Clayton Mullen doesn’t really need to check his Whoop score to know he’s tired; he can simply feel his own fatigue to confirm these results. It’s the aftermath from a demanding daily pre-show workload he and his bandmates put in before hitting the stage.
For this breakthrough artist, managing all the behind-the-scenes work is just one chapter of his young and unique road to country music success. Now based in Nashville after being raised in the Northeast, Mullen recently released his new EP, Varsity Blues, and has been touring with artists such as Randall King, Warren Zeiders, and Corey Kent. He’s building his name and brand with an original blend of country songwriting, relentless hustle, as plenty of cool concert T-shirts.
“I would absolutely consider myself an up-and-comer… we’re definitely on the rise,” he says “But I think we’ve got some really great music coming out, and I hope people hear it and start to pay attention to what we’re doing.”
Touring the country—both solo and with established stars—has been a thrilling lesson for the 24-year-old, who is barely two years removed from signing a publishing deal after showcasing his showtime skills in Texas college bars. Right now, you can say Mullen is right in the midst of a real-world music internship. Beyond singing and songwriting, his responsibilities include driving the van from town to town, acting as a part-time roadie, and even designing the concert merch the band drags along from show to show.
He’s quite OK with his on-the-job training: “The first thing I’ll say is Tim McGraw and every other guy had to do it at some point. So you’ve got to earn your stripes and work your way up.”
Mullen’s story is one of adapting to the environment and seizing opportunity. While studying business at TCU, at a time when music was only a side gig for beer money—his live performances and social media presence started drawing real attention from fans, artists, even producers.
“It wasn’t even like music was Plan A,” he admits. “The plan was always to get a sales job, but music just kind of took over.”
The same theory applies to the former high school basketball and golf athlete’s commitment to stayin in shape as the schedule gets more crammed. While lugging gear is bound to burn calories, keeping up with training—no matter the location—remains a key component of his regimen.
“Anytime we’re at a hotel with a gym, we’ll make sure to get a workout in—it doesn’t happen often,” he says. “I’ve started doing quick 45-minute workouts just to stay active on the road.”
Clayton Mullen Went from Business Major to Breakout Artist
There was no backup plan if music didn’t workout because, in Clayton Mullen’s words, music wasn’t at first a part of any long-term blueprint. Playing cover tunes was a fun side job for the guitar-playig student while pursuing his degree. “It’s not even like music was the Plan A,” he says. “Plan A was always to go get a sales job, and music just came in and kind of pushed that all the way,”
His first goal after graduating high school, was getting into a good school. The East Coast native headed south to Fort Worth, TX, in pursuit of an MBA at TCU, a well-respected business school.
“When I was applying to schools, TCU was one of my favorites, it may have been the purple colors,” he says, laughing. “It was a dream school of mine—it’s one of the best business schools I got into, and I wanted to go do sales.”
While he kept his grades high, the Dean’s List student didn’t anticipate his late-night songlist comprised primarily of Chris Stapleton and Morgan Wallen jams would catch anyone’s attention. However he says, his rendition of an Adele cover, “Easy on Me,” would help catapult his career by going viral.
“I was mixing genres, he says. “I was singing anything and everything, the trends, the classics, and just posting them and hoping that they were going to catch some attention.”
His live sessions were starting to catch the eyes of local stars, Randall King and Corey Kent, among others. It also caught the attention of record execs. Just a month before earning his degree in marketing and entrepreneurship, Mullen received a call from a record exec, who would become his publisher.
“About a month before graduating, I got a call from a lady named Courtney Allen, who is my publisher now, and she wanted to sign me to a publishing deal. And I honestly, at the time, I didn’t know what it was, but I moved to town on a whim,” he says.
In a short span, Mullen went from local college bars to now performing his original music— “Where the Time Goes”—on local stations. His business career was put on hold—he quit his job—and off to Nashville it was.
“It became Plan A in the matter of a couple of days, and I told the job I was gonna go work for that I’m not working for them, and I’m moving to Nashville on a whim.”
Clayton Mullen’s Athletic Roots Before Music
How will Clayton Mullen know he’s finally made it in the music business? He says the day he’s able to enjoy playing a round at TPC Sawgrass or Augusta while others handle the setup duties will feel like reaching the top. For the moment, however, Mullen’s too busy paying his dues.
“I think that might be the ‘I made it’ moment—when I get to play a round of golf before a show, and we’re not driving,” he says.
These days, when time allows, Clayton has a tendency to attend golf tournaments—he recently checked out the American Century Championship Pro-Am, where athletes such as Steph Curry, John Smoltz, and Tony Romo participated, as well as one country artist, Jake Owen, who took third place.
While Mullen’s tee times are fewer these days with all the hats he’s wearing, one of his goals is to eventually be able to outsource his workload while he hits the links. In the meantime, he gets out when he can, playing at courses such as California’s Pelican Hill, where he says he shot an 85.
He rarely, if ever, flashes the two state golf championship rings he earned while playing for two-time high school state champions Weston (MA) High School.
“I’ll go on the record and say I was not a part of those,” Mullen, who also played basketball, says. “I was on the team, but I was one of the backup players, so I wasn’t competing in the state championship. I never wore it because I didn’t feel like I deserved it.”
Mullen’s back to taking his golf game seriously. Now as a professional country artist, the beer-fueled frat-like golf course behavior is gone, and the serious athlete has appeared. “I think I’ve gotten worse, but then I think I’m starting to get better,” he says. “In college, we were drinking beers or whatever on the course, but now I’m starting to dial in the game a little bit more.”
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Balancing Touring and Wellness Requires Sleep
Before showtime, there’s a laundry list of responsibilities—including selecting the proper signature white or black T-shirt that Clayton regularly wears onstage. “I like Buck Mason—I think it looks sleek—but just a good-fitting T-shirt works,” he says. “They’re not all white. Now I’ve got some gray, black, all that. So I’ll just pick one of them, whichever one’s clean, to be honest.”
Being an up-and-coming artist requires Mullen getting behind the wheel of the van and driving to the next stop on tour. Then there’s unloading gear, setting up the stage, as well as creating and selling custom Clayton Mullen T-shirts, hats and other fan favorites. When those tasks are complete, it’s time to perform. Then for an hour-plus, Mullen gets to do what he and the band set up for—play his original material as well as throw in some classic covers—before the lights go down and he has tear down and re-pack the equipment, then hit the road again.
It’s the thankless part of the lifestyle that takes up much of your time and leaves little room for rest—something his Whoop fitness tracker reminds him of daily. “My average recovery is 60% because we’re on the road,” he says. “My sleep is terrible. You’re bouncing around different beds, different time zones. It’s tough to keep a schedule, but we try as hard as we can,” Mullen admits.
Despite the chaos that comes with become country music’s next rising star, the athlete at heart refuses to let his fitness slide. Adapting to any given day’s environment is Mullen’s formula for staying fit. He’s become quite proficient at creating efficient workouts, keeping his training under an hour whenever he has a free hour. He mixes up the training with a blend of weights, cardio, and even bodyweight moves. “I started doing workouts that are pretty quick,” he says. “For example, I’ll run a mile, and then I’ll usually do some bench presses and add supplemental work, like biceps and triceps.”
Mullen never skips legday, however, he stays away from traditional back squats, opting instead for other effective lower-body options to stay powerful. “I’ll usually do like a goblet squat, or lunges and stuff like that to keep the legs strong,” he explains.
Touring’s unpredictability requires the business grad to get creative when it comes to fitting in a sweat session. “Sometimes, if we’re waiting on a flight in the airport, we’ll do walks through the airport carrying luggage just to get a little bit of a workout in,” he says.
While it’s difficult to maintain a consistent diet regimen when you’re on the road and options are limited to fast food or venue fare, he tries to keep it as healthy as possible—with Chipotle bowls and Chick-fil-A salads as his go-tos. Sometimes, when he’s back in Nashville, he’ll dabble with certain diets just to keep his health and waistline in check. “I did keto for the first time this year… I try to stick to, in my mind, being carb-friendly,” he shares.
Clayton Mullen Continues Receiving On the Job Education
His TCU degree will last forever—so will living with the disappointment of the Horned Frogs’ humiliating 65-7 loss to the University of Georgia in the 2023 College Football National Championship Playoff. Making it more unbearable would be to have to tour is having to tour with a gloating Bulldog alum, but singer Logan Crosby was the perfect southern gentleman despite the win. “Honestly, Logan’s such a good dude; he didn’t pick on me much at all,” Mullen says. “But that was a rough game—it was heartbreaking.”
Busting chops is always part of the camaraderie that comes with touring. But along with the jokes come a textbook-size list of lessons Mullen has been learning while he tags along with some of country music’s hottest artists—names like Randall King, Corey Kent, Warren Zeiders, and Vincent Mason.
While he has no problem playing original songs such as “Nowhere, Tennessee” from Varsity Blues, soaking up bits of knowledge—like the art of audience interaction—is an element to his evolution he continues to work on.
“I’ve picked pieces of each of those shows and figured out how I can do that to my show,” he says. “If they do a talking point here, where can I do mine that makes the most sense, and how can we fit in songs and transition the best way possible. So I learned so much from all those guys.”
As Mullen prepares for his next show at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl with Randall King on Aug. 9, he won’t forget one of the profound lessons taught to him by Kent.
“Everybody is one song away,” he recalls. “No matter what point you’re at, if you’re a guy who had a one-hit wonder, or if you’re a guy who’s been putting great songs out for years, you’re always one song away. You can’t slow down. You’ve got to keep giving people stuff to latch on to. It takes one song to change somebody’s life.”