Country Music’s Quintessential Country Boy Talks Hard Work, Success, and God
Photo by Jacob Powers.
Dylan Marlowe is the quintessential country boy – he loves to hunt and fish, he drives a lifted Ford with tinted windows and big mud tires, and he lives for God above all else. As a matter of fact, if you look up the term “good ole boy” in the dictionary, you’ll find a picture of him.
The rising country music star, who hails from Statesboro, Georgia, has had a crazy past few years. He first started gaining traction during the pandemic, shortly after he moved to Nashville and released his country version of Olivia Rodrigo’s hit “Driver’s License” on TikTok. Since then, his rewrite has been streamed millions of times and has even led fans to argue that it’s “better than the original.”
Two years later, while releasing some of his own singles, Dylan earned his first number one as a songwriter of Jon Pardi’s “Last Night Lonely.” And just this year alone, he signed a record deal with Sony Music, was named by Spotify as one of Hot Country’s ten Artists to Watch in 2023, and released his first EP, “Dirt Road When I Die.” He also made his Grand Ole Opry Debut, married his longtime girlfriend, Natalie Barber, and is opening for HARDY on the fall leg of “the mockingbird & THE CROW” tour alongside Lainey Wilson.
To close out what has easily been his most successful year yet, he’ll be opening for Morgan Wallen in November at Truist Park (a.k.a. the home of the Atlanta Braves) – something he calls “a dream come true.”
Marlowe has experienced more success during these past few years than some artists can only hope to achieve in their entire careers, and he’s only twenty-six-years-old (or, if you ask Jon Pardi, fifteen).
Throughout it all, he’s also managed to earn a reputation among his fans as someone who just can’t write a bad song. When I ask him to share how he’s able to pull this off, Dylan laughs and tells me, “I think I just try to write what feels authentic to me and what feels real. For instance, I’m actually back home in Georgia right now. I haven’t been home in a while, and I feel like I needed to come back and just kind of live how I live back home and do the things that people back here do.”
Doing so, he says, puts him back in the mindset of the people that he ultimately writes his songs for. “I think that helps every now and then because sometimes you get caught up in Nashville writing songs for industry people and for people in Nashville, but really you’re writing songs for people that are doing the kinda normal life every day.”
“Grew Up Country,” one of the eight songs off of Marlowe’s new EP, is what he refers to as the “autobiography of his life.” The song cleverly lays out what growing up in Georgia was like for him and his brothers.
“Money can't buy growin’ up without money/Runnin’ round the yard with your barefeet muddy/Mama made you tuck your shirt for church on Sunday/And you thinkin’ that/You got it bad,” Dylan sings.
“Growing up in Georgia,” he shares, “was everything I feel like I needed to grow up with. You could drive ten miles to the left and you could go hunt. You could drive ten miles to the right and go into town and get whatever you needed. My school was probably ten minutes from where I hunted anyway, so I was able to go hunting every morning before I went to class. I’m very lucky and had both of my parents in the same house growing up, and a lot of people don’t, so I definitely don’t take that for granted. That was a huge part of me growing up, and all the family time – a lot of stuff like that.”
The “Dirt Road When I Die” EP cover. Each photo represents one of the tracks on the EP (i.e. the first photo represents “Record High,” and so on).
Like most country boys, Marlowe knows a thing or two about hard work. Prior to his move to Nashville, he worked for his dad’s construction company in Georgia, laying various kinds of lines for new homes. “It was a lot of hard work, so it definitely taught me what it was like to bust your tail and sweat – what a lot of people have to go through to make a living. Sometimes I feel bad when I’m in Nashville just writing a song in the AC or, you know, doing things like this because this is my work and his work is a lot harder than my work, so sometimes I feel a little guilty,” he laughs.
One of the best things about Marlowe, aside from his obvious singing and songwriting talents, is his faith and his ability to easily recognize what matters most in life.
“I wouldn’t have any of this if it wasn’t for God,” Dylan admits. “Recently, I’ve been taking my Bible out on the road and I read it when I can. My faith honestly just is like something that grounds me, and if I didn’t have that, I don’t really know because, at the end of the day, music’s going to be gone one day,” he reflects. “It’s kind of hard to imagine,” he says, laughing, “but at some point in my life, music isn’t going to matter at all. And where I’m going after I die is going to be the only thing that matters, so my faith is definitely something that I rely on and lean on a lot.”
Right on brand, Marlowe’s Instagram bio features a Bible verse: Proverbs 16:3 (“Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.”). “I’m a huge believer in giving Him what you want,” Dylan shares. “Sometimes it happens the way you don’t want it to happen and sometimes it happens the way you do. But everything always turns out how it’s supposed to.”
Dylan and HARDY perform together on HARDY’s “the mockingbird & THE CROW” tour.
As for what’s next for the budding country star, Dylan shares that one of his biggest goals is to sell out a headlining tour. Fans won’t have to wait long to belt out their favorite songs, however, because the tour is currently in the planning stages.
“It’s funny because we’ve been on a bunch of opening tours in a row – we were out with Dylan Scott and then Cole Swindell, and now HARDY. We’ve done a few headlining shows sprinkled in this past year and every time we do ‘em it’s just been insane, so I can’t wait to have my own tour of fifteen shows in a row that are my crowds, and I’m excited for that,” Dylan says. “But before that, we’ll have two duets coming out – one with Avery Anna and one with Dylan Scott, so I’m definitely looking forward to both of those.”
From his impressive work ethic and humble demeanor to his love of God, family, and country, Dylan Marlowe represents all that country music is and should be. If his success to date is an indicator of what’s to come, then we can only anticipate a future filled with even greater achievements and an enduring legacy in the world of country music.
