By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Services
“Well, I’ve been known to write a few songs
Lovin’ and leavin’ and getting’ too stoned
Bottle and a pistol by my side
The devil’s always along for the ride”
Last Saturday, he opened for country music star Jason Aldean.
June 20th, he will take the stage ahead of Morgan Wallen – the first of a few dates with one of country music’s biggest names.
Not bad for a guy from Logansport, who twice attempted to kill himself.
“I try not to even stop and think about (my success),” Bryan Martin told the Shreveport-Bossier Journal, a few hours before performing in Oklahoma on Aldean’s Highway Desperado tour. “I’m afraid I’m going to wake up and go, ‘Oh, shi_. I just stumped my toe trying to get in the camper one night and this has all been a dream.’ It’s been amazing. It’s been crazy.”
Martin, who was born in Shreveport and grew up in DeSoto Parish, has Billboard Country’s 16th ranked song with We Ride, from his album Poets and Old Souls. Other charts have the hit song ranked even higher.”
“It just blows me away to be sitting in the Top 10 on country radio and thinking about where all I’ve been and what all I’ve been through. Never in a million years would I have thought I would even be sitting here talking to you about it. It’s just crazy.”
The fact that the 36-year-old, who bounced between schools in Logansport and Stanley before dropping out, is “even sitting here” is something of a miracle. Martin went to work on an oil rig for almost a year before enlisting in the Army. Confusion about whether he should have been accepted led to an uncharacterized discharge, which led to Martin trying to kill himself. He wrote We Ride based off a suicide written when he was 19 years old.
“I felt like a failure. I’ve never quit a job – never been sent home from a job. When I came back home, that’s when I took (30) Percocet’s, and I misfired a .357 Magnum . . . . I remember waking up the next morning and not feeling the effects of the drugs or the alcohol. That blew my mind . . . . I put that bullet back in the gun and took out all the other bullets. I pretty much cussed God and asked, ‘Why are you saving me now? It’s too late to save me.’”
But as many a preacher will tell you it wasn’t too late. Martin was saved. He went into the ministry and was sober for six years. But later, Martin went through a divorce. Then came Covid, which kept him from working.
“Same thing like the military. I just felt like a failure sitting at the house. I couldn’t draw a check. I was going crazy. I couldn’t make the music make sense. I couldn’t make money. I was pulled apart. I went back to drinking again.”
That led to another suicide attempt just three years ago – two days before his divorce was became final. Martin drove off an embankment.
“I went through a really bad brain injury and lost most of my memory. I couldn’t remember any of my songs (he had written close to 800) . . . . I had to pretty much re-teach myself how to play my own songs.”
In the process, Martin proved his doctors wrong.
“They told me I wasn’t ever going to be able to write again because of that brain injury. When I went to writing again (Martin credits medicine for ADHD), I couldn’t stop. The last three years, I’ve done what they told me I couldn’t do in the next 15 (years). The last six months, I’ve done what they said I couldn’t do in the next 10 (years).”
Martin was discovered while performing with some of his Tic Tok friends, who put together a music and comedy tour. But Martin’s current success came fast.
“A year and a half ago, I was on a barstool playing for $400 a night.”
Needing to be close to Nashville, Tennessee, Martin now lives in a town south of the country music capital. His schedule doesn’t allow him to return to Logansport often, where his mother (Donna) and father (David) still live. Martin has been back home four or five times in the last two-and-a-half years.
“When you catch a little breeze, you’ve got to ride with it. It’s a dream come true. Right now, it’s been able to afford me to retire my dad. I’m a long way from retiring, but to retire my dad is something I’ve always dreamed of doing.”
During his younger days, Martin was a frequent visitor to Bossier City.
“I would always spend my money at the arcade at the (Louisiana) Boardwalk. I went to the movies, and anywhere else I could get into. I got into the Rockin’ Rodeo (nightclub) one night. I sang Tracy Lawrence’s Sticks and Stones. That was my first time singing in front of people, at karaoke at the Rockin’ Rodeo.”
Right now, Martin is living the dream, a long way from singing karaoke. But if Martin ends up being a one-hit-wonder, that will be just fine with him. Martin has his songwriting talents to fall back on.
“If people are living life and going through struggles, somebody out there will relate to what I’m going to write next, or what I have coming out next. As long as real life is happening, I think I’ve got a pretty good chance at (staying successful), now that I’ve broke through and gained a few ears.”
But Martin’s professional life isn’t the only thing that’s better than ever.
“I’ve been dating my ex-wife (Bobbie Jo) for three years. It’s been going good. It’s the best it’s ever going to be. We get along good. If we don’t, it’s like, well, we’ll get over it. This time, you ain’t taking everything when you leave.”
Hmmm . . . . Sounds like the makings of a good Bryan Martin-written song.
Contact Tony at SBJTonyT@gmail.com.