Life has long been a waiting game forJD Shelburne.
But then, he started looking at his life in a whole new way.
“I started thinking that maybe this was God telling me to take a break,” Shelburne tells PEOPLE in a new interview. “Maybe God was giving me the time to be with my wife during her pregnancy and hang out with my family and truly enjoy our new son. I really just had to step back and let Him take the reins.”
JD Shelburne.Amy Richmond
And so, he did. After playing shows 200 times a year for four hours a night, Shelburne rested his voice and rested his ears and let his brain breathe for a little while. He and his wife Amy Jo also bought a house andwelcomed their son Jax to the worldin September. And in true Shelburne fashion, he found a way to turn the negative into the positive via a series of Facebook Lives and livestreams where he could play his music and introduce his fanbase to his growing family. And now, the wait to release his first full-length debut albumStraight from Kentuckyis over.
The pandemic allowed Shelburne to take what was originally going to be an EP of seven songs and expand it into an album with 11 songs that give an all-encompassing look into the heart and soul of the kid that grew up on a tobacco farm loving country music. The unexpected time off also gave Shelburne the time to discover the endearing song “Hometown in My Headlights,” exclusively premiering on PEOPLE.
“I just loved it from the moment I heard it,” Shelburne says of the irresistible song. “It felt like summer. I started listening to it on my walks around the neighborhood. And the more I listened to it, the more I fell in love with it.”
It was just another crazy moment in the life of Shelburne and his quest to become the country music star he has always deserved to be.
“I’ve gotten so far,” he says. “I’m at this point where, it’s like, if I give up now, I will always regret it. I just feel like I’ve got the greatest fan base and at the end of the day, my fan base has really kept pushing me along all the way to now. They are what has kept me going all these years. It’s just every year, I’ve got a little bit farther.”
He grows quiet.
“There’s been so many times where I didn’t get a gig, or I didn’t get an interview, or I had the door slammed in my face. But I truly believe persistence wins … and I feel like this album will get me over the hump.”
source: people.com
