Wolfe said he was awestruck when his country music break-up song “Better Without You” recently hit the top of the iTunes charts in the country genre.
“It was amazing when it hit No1,” said Wolfe, 27.
“I watched it climb the charts, and to see my name up there with every other major artist is something I’ll never forget,” he said. “I played it out in downtown Nashville and everyone knew the words and sang it back to me; I had some pretty big artists congratulate me. The whole experience was surreal. I always imagined something like that happening and it finally did.”
Wolfe said the song originally was written for Blake Shelton.
“My first year in town, I was invited to a party for Cole Swindell at Warner Music Nashville,” he said. “Word got around that Blake might be looking for a breakup song after his split with Miranda Lambert. So I quickly came up with the best title I could think of, “Better Without You,” based on a previous life experience, and pitched it to Blake.”
“After I pitched it to Blake but I wasn’t pleased with the original demo and knew if I was going to release it myself, I would have to have the song upgraded, just like Blake would,” Wolfe said. “I went back to the studio and added all kinds of percussion elements, electric guitar and changed the compression and effects on my voice.”
“I was very happy with the final result, and I knew right then and there it was a good song; I got great feedback from hit songwriters that heard it around town.”
Wolfe knew he might have a hit.
Better Without You has sold more than 500 downloads in one day, making it the number one country song in three countries on iTunes, and currently has 7,000,000 impressions on Twitter with more than 5,000 shares, said Wolfe.
We caught Billboard’s attention, and they added my name to the site, which brought a tear to my eye.
Last year was a challenging one for Wolfe, as it was for many performing artists. He couldn’t tour and was dropped from his distribution label, UMG’s Empire, mostly known for hip-hop and rap artists. He then created his own label, Wolfe Den Records, and began to release new music. It all turned out to be a blessing in disguise, he said as the song skyrocketed to №1.
Originally published by John Torsiello Register Citizen
