Country star Dylan Scott has seven No. 1 hits, multiple businesses, and a slammed tour schedule, but on the Like a Farmer podcast, the multi-platinum artist explained he’s sometimes more focused on protecting his head—and his home life—while country fame keeps scaling upward.
He admits that early on, the grind to the top of the charts nearly swallowed him. After his first No. 1, 2017’s “My Girl,” almost a decade ago, Scott says he couldn’t even celebrate. “I remember after that I was like, God, will I be a one-hit wonder? I couldn’t even enjoy my first No. 1,” he says.
That anxiety turned into a daily mental loop: “What are we gonna do today to make sure that we get to do this again tomorrow?”
What eventually pulled him back was perspective—thanks to his wife, kids, and small-town Louisiana values. When the dream felt like it was stalling, he called his then–long-distance girlfriend ready to quit. She told him to keep going. Now 35, he’s found a more sustainable gear. “I have more drive today than I ever have,” he says. “But I’m also just so relaxed, I don’t worry about, what if we don’t make it.”
He’s even at peace with the idea of starting over: “If it all went away tomorrow, I’ll go work at Tractor Supply if I have to.”
That tension between big-city dreams and small-town sanity runs straight into his new single, “Dear Big City,” out now. The track plays like a heartfelt letter to the city that may one day take his son far from home.
To Not Stress Out, Dylan Scott Tried Leaning Out
Scott’s mental reset hasn’t just changed how he works—it’s changed how he trains. As he told the Country Muscle Podcast last year, he dropped nearly 15 pounds after intentionally backing off the gym. “I just wanted to see what my body would do,” he says. “Would I gain weight? What happened instead was I lost weight. And I was fine with it.”
Leaning out didn’t require a radical diet overhaul. He rarely counts macros, instead following an 80/20 approach—clean about 80% of the time, with room for post-show cheats like backstage pizza. “Instead of indulging in like, six or seven pieces of pizza, I may have like two pieces,” he says. “I feel like the older I’m getting, I’m not staying as hungry as I used to be.”
The tradeoff: He’s not quite as jacked onstage, and finding shirts that fit right is tougher. “I’m almost filling out the sleeves of a large, but not quite like I was,” he told CMP. “The medium makes me look like I’m wearing a Baby Gap shirt,” he jokes.
Still, he’s comfortable with the look. “Do I have just the chiseled six-pack like when I was really eating clean? No,” he says. “But it’s still there, and in my mind, I’m OK with it.”