Cole Swindell | Tortuga Music Festival 2023

As a successful singer and songwriter, Cole Swindell rarely finds himself recording songs he didn’t have a hand in writing, however, his latest single, “Drinkaby,” is one of the few exceptions.  Ahead of his set at this year’s Tortuga Music Fesitval, Swindell sat down with Audacy Katie Neal to share details surrounding his new single which was written by fellow musicians HARDY and Jon Pardi alongside songwriters Jordan Schmidt and Hunter Phelps.   “If I record a song I didn’t write, it means I wish I would’ve written it,” Cole said. “For me, HARDY is one of the hottest writers in town and to see Jon Pardi’s name… we go way back, back before any of us had record deals.”  “Honestly I was wondering why he [Pardi] didn’t record it,” he laughed. “I was like, ‘This seems like something he would crush, but if you’re not going to record it… [I’ll take it].’”  While recording an outside song isn’t something Swindell is particularly used to, he’s happy to re-pay the favor as he’s experienced great success from other artists cutting his songs. “I take pride in that because people have recorded my songs and I take it as a big compliment,” Cole explained. “So to record one my buddies wrote — I don’t know how may outside cuts Jon Pari has — but it’s pretty cool me and him go a long way and my current single he  is a writer on. We all win.”  “Drinkaby” will be included in the deluxe version of Swindell’s latest album, Stereotype Broken. The project will drop April 28 with a total of three new songs.  Listen to Swindell’s full conversation with Katie ahead of his set at Tortuga Music Festival above.  Words by Monica Rivera Interview by Katie Neal