Before Brett Young ever saw himself selling out stadiums as a platinum-selling country star, fans saw the 6’4” right-hander as a fastball-throwing force on the baseball diamond.
Young believed he’d be best known—and living his best life—because of baseball, in which he went 15-0 as a senior at California’s Calvary Chapel High School before receiving a full ride to Ole Miss. Fast-forward 20-plus years, and it’s been the slow, melodic ballads that would eventually sell out crowds all over the world and bringing the “In Case You Didn’t Know” singer worldwide success.
“If you asked me when I was 20 years old, I would have bet you money if I got to do any of those things, it would have been because of baseball,” he reflects. “Not in a million years would I have thought that becoming a singer would open the doors that it has. It’s been wild.”
As an elbow injury in his first game with Fresno State closed one chapter, it opened a musical chapter of his life. The injury inspired 2018 video “Catch,” a deeply personal track that weaves together real moments from his life, including his family.
“Even though ‘Catch’ is just a nod to baseball, it’s really not about that. It’s about meeting a girl in a bar,” Brett explains. “The other cool thing about that video, which we didn’t tell people at the time, is we cast a little boy to walk away with us at the end of the video. We knew we were pregnant with our daughter at that point, our first child. So we were kind of giving a glimpse into the future while my wife, walking there holding my hand, was actually pregnant with our first child at the time.”
Today, his latest, most introspective work, 2.0, reflects on his new self, a more mature, physically and spiritually as an artist, father and husband.
“The obvious grab is that we have a new version of a song from our first record, ‘In Case You Didn’t Know,’ that we’re calling ‘In Case You Didn’t Know 2.0,'” he says. “We’ve rewritten a second verse to and brought in the female perspective and that whole thing. But for me personally, there’s been a lot of changes in my life in terms of health and wellness and fitness over the last 18, 19 months that have turned into this new 2.0 version of myself. And so having young children at home, and starting to get older and starting to realize that we have so much more knowledge about what is good and bad for you these days, in terms of all the way down to the food that we eat and everything we just have.”
He’s also now nearly two years sober, with a new, more focused approached to his health. And while his baseball career may have been cut short, but Young can still summon that dominant athlete’s mindset—whether in the weight room or on the concert stage. If there’s ever a Game 7 on the line, he still demands the ball.
“I got a little Kobe Bryant in me. If I can have the ball, I want the ball in my hand,” he says. “Kobe would have teammates that would get frustrated when he wouldn’t pass them the ball for the last shot. He would always tell them, ‘I was here before you, I saw you show up to practice, and I was here after you. I saw you leave. Why would I pass you the ball?’ That’s kind of how I feel. If it can be me, I want it to be. I’d rather blame myself than blame myself for trusting somebody else to get it done.”
A Gym Routine and Planet Fitness: The Keys to On the Road Consistency
For Brett Young, consistency has been the secret ingredient to this “2.0” transformation. This means the singer rarely if ever misses a workout, no matter where the road takes him.
But first, the road to a fitter version of himself at age 44 required that Young give up alcohol. He admits that the pre and post-concert drinks became an all-too-customary tradition—and performance detriment—he used to participate in for years into his career.
Once he decided to give it up—after one final ski trip blowout on Jan. 8, 2024—he began to focus on his health, including a renewed commitment to weightlifting.
“I think the thing that kicked it all off was stepping away from alcohol,” he says. “That just made me hungry for what other things I could be doing to extend my life. And that ended up being diet and taking weightlifting from kind of this recreational hobby to something that I took very seriously.”
At home in Nashville, Young has access to a community gym where applies his workouts—a 2.0 version of his Ole Miss pitching workouts. But on the road, he’s forged a new fitness friendship with his Planet Fitness membership he’s had for years. “I just found I had this old Planet Fitness membership… it’s been a game changer and kind of a lifesaver for me,” he says. “There’s three of those in every city in America.”
Ever since going sober, his workouts now last as long as two hours, and his routine is as structured as his showtime setlist. He follows a four-days-on, one-day-off split, resurrecting his college baseball routine but making some minor adjustments. “I always put legs on day one, because it’s the only day that I’m tempted to skip, and if I put it first, I’m not going to skip it,” he explains.
Day two is chest and triceps, day three is back and biceps, and day four is shoulders, with abs added to days one and four. “I also put 30 to 40 minutes of cardio at the end of each lift on days one through four.”
The Nutrition that Fuels Brett Young ‘2.0’
At 6’4” and 240 pounds, it takes quite a large menu to keep Brett Young fueled for his extended weight room sessions and two-hour performances each night while on tour. The singer takes his nutrition as seriously as his workouts, aiming for about 4,000 calories a day—a number that might sound staggering, but for the former pitcher, it’s just enough to keep him going. “I eat a lot. I think the protein count is anywhere between 300 and 500 grams of protein in a day. My calories I know could be even more, but that’s me trying to stay lean at my age as well. I’m starving all the time. I could eat way more than that.
When it comes to eating, grilling remains the cornerstone of his nutrition—not just for the taste, but for as he describes, the clean, lean options he’s able to prepare. “It’s one of the easiest ways to eat clean and eat lean as well. For me, I could eat red meat and chicken for every meal,” he says. “I put a TV out on the patio, throw the game on, and Dad’s a hero for cooking dinner. I also get a little time to myself and have a meal that I’m excited about eating and I can feel good about.”
On the road, it can get tricky. But Young tries to stay on point daily with a steady supply of protein shakes and bars. “I wake up to 40 grams of protein in a shake… and I supplement my snacks with protein bars that are 28 grams that I’ll eat five or six throughout the day.”