Midland's Mark Wystrach Recalls Meaningful Memorial Day Lesson

Midland's lead singer Mark Wystrach got a big reality check when he complained to his father, a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces, about the challenges of life on the road.

"Last year was, I think the first year when the weariness of the road had hit me and we were on radio tour, and just getting used to being gone like that and the pressure and the travel and the duress that it takes on you spiritually, physically, mentally," Wystrach recalls. "And I was going through a tough time when I called my dad, who's a retired lieutenant colonel Marine Corps aviator, [with] two tours in Vietnam. He said, 'Son, it's just like being deployed only instead of people shooting at you, you're getting to play music.' And it just kind of chinned me up immediately."

Midland have certainly had a whirlwind couple years. The trio, which also includes Jess Carson and Cameron Duddy, had a Grammy-nominated, No. 1 hit with their debut single, "Drinkin' Problem," from their freshman 2017 On the Rocks album. Winning their first ACM Award earlier this year, for New Vocal Duo or Group, the guys spent the first part of the year serving as the opening act on Little Big Town's The Breakers Tour, and will play fairs and festivals over the summer, before joining Thomas Rhett on the fall leg of his Life Changes Tour.

Busy or not, the guys say they couldn't have done anything else but music.

"It was just the calling," says Duddy. "It doesn't happen for everybody when you get this, like overwhelming sense of duty to do something. And for all of us it was that, and it overrode any prior success or lifestyles that we had been living in California, which was pretty kick a–. But life's a carnival, as The Band said – you don't just hop on one ride and do it for four hours, you kind of want to experience everything. And that for us is this journey."

"We want the most out of life," Duddy adds. "We all could have stayed doing what was obvious, I guess maybe just a path of least resistance for us back in California and wherever we were before Midland, but this was the calling and it was overwhelming and I don't think anybody was strong enough to deny the urge to kind of follow this thing."

A list of all of Midland's upcoming shows can be found by visiting their website.

Photo Credit: Instagram/midland