Imagine calling your local radio station at the age of 14 to ask about a job opportunity, and thanks to your deep voice, you’re mistaken for an adult (with radio experience) and invited to stop by? That happened to Drew Ryder Smith, and he’s been non-stop ever since. His incredible songwriting career has led to his work being recorded all over the world – and by some of the biggest names in country music – and collaborations with the crème -de-la-crème in the business.
We recently caught up with Drew to talk about his musical journey, a little magic, and his latest single “Leave Somebody,” available today!
CN: For our readers who may not be familiar with you, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
DRS: I’ve been around a long time. I’ve just kind of been in the quiet, comfortable songwriter shadows. I’ve had all these other people record my songs, and now I just want to record them and sing them myself.
CN: Which artists have influenced you both personally and as an artist?
DRS: Oh gosh, there are a lot. Jackson Browne, Steve Earle, Foster & Lloyd, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, John Prine, all the way to Guns N’ Roses and Merle Haggard and Dolly Parton. It’s a pretty wide spectrum.
CN: As a songwriter, what is your writing process like? Where do you find inspiration for your songs?
DRS: I’m not the type that goes to the park and just gets inspired. For me, it’s usually things that catch me at the right moment. I could hear someone say something half a dozen times, but in the right moment, I’ll pick it up and go, “God, that needs to be written.”
I’ve learned that, for me, going out and trying to find inspiration doesn’t work. It comes to me when it comes to me, and I’m okay with that.
CN: Something our readers may not know about you is that a country legend recorded one of your songs — the one and only Merle Haggard. Can you tell us about that?
DRS: That was an absolute dream come true. Merle wrote so many of his own hits, and it wasn’t often that he looked for outside songs. So to get the call that Merle Haggard was recording one of my songs, first and foremost, I thought surely it had to be a joke.
But he was so gracious and kind, and he just did such an incredible job with it. I really couldn’t ask for a bigger cut than Merle Haggard.
CN: Your new single “Leave Somebody” is set for release on August 26. You wrote the track with Jason Jones and Jason Eustice based on shared personal experiences. Can you tell us about that and the experience of being ghosted?
DRS: I think anyone who has been in a relationship over the past 10 or 12 years has experienced it to some degree, and I’m sure that I’m also, to a degree, guilty of it myself.
But it was such a shock at the time because it wasn’t something I was used to. It has somehow become trendy — I’m not sure how — but it was such a hard thing to reconcile. That had never happened to me before, and it hasn’t happened since. But I’ve never been able to get my head around it. Years later, I still don’t know.
CN: How easily — or not — did the song “Leave Somebody” come to be? Was it a fast one-session write or did you have to meet multiple times to work it out?
DRS: It was super fast. We got it in just two or three hours. It kind of fell out of the sky.
CN: The lyrics are witty right from the start — “You pulled a Copperfield, straight up disappeared” — but it’s more than just clever writing. It’s also a bit of a nod to one of your hobbies. You are a bit of a magic fan, no?
DRS: I do love magic. I’ve loved magic since I was a kid, and anytime I see magic now, I immediately revert back to an eight-year-old.
CN: Best Copperfield trick: making the Statue of Liberty disappear or walking through The Great Wall of China?
DRS: That’s hard. I think both of those tricks were incredible. I know there are videos on YouTube showing how the Statue of Liberty trick was done, and I refuse to watch any of them because I choose to believe that it really happened, that it was very much real.
So the Statue of Liberty is my favorite.
CN: Okay, back to the single. What is the message of the song at its core?
DRS: I think the song is really about those moments of trying to figure out what happened and why. There’s zero closure when the door is just shut. Trying to find that closure is like trying to solve a murder mystery without any clues.
Then you start looking within, and at some point you go, “Well, I can’t think of any other reason, so it’s got to be me.” From there, you make up all sorts of terrible things about yourself. It’s just a really horrible way to leave somebody. And again, I think to an extent I’m probably guilty of it myself, and I’m not proud of that. That’s the song.
CN: Fans will be happy to know that this new single is an introduction to your new album, The Deep End, arriving October 28. Can you give us a little sneak peek as to what fans can expect?
DRS: There are a lot of little hidden gems between the songs and a lot of really personal things kind of hidden throughout the whole album that I’m really excited about. I love when artists leave little breadcrumbs, especially when those breadcrumbs are insights into their personal lives, and we did a lot of that on this record.
There are little pieces of my life woven into it, like my dad preaching and old voicemails I found from my grandfather, grandmother, and aunt. Some of those people aren’t here anymore, so having their voices tucked into the record makes it feel really personal to me.
Beyond that, I think musically there’s something on there for everybody. It goes from hopeful to really dark and hopeless. There are so many different elements throughout the record, from moving on and looking at the past to exploring your heritage and your legacy. There’s a lot of different subject matter.
CN: If you had the opportunity to collaborate with any one artist, who would it be?
DRS: Probably Mozart. My answer would probably be different at any given hour of any day, but off the top of my head, I’ve always wanted to hear what it would sound like if Mozart wrote country ballads.
I think if Mozart got into country ballads, man, we could really take over the world.
CN: If you could describe yourself in one word, what would it be and why?
DRS: Neurotic.
I overthink everything. I think too deeply about things that are way too shallow to get deep about, and I’ve been that way since I was a child. I think that’s probably what makes me an artist.
CN: What’s on the horizon for the fall of 2026?
DRS: Shows and merch, and I’m starting to write the next record.
That’s a new challenge because I always want to try to beat the last song that I wrote. But now that this record has come together and I’ve heard it in its entirety, I want to beat the whole record. So a lot of the fall is going to be writing and doing shows. Hopefully by the end of fall, we’ll be recording.
For more information on Drew Ryder Smith, visit his website www.drewrydersmith.com and follow him on Instagram and Facebook.