Priscilla Block Reflects On Hitting ‘Rock Bottom’ Before Breakthrough Success

It’s often said that Nashville is a ten-year town, but breakthrough country star Priscilla Block has been able to shave off three of those years. Of course, that doesn’t mean that reaching new heights and getting pegged as an ‘artist to watch’ on several lists hasn’t come without struggles.

As a matter of fact, it has.

And, she has not forgotten that.

Block, who moved from her home state of North Carolina to Tennessee shortly after graduating high school, spent years honing her craft in hopes to be able to pursue music full-time. Then, the unexpected day came when she took the TikTok world by storm with her original heartbreak song, “Just About Over You.” The tune, which she wrote in July of 2020, not only shot up to the No. 1 spot on the iTunes Country and All-Genre charts after fans rallied together to come up with funds to have her professionally record the track, but it also opened the door to Block signing her first major label record deal with Universal Music Group Nashville.

Reflecting on the past 12 months, Block isn’t afraid to admit that she’s having a “pinch me” moment, especially since she remembers the feeling of hitting ‘rock bottom’ before finding the kind of success that includes sharing a label home with stars like Eric Church and Luke Bryan.

“It makes moments like this so special. I mean, to think that a year ago, less than a year ago, I was moving out of my apartment because I couldn’t afford my rent. I had no clue,” Block told Connect with Country Now – a show on CTRL_Music_ on Twitch. “I mean, you want to talk about rock bottom. That was me less than a year ago. I didn’t think I was going to be able to do music. I didn’t know what my life looked like.”

“To think that here we are now, it’s like, ‘Dang, you just never know what tomorrow is going to bring. And like, just what’s after maybe ‘rock bottom.’ So you just gotta keep pushing,” she added.

Things, of course, are about to get even better for Block, as she just released her self-titled debut EP. The authentic, six-track project, entirely co-written by Block, is what she calls “my story of falling apart to find myself again.” Listeners will hear that vulnerable side of her through songs like “Wish You Were The Whiskey,” “Bad Part Of Good,” and her personal favorite, “Sad Girls Do Sad Things.”

“These songs, you know, a lot of people [ask], you know, ‘What were you thinking when you were writing for this project? And I wasn’t writing for a project. I mean, these songs were songs that I wrote with some of my best friends in Nashville, and it was me just writing what was on my brain that day and whatever I needed to write at the time,” Block said. “So choosing these songs, I feel like they described so much of who I am and why I am the way that I am. You know you got the sass, you got the trash, and you got the sad. So it’s all there for people to dive in a little bit deeper.”

Block, who also recently made her Grand Ole Opry debut, says she’s still paying off bills from back when she struggled to make ends meet. And even though she’s since turned the corner, anytime she needs a pick-me-up, she says she turns to advice that her parents gave her years ago.

“It was, it was like the biggest, I failed moment,” Block said before sharing the advice that she now lives by. “My parents kind of just always raised us. Like, I mean, I remember being like little, little and my mom looking at me, and she’s like, ‘We’re not allowed to have excuses.’ That’s always stuck with me. I’ve never allowed myself to have an excuse.”

“I’ve been in Nashville for seven years now, you know, just kind of doing the grind and doing everything that I thought that I needed to do, and watching it kind of all have its moment to happen has been so overwhelming. And I’m just, I mean, I’m pinching myself every day. Like it’s crazy.”

Click the video above for more with Priscilla Block.