Country music sensation Drake Milligan wowed fans with his 1:45 p.m. show at Georgetown’s Two Step Inn festival on April 20. It was a big moment for Drake’s team since they got in a van accident when they were en route last year. Shortly after Cody Johnson’s headline show, the two jumped back onto the road to resume Johnson’s “Leather Tour.”

Before making the rainy trek to their next show stop, Drake Milligan spoke with The Megaphone about his songwriting process and experience as Johnson’s opener. 

Since his appearance on AGT in 2022, Milligan has been deemed “The Elvis of Country.” This title also pays tribute to Milligan’s long-time role as Elvis on the CMT series Sun Records.

The heartstopping singer/songwriter draws inspiration from classic country artists like George Strait and holds a special place in his heart for Elvis, the King of Rock. However, a lot of his ideas come from his personal music taste and thinking about the kind of songs he’d like to hear as a listener. “I just think about a song that I want to be written,” Milligan confides.

Milligan says he typically only writes when he is in Nashville. While it seems like his personal time spent at the ranch hunting and exploring the outdoors may be where he tends to jot down ideas, he actually likens this quiet time to “filling the reservoir.” 

“When I come back to Nashville [after time away] and start writing, all of a sudden my ideas become clearer and better..as soon as I’m kinda back into work mode, that’s when it starts to flow.”

Because of his teenage acting career, Milligan didn’t attend university–although he does admit he thought about going to Texas Tech for the life experiences (guns up!). However, like Kassi Ashton, most of his band members studied at Belmont in Nashville.

Despite not going to college himself, he still believes it can add to an artist’s songwriting/musical ethic:

“I think [college] definitely adds to your musicianship, but…you can’t replace real-world experience…I think it’s learning everything and then being able to throw some of that out the window and just, you know, get in the trenches and, and do it. That’s how you really learn.”

Drake Milligan will be continuing as Cody Johnson’s “Leather” tour opener. We can only expect more great sounds and lyrics as he studies Johnson and transforms new lyrics with his experiences.