From Taylor Swift to Tanya Tucker, country music has a rich history of child stars. Maddox Batson, at just 16, is the latest, drawing comparisons to young Justin Bieber with his songs about middle-school crushes and country living. He and Bieber also share the same vocal coach he tells Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now podcast.
“Mama Jan. She’s absolutely wonderful… She knows how to handle young male voices,” Batson says. “Through puberty and how your voice will change and stuff, she has that mastered down.”
Batson says he looks to Bieber and other pop artists who started young, like the Jonas Brothers, for inspiration, but he’s also aware of country stars who launched when they were just kids, like LeAnn Rimes. “You try to take the best parts of everything that happened to them and try to incorporate it into my career,” he says.
Batson is having his moment in country music. He recently dropped the new single “If I See Her Again,” opened a string of shows for Lainey Wilson, and is currently selling out concerts on his headlining solo tour. He landed a prime slot at CMA Fest this June too with a set on the River Stage.
“Longevity is a big thing for me. That’s the biggest goal for me as an artist: have the longest career I can, while staying the same person,” he says, citing George Strait. “I take a lot of inspo from him. He’s been in it 45 years; longer than my dad has been alive. He’s still putting out music. That’s what I want. I don’t want to be a drop in the pan.”
Fellow Nashvillian Nate Bargatze apparently has taken notice. Batson will costar with the comedian and make his feature film debut in The Breadwinner, a new comedy set for release May 29.
Watch Batson’s full interview on Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now below, and wherever you get your podcasts.
Download and subscribe to Rolling Stone’s weekly country-music podcast, Nashville Now, hosted by senior music editor Joseph Hudak, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts). New episodes drop every Wednesday and feature interviews with artists and personalities like Vince Gill, Lainey Wilson, Hardy, Charley Crockett, Kings of Leon, the Black Crowes, Carly Pearce, Brandon Lake, Breland, Bryan Andrews, Noeline Hofmann, Devon Gilfillian, Gavin Adcock, Amanda Shires, Shooter Jennings, Margo Price, Ink, Rival Sons’ Jay Buchanan, Halestorm, Dusty Slay, Lukas Nelson, Ashley Monroe, Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor, Clever, and authors Marissa R. Moss, Josh Crutchmer, Mark Gray, and Jonathan Bernstein.
