Luke Bryan on Joe Rogan: Coming to Terms With His Status in Country Music and Not Wanting to Release His New Album

Luke Bryan clarifies that he didn't slip on a phone onstage - Los Angeles Times

Luke Bryan released his latest album, Mind of a Country Boy in September. The album peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and has garnered millions of streams since its release. Fans are loving the album but Bryan almost didn’t release it.

Bryan appeared on the most recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. During his conversation with Rogan, he talked about his Las Vegas residency, Mind of a Country Boy, his thoughts on where he is in his career, and more. At one point, he admitted that he didn’t want to release his most recent album.

Luke Bryan on Why He Didn’t Want to Release Mind of a Country Boy

The pair were discussing the time that Luke Bryan said some less-than-kind things about Outlaw Country in an interview and how it impacted his career during a larger discussion about clickbait headlines. “I think it’s a thing where they think that Hollywood has invaded country music which is always a big threat because there’s so much money in country music. They think these Hollywood executives that don’t understand real country are going to come in and make something inauthentic. So, they hear you saying that…and take it as a part of all that, right?” Rogan said. That sparked the conversation around the release of Mind of a Country Boy.

“I worked on an album for three years called Mind of a Country Boy and I put it out like first of October. I didn’t want to put the damn album out because the reality is that I’m not the height,” Bryan said. “Every artist hits their peak and they know it. I was selling out football stadiums [on the] first day the first three or four years I did it,” he recalled. “I know that’s my peak probably. F**k, I know it is. I’m not even going to say probably. I’m a realist,” he added.

“We put the album out and I said, ‘You know what? No albums sell, nothing sells anymore.’ And I knew there was going to be a negative take on the album. I knew something negative would come by me putting the album out based on it may not sell,” Bryan explained. “It did what I thought it would do. As me being the artist where I’m at in my life,” he added.