Colin Stough quickly rose to fame by appearing on Season 21 of American Idol in 2023. After coming in third on the TV show, Stough moved to Nashville to pursue a music career.

“When I first came to town, I was hanging out with a lot of artists,” Stough recalls to Everything Nash. “And a lot of those artists, they were in positions that I would honestly kill to be in. And they acted like it was annoying to them, and like a bother to them, and so I stopped hanging out with them. I do love when people come up to me, whether it’s, ‘Hey man, I love your music,’ or ‘Hey man, you’ve changed my life.’ And the DMs and the messages, all that stuff that I get. I love all that simply because of the fact that what we do for a living, we wouldn’t have a job if it wasn’t for the fans. That’s just point blank.

“And I don’t know why some artists don’t realize that,” he adds. “But I’m not really a big fan of whenever somebody wants to come take a picture or get an autograph, or just even have a conversation, it aggravates them a little bit. I’ve never understood that.”

Stough just released “White Trash,” a song inspired by a term his biological dad used to call him and his mother.

“I guess a lot of people would’ve had their feelings hurt about it. But it didn’t really hurt my feelings. He looked at us one way, because we were the double-wide fairytale,” Stough says with a laugh. “He was kind of using it as a hurtful thing, but I took it as a compliment.”

Stough is focusing full-time on his music, writing, recording and performing as much as possible. The former HVAC worker is determined to do all he can to make his country music career dreams come true.

“We do try to work hard,” Stough acknowledges. “It’s just kind of who I am. Where I come from, you really gotta work for everything you’ve got. I came up here, and the first week, it was like, you write from 11:00 to 3:00 or 4:00, and you’re done for the day. And I was like, ‘Man, that’s really easy. That’s, that’s way too easy.’ That’s when I started getting my pen and paper out, and I’ll spend my whole entire day just finding out how I can be a better musician. I’ve almost got a schedule planned out, and I do it every day.

“Some of it’s playing guitar, some of it’s starting new music,” he continues. “Some of it’s calling my producer and talking about what’s gonna go on next. And what’s crazy is, I’m not really a big planner, but that’s just kind of how I try to fill my day, because I would drive myself crazy if all I had to do was work from 11 to 4:00 every day.”

Stough plans on releasing more music throughout the remainder of 2025. Find “White Trash” and all of Stough’s music and upcoming shows at OfficialColinStough.com.

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