Luke Bryan Gave Cole Swindell His Best Advice Ever With One Word

Luke Bryan will soon hit the road with Cole Swindell and Jon Langston, on his Sunset Repeat Tour. Bryan and Swindell have become good friends over the years, but when Swindell was trying to get his music heard, like Bryan once was, he reached out to the superstar for advice – and was stunned by Bryan’s answer.

“At the time I thought he was being kind of sarcastic, but it’s the best advice he’s ever given me,” Swindell recalled (via Taste of Country). “All he wrote back on advice for songwriting was he just wrote: ‘Live.’ It kind of took me off guard like ‘That wasn’t really what I was looking for’ but looking back, it’s the best advice he’s ever given me.”

Bryan might have barely known Swindell at the time, even though they both attended Georgia Southern University, but he soon became a fan of both Swindell’s songwriting and his singing. His advice clearly worked for Swindell, who went on to write several songs for the hitmaker, including “Roller Coaster,” which was included on Bryan’s 2013 Crash My Party record.

It’s fitting that Swindell reached out to Bryan for advice, since it was Bryan who inspired Swindell to also pursue music, after Swindell saw Bryan perform a song called “Small Town Favorite Son” at a frat party, while Swindell was in the crowd.

“I just remember thinking, “Wow, this guy’s gonna be a huge star,’” Swindell told Taste of Country. “That night, I remember seeing him play live, and I thought, ‘This guy’s an unbelievable entertainer.’ It took a while for it to catch on for him. Where he is now, honestly, I was like, ‘Man, he’s a star,’ the first time I saw him.”

Swindell is looking forward to not only performing with Bryan on their upcoming tour, but hopefully penning a few hit songs as well.

“We’re excited about it and we talked about it yesterday,” Swindell told PopCulture.com. “We’re both big songwriters and we’d love to do it at least, and so we’re looking forward to try and come up with new music. I mean, it’s not every day you’re out there with one of your buddies and much less he’s a great songwriter. That’s what I love to do.”

Before Bryan heads out on his Sunset Repeat Tour, he will wrap up the season finale of American Idol on May 19, and then perform at Blake Shelton‘s new venue, The Doghouse, on May 23.

Photo Credit: Getty Images/John Shearer