you sang a song that I think which was dedicated to your dad in the song, but it was after you had a son, can you talk about that a little?

Yeah, so I've never been able to write a song about my dad and I guess the reason for me is that it was still too painful maybe it's hard for me to access and write about something that's still really almost too close, you know, it's too intimate. and it's like I can't really get over it but when I had my little one it just completely changed my life and it's like that hole that I've had for so many years just got filled and then, you know, writing a song for me is never really easy, but it was easy in the sense that I was pulling from a real place, you know, so I can't imagine it and being able to put it into words in a song, I mean, I was crying, Bridgestone, it was a beauty, it was beautiful and if any once they have the opportunity. please go see it, talking about singing, writing songs and touring with Garth Brooks, this is all crazy, how did you know how that all came about?

Did Garth find you or was it the song you wrote for Garth? How I know the Sparknotes version well because we'll be here for a while if I give you all the details, but the gist of it was that I had the opportunity to send him some songs when I was cutting for Man Against Machine and I emailed him with three or four songs, I think almost everyone in town and their mother had an email address because without paying attention they got thousands of songs and he I don't think he heard it, you know I was wrong, he listens to it then. so I sent him like four songs and I thought it was amazing that he could even send it to me.

I was like, man, I was floating, you know, because just sending songs to your favorite artists of all time and that happens to be the biggest artist, you know, I mean, he's an icon, so even being able to send him was cool for me and then two weeks later I woke up one morning to go to a meeting and I was checking my email like I always do. and I went absolutely crazy and from there we kept talking and he just wanted to hear everything he had. I kept sending him songs, he kept asking me questions, I asked him to stop, you know, we just met and then he hung out and started writing together, you know all this stuff and we really became friends and he's been an amazing mentor to me. , not only in this business but also as a person.

You know he is an amazing human being and he is one. He's unique, for sure, what is the writing room with Garth like when you leave him, you have to tell us, uh, yeah, he's, um, you know, even though he's become a friend of Modesto, he still had a such a big impact. in my just my life and my music, so it's hard, you know, I mean, he's, he's Garth, you're sitting there and you're like, I mean, I don't want to say anything stupid, I don't want to fuck anything up. I don't want to, you know, I wanted to think that I'm good, you know, as good as he thinks I am, that's a hard thing, it's a hard thing, it's intimidating, but it's gotten easier and easier.

Not only did I get to know him better and better and he was able to, he's great at making me feel comfortable and then you also know every year, I guess as you get through your 20s and all that, you grow exponentially as a person anyway. and you become more confident and more comfortable when you scan all those things, so I think both of those things working together have made me a little more comfortable, but still he's very pretty, but he's brilliant. he's super talented, he's just a great writer, he's always thinking outside the box and the song that you wrote, which he asked me how do I know and I know that you guys heard it because Garth had a big hit last year, what kind of emotions? were happening. through you know what you think when Garth took that song of yours to the next level, oh, it's been around for sure.

When he first told me he was going to cut it, I was ecstatic, but also in this city you have to learn to be very careful about getting ahead of yourself because you know that things can always change and you never know, that's when he told me he wanted to cut it. , it was a year before it was released, so for a whole year you know you never know another song might have come out. Along the way, he either got tired of it or maybe they cut it and it just didn't work out, you know, you know, you never know, so once he made the record, he was absolutely on cloud nine and that was it. . beyond good enough for me, but when they told me it was for sure the second single, I just remember feeling so overwhelmed, okay, why did you pass?

No, I didn't really take anything, no, I mean, no, I just try to save as much as I can, even if it's a rainy day, well, I have to let you know because my mom will see this later and she knows I'm interviewing you today. She loves that song. I mean, that's his number one song right now. No. Just kidding, what's next? I mean, after finishing a world tour with Garth Brooks, first of all, what's your mother's name? Robin, hello Robin, thank you very much, I appreciate it. You know, just writing, always writing, recording, that's a big part of what we do.

I'm trying to do right now and just fill out the team, you know, I'm really trying to find the right people that I want to just build a career with, you know, because it takes kind of a village, so to speak, you know. It is important. to surround yourself with good people, I want to bring this interview full circle and you know you started playing in the honky-tonks and now you're doing amazing things, what would you say to those fans who are watching you like A

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comes to Nashville and his career has taken her to another level.

You know, I think there's so much advice that I could give you that other people have given me that have been great or that I have. I have learned I think if I put it briefly, be true to yourself. I had so many opportunities when I came to town. The trend that was happening was very different from what I do and I had a lot of opportunities to do it. that you know, trying to pursue that and by the grace of God and everything that he put on my heart, I just kept doing what I wanted, doing what I love and if I hadn't done that, I never would have had to ask.

I know because that song is a real thing because it's a real song about real feelings, real emotions and it won't be quick, you know, it won't be quick, it takes time, it takes years, it takes a lot of work, it takes a lot you know it takes a lot of closed doors. , it takes a lot of bad days and if you're not prepared for that, then you know that if you don't love it enough to be prepared for that, maybe it's not right for you. You definitely have to have thick skin to be in this business, yes, and you have to have a lot of good people so people cheer you up when you have those bad times, you just have to believe in who you are. doing it even when other people don't, that's hard, it's really hard.

I love that about you as an artist, singer-songwriter because it shows in your music, your writing and your songs and like I said, you made us cry at Bridgestone Arena, so I'm very lucky that Mitch got to play a song for us today. I'm going to leave it up to him what he wants to play, but you Mitch Roselle here, please make sure you go see it. He is definitely someone to have on your radar.