Dustin Lynch Wrote ‘Country Star’ With Florida Georgia Line’s Brian Kelley

When Dustin Lynch wrote and collected songs for his latest Tullahoma album, he went to some of the best of the best songwriters, including Rhett Akins, Ashley Gorley, Old Dominion‘s Matthew Ramsey, and Florida Georgia Line‘s Brian Kelley. Lynch and Kelley, along with Jordan Schmidt and Corey Crowder, co-wrote “Country Star,” which Lynch already admitted is the favorite track of his girlfriend, Kelli Seymour.

“A lifelong dream of mine was to own property, have a farm. I was able to do that at the end of last year,” Lynch told Billboard. “I had a co-write with BK from FGL … gosh, maybe a week or two after I got the farm, and I was out at the farm looking up the stars ’cause you don’t get to see many stars in Nashville. I was thinking how cool that was, and he brings in the title ‘Country Star.’

“It was just those two worlds colliding where it’s like, ‘Man, I just got this piece of property,” he continued. “What if we write it [about] me taking my girl out to the farm for the first time and just having a night out there together, what would we do in that amazing fantasy scenario?’ And that’s how we got there.”

One of Lynch’s other favorite tracks on Tullahoma is “Thinking ’bout You,” mostly because he is joined on the song by recent Dancing With the Stars finalist Lauren Alaina, someone he has wanted to work with since they toured together in 2018 with Cole Swindell.

“It was there that I realized, ‘Wow, our voices really work well together. There’s a chemistry onstage,’” Lynrch recalled. “I had a lot of fun singing into her eyes every night. I like to think she did too. There’s that chemistry on stage and I set out to do a legit duet at that moment. I wanted that moment in my career. She’s one of the best singers we have, and she was at the top of my list to do it with. She took that song to a whole new level and I can’t wait to perform it with her live.”

Lynch will launch his headlining Stay Country Tour on Jan. 30, where he vows to give fans something they have never seen, at least not from him, until now.

“I think I’ve found my lane in country music right now and what that is,” Lynch said. “It’s fun, it’s young love and doing life outside of work. I think the direction has been found. Maybe we just got smarter and paid attention. I feel like we have a direction of what we want to do, and I feel like it’s kind of its own in a way. So, I want to continue to try and ride that horse, see how far we get on it.”

Find dates by visiting Lynch’s website.

Photo Credit: Getty / Erika Goldring