When Elizabeth Nichols goes out on tour, she brings some star power with her in more ways than one.
The country singer and songwriter recently sat down with us on Whiskey Riff Raff, and she’s one of the many young artists who have rose to fame in the social media age of music discovery. She initially went viral thanks to her clever country song “I Got A New One,” and she’s rode that wave all the way to her first ever headlining tour.
Much of our conversation with Elizabeth Nichols revolved around her love for country music, and more specifically, Toby Keith. She’s doing what she can to bring funny, storytelling songs back to the genre, and Nichols credits her songwriting abilities with studying accounting and law in college.
Interestingly enough, she dropped out of law school when her music career started taking off. Fortunately, she was already in Nashville when she made that decision (she was studying at Belmont’s law school), and she quickly made a lot of connections – and friendships – in Music City:
“I’ve made the best friends in town. Nashville has been so good to me. I have found the best community. The best of friends. I’m really close with the Castellow girls. Those are like my sisters… you find your people.”
One of the more important run ins that Nichols had was with guitarist Grayson Russell. I only say “more important” there because their friendship transformed into a working relationship when Elizabeth was need of a guitarist for her band. And if the name Grayson Russell sounds familiar, you probably recognize him as another name: Texas Ranger. He played one of the sons of Ricky Bobby (and the brother to Walker) in the 2006 comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
He’s got some other acting credits too, but now, he’s a touring musician alongside Elizabeth Nichols, and she loves having him as a part of her team:
“Grayson is wonderful. (He was in Talladega Nights) and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He was Fregley, which is crazy. Now he’s my guitarist. We met at the bar. We met at Losers. We followed each other on Instagram (already), and then we met officially. And we ended up needing a guitarist.
I get really bad FOMO when I leave town, and this was my first tour, so I was like, ‘What if I just bring my friends? I’ll just hire my friends, and then they can’t hang out without me.’ Grayson is awesome, he’s so fun. And the crowd’s eat it up. They eat it up, because its so cool. Country music and ‘Talladega Nights?’ It’s awesome… he’s a rockstar.”
Not surprising to hear that the country music crowd loves seeing a star from Talladega Nights shred on stage.
You can hear about all of that and more (like Dog The Bounty Hunter coming to Elizabeth’s house for Easter) by checking out the interview on YouTube or making sure to download the podcast on Apple Podcasts by searching “Whiskey Riff Raff” or by clicking here.
We’re also available on Spotify and wherever else you can listen to podcasts.
Cheers, y’all.
