Country Next: Blake Proehl

Just a few years ago, Blake Proehl was chasing his lifelong dream of playing in the NFL. Today, he’s building a fast-rising career in country music, proving that sometimes the hardest setbacks can lead to some of the best and most unexpected opportunities.

The North Carolina native never planned on becoming a singer-songwriter. He spent most of his childhood consumed by sports, dedicating himself mostly to football with the goal of one day reaching the professional level. That dream became a reality when he signed with the Minnesota Vikings in 2021, but his future took an unexpected turn after a devastating knee injury during his rookie season that left him unable to play for more than a year.

As a way to pass the time during a lengthy recovery season, Proehl picked up a guitar that was gifted to him and found that music could be used as an outlet to process the disappointment and uncertainty surrounding his football career. He ended up discovering a passion for songwriting that ultimately changed the course of his life.

The songs that the “She Got It” singer began writing amid that chapter eventually led him to find success on social media, a memorable run on American Idol, a move to Nashville, and now a recording contract with MCA/UMG.

Keep learning more about Blake Proehl below as he discusses finding his way into music, learning the ropes of the music business, his latest release, and which goals he hopes to cross off next.

Was music always something that was very present in your life growing up?

Music was not present at all during that time of my life, to be honest with you. Music didn’t really make a real entrance into my life until about 2022 when I was with the Vikings. So when I was a kid, it really was just all sports, classic jock, get the energy out of me for sure. Most people like music in general, but I didn’t really care about it honestly to pursue it at all. It was just like, oh, I love music. Yeah, sure. It was that type of thing. 

You found your way into music during a difficult transition period. Talk about that time and how music helped you through that mentally. 

Basically what happened was I was with the Vikings and that’s when I got hurt. I injured my knee really, really badly and I was playing really well. Honestly, my best football I had ever played. And so I was on track to make the 53-man active roster as a rookie. And when I got injured, it kind of turned my whole world upside down. I just remember being extremely just heartbroken and also confused on how this could happen to me. And somebody had got me a guitar and I had always wanted to learn how to play guitar as a hobby for fun. It was almost a bucket list thing to check off. And so I kind of used that time period of about 16 months of downtime because it took multiple surgeries to fix. They kept me in Minnesota to be around the team. And I used music as a healing journey for me and writing. And that was the first time I started writing music just to help, like you said, heal what I was going through at the time. And then next thing you know, it kind of blossomed into what it is today. 

Suddenly you had a whole new fanbase learning about your talent for music through your American Idol audition. What made you take that leap?

Well, what happened was I had a couple videos go viral on TikTok, as one does these days. And that kind of pulled me into the industry a little bit with just hitting the algorithm of other musicians and artists and American Idol, The Voice and all those shows. I think I was an A+ candidate for those type of shows. And so they reached out. A bunch of people, all those shows had DM’d me at one point and was like, “You should audition.” And so basically fast forward to 2023 and I had been singing a little bit, had dropped one song or something, still a baby, didn’t know what I was doing. And I went to go audition in Nashville. It was the last day of auditions. They had already done their whole tour of America and all that stuff. And yeah, I auditioned and it was a great experience. I mean, I made it to the live shows, the finals and all that stuff, which was kind of crazy. I really shocked myself in that sense. I don’t really go and watch those videos anymore, I guess you could say, because I feel like I’ve come a long way since that, but that’s part of the story. Yeah, definitely I’m proud of that experience for sure. 

What was it like navigating your move to Nashville to pursue music more seriously after that experience and having to learn the ins and outs of the music business?

Oh man, it’s been crazy. It has some similarities to football, but it also is very different. In football, especially in the NFL, you have a salary, which is really nice. In music, it’s kind of everyone for themselves. And what’s been really cool, especially signing with MCA and having a team at Range and just building a team has been really nice for me because that’s what I’m used to in the football world. And that’s where what I miss about leaving football was the camaraderie of the locker room and having a team and creating those relationships and bonds and leaning on each other. And that’s what’s been really fun about finally growing a team here in Nashville and a community, which has been really, really, really great to hold each other accountable and also move forward in a creative way and have ideas, bounce ideas off of each other. That’s probably been my favorite part of moving here and really getting into the weeds of Nashville. 

Are there any lessons that you learned in your football days that have now translated you’re your music career?

Honestly, I think my natural work ethic. When you play college football, for example, that’s a bootcamp. Honestly, I truly believe college football, D1 college football, is harder than the NFL just because of how much is demanded on your body and also mentally classes, bouncing classes, study halls, practices, workouts, all that stuff. And I think that carries over into music because in music, especially when you first get started, you don’t have a bunch of people telling you, “You got to do this, you need to do that. ” So naturally, I think that’s how I was able to find a team fairly quickly into getting into music because I was so used to being from the football world, having to do this at 6:00 AM, and then right after make breakfast and then go here and do this, I kind of carried that over into music and just holding myself accountable and having a lot of discipline and feeling like I’m never doing enough, which makes me do a lot. I think that carries now more than ever now that I have a team. I would say the discipline part of it for sure. 

During your recent CMA Fest debut, you had a moment where you realized that even though you just put out your song “She Got It,” fans were already singing every word back to you. How did that feel?

Yes, that was pretty awesome. We had some, we called them “Blake’s Baddies,” some certified Baddies on the front row. They were singing every word and it came out the night before, whatever. So that was really cool to see. And live performing is my favorite thing ever. That’s my favorite part of being an artist and having fans show up and sing that new song the next day was really, really special, especially in my first CMA Fest. It was a great day. 

Talk a bit more about how “She Got It” came together.

I wrote it actually back at my first ever writing camp in February with some of my favorite writers. We went out to Nowhere Tennessee about an hour and a half south of Nashville. And the music I wrote when I first started was very heartfelt and slower, emotional, but I’m a very ADHD, high energy human being. So I was like, guys, we need to start this thing off with some high energy. Let’s get something I can dance to. I love to dance on stage. And yeah, I think what happened was that’s basically all I said. And the next thing we got a guitar going and some fun melodies and wrote it about seeing a girl who you’re kind of seeing across the bar and you’re like, ‘oh man, I don’t know what it is, but she got it.’ And that really was all the concept was and that’s all we needed. We realized a lot of big songs, fun songs aren’t that deep of concepts and those are some of our favorite songs. So we ran with just having a good time and we had a really fun time writing. I think we wrote it in an hour, which was really awesome.

What can you share about any new music you have on the way?

It’s definitely in a similar lane. There’s a few really, really fun ones and then there’s one that’s more mid-tempo, which I’m excited about, but they all have a youthful, southeast coastal feel to them. We’re going to be shooting a lot of visuals and stuff down in Charleston, South Carolina where I grew up going, me and my family, so we’re going back to my roots and we’re going to capture visually who Blake Proehl is and those songs feel that way, which is really exciting. So I would say all of them have a similar feel. “She Got It” was a perfect first single, but the next ones have a feel to that. It’s really just going back to my roots and the type of music that I grew up on. And I want to bring more of the pop country back into country, like Florida Georgia Line and the Dan & Shay’s and all of those type of people. I like to call it Bieber country, but it’s Blake country. 

What are some of the goals that you hope to cross off next? 

I think my biggest goal is I want to sell out arenas. I think I’m a very main character, so I love being on stage. I love dancing, making people laugh, entertaining. And I think my next goal is to just get on the road and get in front of people and sing these songs and share my story, but also inspire people to dream again and try get up and try again however many times it takes to find whatever your purpose is. And I think that’s what life’s all about. So that’s what my artist project kind of reflects. And I think the best way to do that is getting out in front of people and we’re excited. We got some fun live stuff coming up in festivals this summer and tours this fall and I think that’s something that I’m looking forward to. And just getting this new music out and just getting going is really all it is. 

Fans can keep up with Blake Proehl on Instagram.