Glen Templeton released a new song called “Run With Me” about 60 days ago and he says that the song continues to grow.
“It’s about that unchained kind of lifestyle that you lead out on the road. It’s not always gravy train,” Templeton explained, adding that it’s not really tough, just very demanding. “I enjoy that,” he said.
Templeton said there’s always new music in development. That doesn’t always come in the form of an album. “It’s more of a singles release,” he said. “You just keep releasing singles. He said that music is so accessible now that they don’t have to rely solely on the release of an album.
Many people became familiar with Templeton’s music with his song “Ball Cap,” which received play on SiriusXM. He said satellite radio was all fan-voted at the time. “The people they had on board at the time resonated with the song “Ball Cap” and they just continued to play it and continued to play it,” he said. “The more times it gets played, the more times it gets heard. Then, it gets shared with other people.”
The airplay on SiriusXM helped Templeton build his fan base both in the United States and worldwide. “They were hearing my music is Australia. They were hearing it in Europe. They were hearing it everywhere,” he said, adding it was huge in the development of where his career is now.
In addition to his original songs, Templeton’s YouTube channel also has videos of Templeton performing some Conway Twitty songs. Templeton was selected by Twitty’s family to play the country music legend in the musical “The Life and Times of Conway Twitty,” which ran for about two years.
Templeton recalled that he was asked to ecord a demo that would be pitched to Jeff Bates, another artist who had Conway-esque voice while he was working as a singer at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge in downtown Nashville. He said John Wesley Ryles was singing background on the demo. He said Ryles told him he knew people putting together the Twitty musical. Ryles is married to Joni Twitty, who is one of Twitty’s daughters.
“They set up a private audition for me,” Templeton said. He was notified a couple of weeks later that the family had selected him to play Twitty in the show. “For about two years after that, I got to sing and play some of the best country music known to the human ear for that era,” he added.
Templeton said Twitty was one of his influences, among others. “I was a huge George Jones fan,” Templeton said, adding that the voices of artists like Jones, Twitty, Daryle Singletary, Don Williams, Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennins were the reasons he became a country music artist and what led him to move to Nashville. ” There was something about what they said and how they said it,” he said. Templeton said he found their lifestyles and how they lived very interesting “I was captive to their music every time it would come on the radio,” he said.
Besides those country legends mentioned, Templeton’s father was a huge musical influence. “He was instrumental in my music career,” he said. Templeton said his father was singing in gospel quartets after serving in Vietnam and that let to VFWs and nightclubs. “He was kind of a hometown hero and kind of a hometown legend,” he said.
Templeton said when he started playing downtown at Tootsie’s, his dad came into town a couple times, adding that his dad would even get up on stage and sing with him. “He never got to experience the Conway show and he never got to experience obviously where we are today,” Templeton said.
Templeton said he learned about entertainment while playing at Tootsie’s Orchid Longue. Tootsie’s is on Nashville’s famous Lower Broadway, which is lined with bars featuring live music throughout the day and night. Some of the bars have multiple floors with a different band playing on each floor. Templeton said the gift was to sing, but entertaining was something he learned from watching other artists at Tootsie’s. “In the end, I’m just the administrator of someone else’s good time,” he said.
The way people can get music has changed over the years. Templeton said he feels social media is a huge vehicle now where radio used to be the only way to get heard. He said he is active in everything that is going on with his social media, but his wife is the one who does all the keystrokes.
People can find out more information about Templeton and his music by visiting glen-templeton.com. He can also be found on Twitter at @gtmusic and on Instagram at @glentempletontours.