All Kolby Cooper has ever wanted to do is make his fans feel something when it comes to his music. And when that happens, Cooper says he simply can’t get enough of that inexplainable high that comes from it.
“I live for that s—,” says Cooper, 25, in a recent interview with PEOPLE. “I live for the people that come up to me and tell me that this song got them through this divorce or that song got them through losing a parent. It’s really cool to be able to have music connect with people.”
It’s a connection that Cooper has enjoyed for a good number of years now, as the powerhouse vocalist was just a teen when he tore onto the country music scene back in 2022 with the release of his critically acclaimed label-debut album Boy from Anderson County to the Moon.
But with the release of his brand-new album Love You, Goodnight, Cooper may just be on the cusp of an adoration from his fans that he has never felt before, because perhaps he has never been more truthful than on the 14 gut-busters that make up every ounce of his new project.
Take the title track for instance.
“That all was just real s—,” says Cooper, who first began writing songs at the age of 11 and ended up writing “Love You, Goodnight” with Andrew Baylis. “It’s the push and the pull of the whole deal, trying to find out who’s fake and what’s real. In this industry, you meet people that are just not your kind of person, or you can tell they’re not your vibe. And it’s like, ‘F— man, this is just stressful. Am I chasing the right path?'”
Certainly, the truths of “Love You, Goodnight” are plenty, especially as Cooper admits that he had found himself spending more and more time on the road as his career continued to erupt, and less time at home with wife Jillian and their three children Josie, 6½, Charlee, 4½, and Karter, 2.
“I was spending more time away from my babies and my wife, and it basically had me constantly questioning, ‘Is this right?'” recalls Cooper, who has opened for the likes of Jelly Roll and Koe Wetzel and is currently on his own Love You, Goodnight headlining tour.
“My wife is always the one that has pushed me. She’s the reason that I’m even doing this. My wife’s been my best friend since we were in fourth grade — she’s the person that is easiest for me to talk to and the person that I want to be with all the time.”
It’s this realization that the Texas native landed on in the bridge of “Love You, Goodnight.” “It’s my favorite part because up until the bridge, it’s softer and it’s in a lower register and I’m singing in a low voice,” Cooper explains of the song that he says is “one of the songs in my life that means the most to me.” “But then that bridge kicks in and punches you in the face.”
And it’s that musical punch that Cooper’s fans can’t seem to get enough of and an ever-present punch to the gut that comes again and again over the course of his new record, but especially on stand-out songs such as “Getaway.”
“It’s got a 12-string on the intro and it’s just about that fast, hard, crazy love story when you first get the butterflies and all the bulls— and how you would do anything for somebody when you first meet them,” says Cooper of the song he completed last summer alongside fellow songwriters Jaxson Free, Joybeth Taylor and Jacob Durrett. “It’s just that crazy feeling that I wanted to encapsulate in a song basically saying, ‘Wow, I would kill somebody for you.'”
Then, there is the driving “Hate You Too,” where Cooper looks to let out his inner rock god via a good lyrical lashing. “We were trying to write a song that could be for somebody that you hate, but also could be for the person you love,” remembers Cooper, who also joins vocal forces with The Voice winner Danielle Bradbery on the captivating “One Last.” “Whenever we’re in the writing room, I always try to write in almost like a conversation. That whole thought of, ‘I hate you, I love you, never say goodbye.’ People have felt that before.”
People have also felt what Cooper continues to feel in his personal life too. “I’m tough, but I’m a sad guy every day when I wake up and see how big they’re getting,” he says of his rapidly growing children. “If I’m gone for two weeks, they could all be completely different. All I think about when I’m on the road is my family.”
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