Exploring Nashville's Music Scene: Craig Campbell's Journey, Cancer Advocacy, and His Latest Song Inspiration

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Speaker 1: Taking a Walk Nashville.

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Speaker 2: Joining me today on Taking a Walk Nashville is country artist and songwriter Craig Campbell. Craig has had hits such as Out of My Head, Outskirts of Heaven, Keep Them Kisses Coming, and one of my favorites Tomorrow Tonight March is co Directal Cancer Awareness Month, and Craig is an advocate for this cancer, starting the Kenny Campbell Foundation to honor his father, who lost his battle with corectal cancer at age thirty six. Craig's latest single, Drink for That, is out now and he is here to talk about his latest endeavors.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Taking a Walk Nashville with your host's singer songwriter Sarah Harrelson.

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Speaker 2: Craig, thank you so much for being with me on Taking a Walk Nashville today. We have a lot to discuss, but I first want to start our conversation by talking about your nonprofit organization, the Kenny Campbell Foundation. Now, this foundation honors your father, who lost his battle with co directal cancer at age thirty six, and it raises money for research, hospitals and doctors that focus on finding a cure and preventative measures for corectal cancer now. For listeners who don't know, March is co directal Cancer Awareness Month, and it really means a lot to me to shine a light on this. I also lost my mother to colon cancer in twenty twenty two, and it was recently announced that co directal cancer is officially the leading cause of cancer related death among men and women under age fifty now, Craig, along with your foundation, you also host an annual celebrity corn hone Challenge in Nashville. You've raised over a million dollars through your foundation and this event, and you also hosted a benefit concert at the Riemann Auditorium last July, raising over ten thousand dollars. So there is no doubt your dad would be so proud of you and all that you have accomplished. What does it mean to you to shine a light on colorectal cancer awareness?

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Speaker 3: Well, you know, the one of the one of the biggest pushes for me to to do everything I can with and for coorctal cancer is you know, when I was eleven years old. That's that my dad died with color cancer at eleven years old. I thought he was an old man, you know, and the older. So when I became an adult and started thinking about having a family, I realized that my dad was very very young in fact, and I'm like, okay, well, what took my dad away from me? And the more the more information that I gathered on colorctal cancer, I realized that if my dad would have had the knowledge about corectal cancer that we have now or even then, there's a good chance that he would still be here. He could have he could have, you know, prevented it, because corectal cancer is the most preventable cancer that there is the main reason I got and I started doing work towards raising money for coorctal cancers because I didn't want my girls growing up without me. And I'm like, you know what, whatever whatever knowledge I have about coorctal cancer and whatever platform I have to help raise money to spread that word, that's what I'm going to do. And that's just that's just kind of how it all started, and that's the reason I keep doing what I'm doing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that, And I think that's a great point that there hasn't always been a lot of resources or funding for this cancer like other cancers. And you know, when my mom was diagnosed with the cancer. She got misdiagnosed with asthma. So the earlier people can get die agnost we could save a lot of lives. So I love what you're doing with your foundation. Do you have a date set yet for this year's Cornhold Challenge? Which benefits it?

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Speaker 3: My Cornhold Tournament is every see we do it during CMA Fest, but we do it the Tuesday before CMA Fest, So I'm not one hundred percent what's sure what the date is this year. I think it's June fourth, maybe June fifth, somewhere in that range, but it's the Tuesday before CMA Fest and that works out for us because we're able to I can call my a lot of my artist friends and say, hey, I'm having my corn Old tournament. Do you would you like to be Would you like to be a participant in my tournament? Help me raise money for Collectial Cancer? And you know CMA Fest, most of us are in town already, so it's easier for them to commit. So that's that's why we have it during CMA Fest.

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Speaker 2: And so if people are in town for CMA fes, can they purchase tickets to this event to support the cause.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, so you can buy a ticket to the event. This year, we're having it at sixth and Peabody. This is where our third year having it at sixth and Peabody. They're great partners, also known as Eyhall Brewery. So yeah, you can purchase tickets. I don't know if we have a ticket link yet or if those tickets are available yet, but the closer we get for sure, you can purchase purchase tickets through my website.

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Speaker 2: Perfect. Yeah, And that's a great location and the heart of downtown Nashville. For that. You also have a new single that just dropped on February twentieth called Drink For that. I love the production on this song. This is your latest solo single since Missing You. What's the inspiration behind this song?

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Speaker 3: So? I'm been fortunate to become friends with a guy named Anthony Smith, who is an amazing artist in his own right, but he's transitioned and he's just been writing songs, and he sent me this song years ago, and I've always just went back to it every time I'm thinking about recording music. I always the song just always comes back and it shows it. It pops its head up and it's like, hey, I'm a hit song, and and I said, finally, I just I couldn't. I couldn't resist it anymore. So I recorded it and it turned out so good that I thought this has to be this has to be released in some fashion and and uh so now's the time, and and I'm excited about it. As soon as I heard it, I knew.

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Speaker 2: It was just it was.

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Speaker 3: It was a great country song and I'm just excited for everybody to hear it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's definitely a fun song. Where did you record it?

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Speaker 3: So? I cut this song up in Berry Hill and just south of Nashville, little studio community at a place called Station West, and used some really great musicians and then my secret weapon, Bart Bush. You know, he he did all the mixing and engineering and vocal capturing and all that. So he did a great job mixing this song. And it's it's pretty fire.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so too. And listeners can stream drink for that on all listening platforms. You can also find a drink for that at your award winning coffee shop, restaurant, and music venue. It looks like you have the merch on now for Grindstone Cowboy. Yeah, yeah, I love it. It's in Eagleville, Tennessee, and you just opened a second location in Shelbyville, Tennessee, about an hour outside of Nashville. And this is great for people driving through these towns. What made you and your wife want to open these restaurants and put them in these specific towns.

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Speaker 3: Well, we live in Eagleville, so that was the main reason we decided to put one here in Eagleville. And when we opened it, we didn't realize that it would take off like it did. So we knew there was no competition like as far as coffee was concerned, and within a good twenty minutes of Eagleville, so we thought of the verys that our drive through would be fine. But as soon as we opened we did, we realized that Grindstone Cowboy was way more than that, and so it just took off nice.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I love that these communities have a music venue and restaurant now because you know, sometimes it's too much of a hike to drive into Nashville to go to a show, and you have live music at your restaurants.

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Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, we have a live music pretty much every Saturday, and then occasionally we'll have like a ticketed event somewhere like either on a Wednesday or Thursday night.

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Speaker 2: Very cool. Yeah, I hope everyone will check out Grindstone Cowboy. I know I'll be checking it out soon. Craig, you've been in Nashville since two thousand and two. Did you expect Nashville to become such a booming city over the last two decades?

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Speaker 3: You know, I honestly I thought it was a booming city when I got here, And honestly, I think when COVID, COVID kind of changed everything as far as like Lower Broadway and but Nashville has always been like a big city, but it's also been like a small town feel of a big city, especially when the music business is like music business, everybody knows everybody and and everybody's pulling through each other. And uh so, even though it's like a metropolitan city, it's still got a small town feel to it, like on the on the music business side of things. But like Lower Broadways, it's chaotic these days. I don't crown there very much, but it's definitely not like it was when I first got down.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's definitely nash Vegas down on Lower Broadway. But you know, I agree you know, if you're hanging out on Nashville, not specifically on Broadway, it still has that small town feel just running into people, you know, which which I love. It's definitely kept that charm about it. Yeah, so you've been doing some shows and touring this year. Where can we find you for upcoming shows this year?

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Speaker 3: You know, I keep most of my shows updated on my website, but we also if just people will follow me on social media, we always try to keep people updated on what's current and what's happening and shows coming up. So yeah, you can just follow me on social media and you'll see pretty much everything that's going on.

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Speaker 2: Great. Yeah, we'll definitely check you out there. And my last question for you, Craig, is something I always love to ask my guest. Since we are on taking a walk Nashville, do you have a favorite place you like to take a walk in Nashville.

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Speaker 3: Ah, never done. I've never taken a walk in Nashville ever, except, you know, walk in the streets of Lower Broadway, So those I mean, I guess if you consider that a walk. It's pretty cool to be able to walk from from Fifth Avenue down to Second Avenue and just check out all the bars and on both sides of the street, and then even you know, even in just a couple of blocks over you can walk and go see the Country Music Hall of Fame. So I mean that just the Lower Broadway area, the Sobro like, it's a good place to take a Nashville walk.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot in that short radius. And I'm sure you do a lot of walking in Eagleville. I think there's a lot of good hiking out there if people want to take a short drive outside of Nashville, there is for sure, absolutely well, Craig, thank you so much for being on Taking a Walk Nashville Today. Listeners can donate and check out your events with the Kenny Campbell Foundation, your upcoming tour dates, and your new single Drink for That on your website. Thank you again, Thank you.

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Speaker 3: I appreciate you.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Taking a Walk Nashville with Sarah Harrelson. Please check out our other shows produced by Buzznight Media Productions, Comedy Save Me and Music Save Me hosted by Lynn Hoffman, and Taking a Walk hosted by Yours Truly Buzznight. All shows are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and are of the iHeart podcast Network,