Matt Mathews can do it all! Comedian turned country singer with a powerful story to tell.

Matt Mathews can do it all! And, that is no joke! While people around the world know him as a comedian, the 32-year-old Alabama native says he is ready to show another side of himself to his fans — one that involves him singing country music.

Matt Mathews Pursuing A Career In Country Music

“I’ve always loved music, and it’s what I’ve always been passionate about,” Mathews said in a new interview with Music Mayhem, revealing that he never felt “good enough” to pursue his passion, until now. “I decided to record some songs that I’ve written…. And I’ve said this from day one, I’m not trying to be the next big country star, but I did this for me. So if it does really well, that’s great, but at the end of the day, my only job is to put it out there and however it falls, it falls.”

Juggling both comedy and country music may sound like an overly ambitious undertaking, but Mathews isn’t necessarily entering uncharted territory. Aside from his comfortability performing onstage in front of large audiences, he already has experience singing in local bars. In fact, it’s something he did as a child.

“My dad used to take me to this redneck bar on Tuesday nights and I would sing karaoke for all the drunks at the bar,” Mathews recalled. “It became a thing. People started coming out to the bars to listen to me sing. I’d be up there, this little kid from a trailer park, singing ‘Broken Wing’ by Martina McBride and all these drunk people just loved it. Every Tuesday we went to this bar, and I know that’s such a great thing to be taking a kid to a bar, but it worked, and it was just a lot of fun.”

Matt Mathews; Photo Provided

Credits Martina McBride As An Influence

Mathews, whose influences range from Brooks & Dunn to Reba McEntire to Ella Langley and Zach Bryan, was particularly shaped by the songs of Martina McBride growing up. In fact, much of his youth involved living in poverty in government housing with an alcoholic mother. He sees McBride’s songs as a reflection of the memories of his childhood, and as a kid, he began writing songs as a way to cope from the trauma.

“I remember when Martina released ‘Concrete Angel,’ it was really a storytelling song about this little girl that was getting beat pretty much. And I just remember listening to that song and growing up with an alcoholic mom and dealing with all these things. I just remember really connecting to that song,” Mathews recalled before noting.  “They always say that good comics have gone through a lot of trauma because they’re able to take those traumas, and they’re able to make it funny. And that’s the absolute truth. My life was full of trauma growing up, and I don’t think that I would probably be funny or where I’m today if I didn’t go through those things.”

Comedy Will Remain Separate From His Country Music

But don’t expect Mathews’ two passions of comedy and country music to collide. Though he doesn’t consider himself a “traditional comic” by any means, funny isn’t what he is going for when it comes to sharing his music with the world. Drawn to the storytelling aspect of the country genre, Mathews finds himself leaning into the side of his personality that he has suppressed for too long, one where he is deeply personal, vulnerable, and where others can relate.

“Music to me is therapy, where I can be real and raw and vulnerable…,” Mathews said. “I don’t really have any comedy songs. I think that’s so cheesy, and that’s what people [thought] when they heard that I was putting out music, they were like, ‘Oh, is this going to be like parody songs?’ I have really had to educate people on that, that’s not what I’m doing. I’m not doing comedy music, and that works for a lot of people. It’s just not really my style.”

Instead, Mathews says, “[My music] is more traditional, like actual country music and storytelling. There’s some sad songs in there. There are some songs about my mom in there, there are relationships in there. There’s a song in there that I wrote years ago when I lived in a trailer park, and I was getting drunk a lot and going to bars and getting in fights. So you know what I mean? There are a lot of different things in there. So I feel like it’s got a little something for everybody on the album.”

First Two Releases

“What A War”

Mathews, who is gearing up to release a full length album, but has not shared a title or release date, has dropped two tracks from the anticipated collection with his listeners. They are “Jokes On Me” and “What A War.” Mathews said the two-pack work hand in hand, which is why he released them simultaneously.

“They were a relationship that I had gone through,” he explained. “And they were kind of the beginning of the relationship. Then at the end of the relationship. I wrote ‘What a War’ when it was just kind of a struggle of what are we fighting about? Is this going to work out? I don’t know if it’s going to work out, where do we kind of go from here?”

“Jokes On Me”

“‘Jokes on Me’ is kind of realizing, ‘Well, this was a lot of wasted time.’ A lot of the time I think in relationships people get love bummed, and they have their rose colored glasses on, and they feel like everything is so great and wonderful. They tell you everything that you want to hear, and then you feel like a joke afterwards when it doesn’t work out the way you thought it was going to. So they’re kind of intertwined with where are we going to, this is where we went and it didn’t work out the way I thought it was going to, but the jokes on me, but I came out on top.”

Says His Friend Jewel Pushed Him To Pursue Country Music

While Mathews is ready to put it all out there in terms of sharing his story through songs, he likely wouldn’t have gotten to this point had it not been for one special friend — Jewel. The “Foolish Games” singer played a big role in encouraging him to pursue music, having invited him on stage before to join forces in showing off their yodel.

“Jewel is the reason that I even recorded an album. She is probably one of my all-time favorite artists ever. She’s just so extremely talented. Not only her songwriting, but her music and her voice…. I remember she followed me on social media and I almost had a stroke because I was like, ‘no, this is not real.’ And so we just connected on Instagram actually, and we started talking, and we just really hit it off and became super close,” Mathews said, sharing the story of how he and Jewel became lifelong friends. “She invited me to come play with her in Rogers, Arkansas. We got on my tour bus at 10 o’clock at night, and we drove to Arkansas, and we played a song together, and we yodeled together on stage, and she was like, ‘You’ve got to pursue music.’”

“She really just gave me the push. I didn’t know where to start,” he added, crediting Jewel for getting the ball rolling. “I didn’t know where to begin. I didn’t know how to do it. I didn’t even know any producers, I didn’t know any of that. She hooked me up with Stanton Edwards, the producer on my [upcoming] album, and he is also the guitar player, and he played guitar for Jewel on her tour with Melissa Etheridge. And then he also just played on the Jessica Simpson album that just came out, and he produced my record and plays his guitar, and he’s just really incredible. And so we hooked up, and we started writing, and I had written a lot. And I just feel, I always say that when Jewel tells you to do something, you do it.”

Wants To Give His Fans A “Once In A Lifetime Experience” During Live Events

Although Mathews is venturing deeper into music, that doesn’t mean he is abandoning his comedy. In fact, the multi-talented performer, who is finishing up the spring leg of his tour before taking the summer off to enjoy his horses and barrel race, has considered various ways to incorporate his music into his live comedy performances.

“So we keep having this discussion of how we’re going to do that. Jewel says to keep them together, don’t separate ’em, start the show out and do some music or start the show and do my comedy and then end the show with music,” Mathews says, contemplating his decisions. “I would love to be able to do them together to be able to really give people a once in a lifetime experience. There are just not very many comics or singers that are doing both. So I think it’s a very unique experience to give fans. I just don’t know how I go from singing a heartbreaking ballad to roasting people in the audience.”

“I don’t want to push away my comedy fans because they’re like, well, we don’t want to hear him sing or push away music fans because they’re like, well, we don’t want to hear his raunchy comedy,” he continued. “So it’s definitely a fine line that we have to, I think, figure out what is going to be the best way to do it. But I would love to keep ’em together if I could.”

Matt Mathews; Photo Courtesy of Aaron Crisler

Showcasing His Different Talents

In a perfect world, he would be able to mix both without any issues. But, for now, Mathews just wants the world to see that everybody has different facets of their personality, and that talents and strengths don’t stop with one singular passion.

“That’s been my biggest hurdle. I didn’t know if people would take me seriously. I just tell people all the time that people aren’t just one dimensional and there are so many different sides to people. We all have so many different sides to who we are as a person,” Mathews acknowledged. “I think that I’ll always sing. I’ll always write music because like I said, I’ve done that my whole life. Now, I don’t know what’s going to happen with it. I don’t know that it’s going to be this massive thing. I don’t know if I’ll be selling platinum records by any means.”

“But again, it was just kind of for me, and it was kind of something that I needed to do for myself and just a goal and a dream that I needed to do and complete on my own,” he said. “And if that means that I put out this one record and I don’t do another one, that’s okay. But if it does really well, and I continue to do them, then that’s great too. I don’t really have any expectations.”