Brothers Osborne Recall Early Years With Kacey Musgraves, Carly Pearce and More

Brothers Osborne was in good company when they were first trying to find success in country music. The duo, made up of siblings TJ and John Osborne, lived right off of Music Row, where they honed their songwriting craft alongside some of their current fellow stars.

“Charlie Worsham lived in one of the houses,” TJ tells CMT. “Kacey Musgraves would come over a lot. Carly Pearce was hanging out a lot then.

“Kree Harrison, Lucie Silvas, a lot of those people who went on to be in big bands — all of Hunter Hayes‘ band was hanging out then,” he continues. “The list is hard for me to even remember. It’s a lot of talented people who went on to have hits. It was definitely an inspiring moment in our lives. We didn’t even realize it at the time, but put your nose to the grindstone and work on it.”

TJ, who likened that time to “music campus” or “fraternity house,” made a lot of memories during that time – but not a lot of money.

“We didn’t really have anything going on,” TJ recalls. “We would go make enough money to scrape by and still have a ton of overdraft slips coming in but just enough money to get by, and we would walk over to each other’s houses daily and jam. It would be easily three or four times a week, we’d be playing music, and it was a really great creative boot camp in a way. And we just hung out. I think a lot of those people that circle went on to have a lot of success in music … It’s an interesting time to think about.”

Things have certainly changed for Brothers Osborne. The reigining two-time ACM Vocal Duo of the Year just released their sophomore Port Saint Joe album, where they channeled their childhood struggles into their latest project.

“There were times when TJ and I would come home from school and all of our electricity would be off because our folks had a hard time paying the electric bill,” John recalls to Billboard. “And instead of crying about it, our dad would turn it into a really fun game of hide-and-go-seek in the dark.”

“It was almost like, when the power went out, we looked forward to it,” adds TJ. “We had no idea that we were poor. We just thought that was just life — I guess for [some] people, it is.”

Port Saint Joe includes their current Top 30 single, “Shoot Me Straight.” Download the project on iTunes.

Photo Credit: Instagram/brothersosborne