Best known for being the “The United States Marine” on American Idol, Josh Gracin placed fourth on the second season of American Idol. Fast forward 15 years later, Josh had some success with his first two albums and this year, he released an EP, “Nothin’ Like Us, Part 1” in February 2017. Josh tells me, “We were working in Nashville for quite a bit of time trying to form a record label and to form a team. We have been trying to get to work on getting new music out because as you know, that’s essential to the entire process. So we started going through my songs that I had written. Once we kind of nailed that down to about six or seven songs, we decided to get some outside songs, just to see if the writing was on par and up to speed or we could beat it. We started searching for songs, and we found ‘Nothin’ Like Us,’ and it was kind of a no brainer at that point to make sure that made the record. When we released the record in February of last year, ‘Nothin’ Like Us,’ it kinda skyrocketed and took off on its own. I think it’s over 15 million streams on Spotify alone right now. It’s amazing how everything kinda started to move and take off, and it just feels good getting back in the game after taking a little time off.”

Now since “Nothin’ Like Us” has a Part 1, I asked Josh if there was going to be a Part 2 and he said, “Yes, we we’re going to do the part two to kind of finish off the album, and I still don’t know which way we’re going to go with that, because we’re getting a lot of good music in and I’m writing a lot of music. So it’ll be interesting to see which way we take this, but we are in the studio right now recording, and there’s another music meeting, so we’re constantly moving and working. Since taking off several years, I asked Josh if he was worried fans would forget about him and he replied, “Yeah, you always worry about that, especially since I had most success before the social media craze that’s going on right now. But I think just getting out there and getting your music, and touring, and keeping up on my social media and things like that. Fans that were there before, are going to be there again. Fans that don’t even know they’re going to be fans yet, getting those people involved in my career and in my music. It’s just all about continuing to grind. I think that’s the best way to do it, to continue to grind and give fans content, and update social media as much as possible. I mean it’s a different monster. Back in the day, if you didn’t have something on the radio for a while or what not, you kind of went away. Social media has kind of changed that whole entire game. You’ve got artists starting out shows before they even sign a record deal or before they even have a single out or anything else like that. They’re just doing covers of other people’s music. It’s insane what social media has done to the landscape of music. There is no rhyme or reason to who is a thing and who isn’t. It’s a very wide open world when it comes to music. And it’s alot more personality driven too. The requirements for becoming someone in the music business has changed to where the number one slot of what you need, has been taken over by personality. As a singer and somebody who loves what I do, you kind of scratch your head and wonder why that is. But it is what it is, and instead of trying to figure out why, you kind of waste time.  It’s just making sure that you’re getting on par with your music, social media, and things that are going on in your world, and trying to do the best you can.”

I asked Josh what inspires him to write and he said, “Everything! You know, country music is the number one genre for stories in my book. Every time you hear a country song, it’s literally telling a story of whatever the songwriters were going through. And I think using that approach to country music is essential, it’s the key. So basically, everything that goes on in my life, things that my family have gone through or friends have gone through or I’ve gone through personally, it’s fair game as far as writing good music. The more experiences you have, the more things that I do, the more people I’m around, things like that, the writing just expands. It’s pretty much everything and anything that’s around me.”

Born and raised in Michigan, right outside of Detroit, Josh was exposed to a lot of different music. Early on he says, “Otis Redding, Sam Cooke and Al Green, then it went to kind of like your 80’s hair band power ballad stuff. Then I got into country music like Garth Brooks, Tracy Lawrence, Joe Diffie, Travis Tritt, and guys like that. I just love all genres of music. I find something I can love in every genre, so my playlist is definitely all over the place. That’s pretty much how my musical influences are.”

Josh went to Kuwait for the 4th of July to perform for the troops, and I asked what that meant to him and he said, “It was very important. It’s important to do that, especially for me, since I served four years in the Marine Corps, to be able to have that opportunity to go over there and play for the troops and to give them a show and give them a little piece of home while they’re volunteering their time, their lives and in some circumstances to defend what we have here at home. So it’s always a blessing to be able to go over there and play for them.”

Josh will be coming to Florida to perform at the “Chillin’ on the Lucie” in Port St. Lucie in October. I asked Josh what he was he was looking forward to most and he said, “Chillin, there couldn’t be a better name for the festival. I’m looking forward to it. Anytime you can come to Florida, whether you’re playing or not, and just relax and have a good time, that’s what we plan on doing for sure. So I’m definitely looking forward to the show, it’s going to be fun and it’s going to be relaxing!” He also says, “My show is very high energy, all the guys on stage, we all kind of run around, interact with each other, interact with the crowd, just have a good time overall. We play most of our singles, and we play a lot of new stuff and a lot of stuff that was popular off the albums that might not necessarily have been singles. We’ll throw a couple covers in there from different areas of music. I love to keep it interesting, so a lot of people don’t expect me to do some of the covers I do, but it just keeps it fun and it’s a good show. It’s a good time. It’s my job to make sure anybody that’s watching the show, takes whatever is going on in the real world, in their life, outside of the concert area, and take that away from that. So we definitely try our best to do that!” I asked Josh what does he consider to be his greatest musical accomplishment and he replied, “I would say just everything that happened when I first came out. I believe I was like the most selling new male artist, I believe in 10 or 11 years, and the team that we had around me was extremely good at what they do, and just being able to kind of break those milestones pretty early on, in my career. I mean, I was 22 years old when I first came to town, and mostly everybody that gets their shot is like mid-30’s, you know? But I feel like there’s many, many more milestones that I have yet to check off. It’s what keeps me motivated to keep moving and to keep pushing and grinding, and hopefully start achieving some of those things.”

Don’t miss Josh’s performances at the “Chillin’ on the Lucie” on Oct 4th. The festival runs from Oct 3rd thru Oct 7th.