TikTok Fame, American Idol & His Genre-Bending Debut Album w/ Bryant Thomas

About this episode

Episode 253 of The Hitstreak, a podcast where we talk about anything and everything! This week we are joined by Southern crossover artist and American Idol Top 30 Bryant Thomas! Let us know in the comments what YOU want to hear about next! Episode in a Glance: In this episode of The Hitstreak, I sit down with Bryant Thomas, a Southern crossover artist and American Idol Top 30 who is in Nashville recording his debut album. Bryant was a fire protection inspector in Alabama with no friends his own age and no drive, posting Christmas music in June and playing seven hour TikTok Lives for four viewers, when Alyona Palhof, the woman who would become his wife, found him and believed in him more than anyone ever had. We get into the leap of faith that ended his party band days, how Big Vinnie sent his picture straight to Luke Bryan, the audition where producers had to ask him to act excited, and the moment he got down on one knee on the American Idol stage and forgot to actually ask the question. Plus the album with no genre, nine instruments and a trombone on stage, the Blues Tavern jam family that shaped his sound, his sister beating a thirty percent survival rate as a little girl, and the prayer that took him from 20,000 to 275,000 monthly listeners in one month. Key Points: - TikTok Live takes the gatekeeping out of the industry. It connects you straight to the people. - Somebody believing in you can be the reason you start believing in yourself. - The dice do not work if you do not roll them. - Golden ticket or not, you can walk out of the room a winner. - Nobody can make your art better than you. - Serve the song. The genre is not the point. - You are a songwriter when you are writing songs, so always be writing. - There is no way to succeed following in someone else's footsteps. You will always be behind them. - Everything you learn in life applies to music, and everything you learn in music applies to life. - God does not give you things you are not ready for. Chapters: 00:00 Cold open 01:04 Welcome and introducing Bryant Thomas 02:18 How he met his wife on TikTok 03:17 Fire protection inspector to TikTok Live 05:34 Long distance and the leap of faith 08:51 Finding Big Vinnie 11:20 The Luke Bryan story 12:03 The text that changed everything 13:11 He made you pray again 15:17 The American Idol experience 16:38 They look like stars, am I made for this 18:07 Hawaii and the airplane story 21:48 The surprise proposal setup 23:09 Grand gestures and operation operation 26:06 Down on one knee 28:10 Nick's own surprise proposal 30:03 The album with no genre 31:19 Prince, the Eagles and jazz roots 34:11 Why the show is called the Hitstreak 34:44 Songwriting, ADHD and chasing the light 38:08 Michael Jackson and the Thriller video 42:36 How to Write One Song 44:26 Becoming his own thing, the trombone 46:05 The Blues Tavern and the Jam Family 47:21 Rock Bottom, the debut album 48:32 Authenticity is the name of the game 54:16 The faith story 57:00 His sister's fight 58:44 The prayer that went viral 1:01:39 Family, divorce and seeing God in people 1:03:13 Gratitude and Dave Grohl 1:05:33 Where to find Bryant 1:06:59 Sign off About our guest: Bryant Thomas is a Southern crossover artist and American Idol Top 30 from the Gulf Coast, raised on Mobile Bay. Classically trained in music from middle school through college and in jazz band from sixth grade on, he plays nine instruments, including the trombone he brings on stage to set his shows apart. He spent his Monday nights jamming with the old heads of the Blues Tavern, a historic stop on the Gulf Coast blues circuit, and it taught him the thing his music still runs on: it does not have to be perfect, it has to be real. After high school he worked as a fire protection inspector in Alabama, and a TikTok account he started almost as a joke turned into the whole road: a viral Taylor Swift cover led American Idol to reach out, the auditions led to the Top 30, and at his audition he got down on one knee and proposed to Alyona Palhof, the woman who found him on TikTok when he was, in his words, nobody. Now based in Florida and recording his debut album Rock Bottom in Nashville, he has Shoulda Known, Drinking Again and Drunken Denial out now, with the big ballads still to come. Follow and contact: Instagram: @Bryant.Thomas.Band Website: BryantThomasMusic.com Subscribe to Nick's top-rated podcast The Hitstreak on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on Spotify: https://spotify.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/NickHiter Follow and Rate us on iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/NickHiter