Dustin Lynch Inspired by Time on Brad Paisley’s Weekend Warrior Tour

Dustin Lynch has spent the last several months out on the road on Brad Paisley’s Weekend Warrior Tour. But for Lynch, the lessons he learned from Paisley will likely stay with him for the rest of his career.

“He’s still nerding out over guitars and amps and, how can we make this part better?” Lynch shared with PopCulture.com at a recent media event. “So, he’s still trying to put on – each night, he’s tweaking the set list and adding this and adding that. It’s fun to see a guy still have fun with it and be challenged by what we do and not just go through the motions. That’s what’s exciting … 20 years later you can still have as much fun as I’m having right now. That’s so inspiring to me.”

Lynch has recently been opening up to his fans on social media, sharing his highs and lows, including his recent disappointment over his lack of ACM Awards nominations, in spite of having one of the biggest years of any artist in country music, including a four-week No. 1 hit with “Small Town Boy.”

“There’s going to be more of those moments where it’s probably stuff that I guess, at least myself so far, would never think to publicize, but it’s real emotion,” Lynch explained. “Those awards are something that we work so hard at. Not only myself, but every artist. I’m just the first guy to put it out there. I promise you, I wasn’t the only one watching that broadcast that felt like crap after it happened. And there’s nothing we can do about it, we did everything we could, and I’m going to continue to try to get nominated and stuff, but the feeling is, this sucks. It does suck.”

The “I’d Be Jealous Too” singer’s emotional video was met with plenty of praise from others who have been in a similar position.

“My phone blew up,” recalled Lynch. “It was crazy. I was getting texts from all sorts of artists like, man, good on you for actually putting the real stuff out there. I feel the same way, and it’s great you’re putting it out there for the world to see. So that was very encouraging.”

For Lynch, maintaining honesty and openness with his fans is also beneficial for his own mental health.

“I think for me, it’s going to be kind of like self therapy, because we go back and watch these,” he shared. “And there’s probably going to be a pattern of things that I catch onto like, ‘Man, I do a lot of this.’ Or, ‘I’m complaining a lot about that.’ So I’m going to get to address whatever it is, whether it’s a good or a bad thing and do less or do more of that kind of thing. I’m looking forward to it. Really just putting it out there, then I can go back and take a bird’s eye view of what my life actually is as it’s flying past me.”

A list of all of Lynch’s upcoming shows can be found on his website.

Photo Credit: Instagram/BradPaisley