Dan Smyers, also known as one half of country duo Dan + Shay, is celebrating his 31st birthday, and this star has plenty to be thankful for.
Smyers and bandmate Shay Mooney recently notched their fourth No. 1 hit with single “Tequila,” the first from their self-titled third album. Smyers wrote the track with Jordan Reynolds and Nicolle Galyon and co-produced it with Scott Hendricks.
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The song has since become the most-streamed country song released in 2018, which Smyers proclaimed the “best birthday gift” on Twitter.
Read on to learn more about Smyers.
He grew up in Wexford, Pennsylvania
Smyers attended Carnegie Mellon University to study finance, but he had been singing and playing guitar for years beforehand and quickly returned to music after college.
“I have been playing in bands and wanting to make music my life since I was very young,” he told Rockways in 2012. “I had the chance to sign to a record label and start touring when I was about 15, and ever since I first felt the rush I get from playing in front of people, I haven’t been able to stop.”
Prior to Dan + Shay, he was in a band called Transition
Ahead of teaming up with Mooney, Smyers was in multiple groups, including a band called Transition and the duo Bonaventure. He started touring with Transition at age 15, playing shows around the country before forming Bonaventure after college.
At the time, he listed his influences as Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters, Raine Maida (Our Lady Peace), and the Goo Goo Dolls.
He met his wife at an animal rescue center
Smyers married his wife, Abby Law, in May 2017, after meeting in 2013 at an animal rescue center. They’re now proud parents to three dogs of their own, who had a special role in their parents’ big day. The couple even included the Nashville-area Proverbs 12:10 Animal Rescue in their wedding registry so fans could donate to the organization instead of giving gifts.
As a treat for fans, the couple’s nuptials are featured in Dan + Shay’s video for “Speechless,” along with footage from Mooney’s wedding to wife Hannah Billingsley. The video gives fans a glimpse into the pair’s absolutely gorgeous weddings as well as the love shared between the two couples.
He met Mooney at a house party
The duo met in December 2012 at a party at Smyers’ house, Mooney recalled to Taste of Country in November 2013.
“I’m walking into the living room, and there is just a tent … it was borderline fort-ish,” he shared, with Smyers explaining, “I had no money to pay for heat, so I went to the thrift store and bought a bunch of sheets. [We] tented out the whole living room, and we retained all the heat in there. We all just hung out, huddled around … Shay and I were jamming that night, and we’ve been writing three songs a day ever since.”
His current drink of choice is tequila
(This one is pretty much self-explanatory.)
Earlier this year, Smyers told PopCulture.com that he and his co-writers wanted to challenge listeners’ expectations of what a song titled “Tequila” might sound like.
“We were like, ‘Let’s go to a relationship or let’s go to nostalgia zone,’” he recalled. “We basically used tequila as the trigger to go back to a specific situation with an ex, and we just got super descriptive on it.”
He proposed to Abby on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii
Smyers proposed to his now-wife in November 2016 while on vacation in Hawaii.
“There are few words to fully convey this feeling of complete happiness,” Abby wrote on Instagram at the time. “Daniel Smyers, knowing and loving you has been the most rewarding part of my life thus far and continuing our journey together as your wife will be an honor.”
His favorite childhood gift was a Nintendo 64
Ahead of 2017’s CMA Country Christmas special, Smyers and Mooney revealed their favorite childhood Christmas gifts to get into the holiday spirit, with both band members coincidentally choosing the same item.
“Getting a Nintendo 64 was my best gift,” Mooney told Taste of Country. “My parents told me it was sold out, and I think his (Smyers’) parents did the same thing … and then low and behold they’re like, ‘There’s one more gift … and there it was.’”
He and Mooney wrote all the songs on their freshman album
After their initial meeting, Smyers and Mooney quickly began writing at a rapid pace, eventually co-writing all of the songs on their debut album, 2014’s Where It All Began.
“It was like, ‘This is how it’s supposed to be, and this is meant to be,’” Smyers told The Boot of collaborating with Mooney.
“It was cool to finally have that moment where, when we met and started writing, it was finally the country music we had tried to be writing separately,” Mooney added. “It was the magic in the room.”
His favorite artists growing up where Rascal Flatts, Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw
With Dan + Shay, Smyers has since been able to tour with some of those very artists, including Rascal Flatts this summer.
Earlier this year, Smyers shared at a No. 1 party that he and Mooney were “stoked” to hit the road with the trio.
“I remember every summer in Pittsburgh where I grew up, saving up money and going see those guys play every summer,” Smyers recalled. “Getting a lawn seat, and just hanging out watching it. But to be able to watch and learn from them every single night’s going to be awesome, because we are super fans and we know all the words, and we’ll be rocking out at the soundboard or somewhere in seats.”
Photo Credit: Getty / Jason Kempin
