Eric Paslay

Eric Paslay built a platinum-certified career as a singer and songwriter whose work draws from the sharp hooks and everyday narratives typical of modern Nashville country. Mainstream recognition arrived for him in 2011 once Jake Owen took the co-written “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” to radio, after which Paslay launched his own recording career with a self-titled debut album in 2014 that featured the charting singles “Friday Night,” “Song About a Girl,” and “She Don’t Love You.” A Grammy nomination followed the next year for his featured turn, alongside Dierks Bentley, on Charles Kelley’s track “The Driver,” while 2017 brought the release of the EP The Work Tapes. His second studio album, Nice Guy, surfaced in 2020; two years afterward he supplied Keith Urban with the song “Wild Hearts” and simultaneously issued Even If It Breaks Your Barefoot Friday Night, a set of freshly tracked renditions of signature material from both his writing and performing catalog. Beyond his own releases, Paslay has delivered chart-topping compositions for Rascal Flatts, Love and Theft, and the Eli Young Band.

Born in Abilene, Texas, in 1983, Paslay spent his formative years in Temple, Texas, where his grandfather and great-uncles performed locally as Arnold Schiller & the Moonlight Serenaders. He picked up the guitar and started composing songs at fifteen, then moved to Nashville several years after high-school graduation to enroll at Middle Tennessee State University and focus on music-business studies. During his final year he secured an internship at Cal4 Entertainment that yielded a publishing agreement and, in 2011, a recording contract with EMI Records Nashville—the identical year his composition “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” topped the country charts for Jake Owen. Paslay’s own first single, “Never Really Wanted,” also surfaced in 2011; “If the Fish Don’t Bite” followed in 2012 and “Friday Night” in 2013. Produced by Marshall Altman, the self-titled debut album arrived in early 2014, climbed to number four on the Billboard country albums chart, and was propelled by “Friday Night,” which reached number six, plus “Song About a Girl” and “She Don’t Love You.” The stand-alone tracks “High Class” and “Angels in This Town” appeared in 2015 and 2016, respectively, preceding The Work Tapes EP the year after. After leaving EMI in 2018, Paslay released Nice Guy independently in 2020 and, in 2022, delivered the retrospective collection Even If It Breaks Your Barefoot Friday Night containing re-recorded versions of key songs from his catalog as both songwriter and artist.