Pairing the slouchy charm of indie grunge with roots-rocking, small-town punk energy, Ole 60 spent 2025 becoming one of the most intriguing new acts in Americana.
With their debut album Smokestack Town – plus some fun-loving video content, huge opening-act performances with Zach Bryan, and first-time trips to Lollapalooza, the Ryman, the Grand Ole Opry, and more – the six-piece band came a long way from their blue-collar hometown of Hawesville, Kentucky. They even finished off the year with their biggest show yet, selling out their first-ever arena gig with an Owensboro homecoming. But there’s still more to do.
Inspired by a world of shift work and shitty luck, and powered by a rusty Toyota rolling on four bald tires, frontman and primary songwriter Jacob Ty Young fills his songs with vividly conflicted characters. Soaring garage-pop singalongs stand alongside sucker-punch ballads of screwing up and flaming out, each one struggling with the urge to get the hell out while still loving where you’re from. It’s a feeling anyone nursing big dreams in a small town will recognize, and Ole 60 shares it with a fresh voice.
In late January, Young told Good Country about the band’s quick rise and biggest year yet, while looking ahead to what comes next. There’s already a level-up tour underway and new music in the works. But Young pledges not to forget where they got their start – a pizza shop game room in a Smokestack Town.
In 2025, Ole 60 was out on tour, did big shows with Zach Bryan, made an Opry debut and released your first album. What’s it been like processing all that in the last month or so?
Jacob Ty Young: You try to take it in as it’s happening, but it’s a lot easier once you have some time to think. … I think it was definitely the best year we’ve had and now that we’ve had some time off, I’m eager to get back out and start touring again.
And I’ve been writing a lot. After putting out that first record, it was something that we’d never really done before. It was our first time making an album and we learned a lot of things and I think that everybody’s in the headspace that this next one’s going to be even better, so we’re working hard.
What was the common bond that brought you all together musically? You blend influences all the way from Smashing Pumpkins and Metallica to John Prine, right?
Five of the six of us are all from the same little small town in Kentucky, or bordering towns within about 30 minutes of each other. I kind of knew everybody before we started the band. We just got together and started jamming. I’m a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan. Most of the guys are big metalheads. They love Metallica, Black Sabbath, Primus, all that stuff. I think everybody bonded over just our love for rock music. There is obviously some country influence, but I never really considered it that. We were just a garage band, and it’s hard to not bond when you’re sitting there in a garage playing cover songs. The Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, Black Crowes. It was that kind of grunge stuff that really glued us all together.
You can hear that still, and then there’s a rootsy folk side to it, too. When did you start writing songs?
I’ve been writing songs my whole life, but nothing ever really serious. I would write funny songs when I was in high school and I wrote a song about our basketball team one time, just as a parody thing. And I always really enjoyed playing guitar and being creative. I was into visual art and graphic design for a while. Then I kind of went through some stuff in my personal life and decided I wanted to sit down and write some songs about it. That ended up being the first EP [three twenty four]. That would’ve been 2023, I think. I always loved guys like John Prine and Bob Dylan and even Billy Corgan of the Pumpkins, just the uniqueness of the songwriting. I think for lyrics, I look to those guys, and then for the music we kind of look all over the place.
I hear there’s a pizza shop in there somewhere, right? We keep seeing pizza references in the socials and songs. Is the shop like an easter egg for you?
Yeah, I think so. I worked at a pizza restaurant in Hawesville, Kentucky, for about four years when I would come home from school. And then there’s another guy in the band, Ryan, his brother owned the pizza restaurant, so he worked there as well for years. When we first started practicing, rehearsing, and getting ready to go around playing bar gigs, we would rehearse in the back of Galaxy Pizza after close. We’d set up all our equipment back in the arcade section and jam until one in the morning. And then we got our bass player, Colby, and he had a garage, so we moved to his garage. But yeah, I grew up right next to Galaxy and it’s kind of a staple in our hometown, so we just try to let that side of us show through our content and all the visual side of stuff.
Tell me about putting the album together. Smokestack Town was one of my favorites of the year, so congratulations on how it came out. What did you want? I mean, creating a debut album is a pretty big moment. It might seem like an overwhelming task, so what were you going for?
We didn’t have a hardcore plan. I was just writing songs and I got six of ’em that I was really proud of. We went recorded and I was like, “Okay, I think this could be an album.” So I was writing as we were recording the album, and then the last song that I wrote was “Smokestack Town.” I was like, “That seems like a good name.”
I just wanted to push ourselves and try to do something different sonically than we had before. We got together with Jacquire King who produced it, and he’s one of the best of the best. He took my vision and ran with it and we’re very happy. We just wanted to put ourselves out there and let people in, see what kind of music we listen to.
That’s interesting, because it’s been presented as a concept album. But it sounds like you were building the concept as you went.
If it’s a concept album, it’s more so on the visual content side of things, because we’ve been putting out these little short videos of character acting. Taking the lead from the Foo Fighters.
Totally!
But there were just a lot of overarching themes in the record about home. Missing home, being homesick, being young. Plus that idea of small town, kind of dystopian … but not really.
Right, you wrote all these characters who are definitely small town people, with small town stories. But the thing I appreciate was they’re not stereotypical tailgate anthems or “I’m so country.” Nothing like that. Where were you coming from?
After I left Galaxy, I worked in an aluminum mill for a year and a half, and my dad works at the paper mill. Hawesville is a very industry-driven town. I think it’s different from your typical country town because it’s so labor-driven and everybody’s proud to be union and blue-collar. It’s less sitting on tailgates and drinking beer and more going to work a 16-hour shift and coming home and sleeping.
I wanted that to come through, because in country music it is a lot of sitting out in the boonies, drinking beer, and sitting on a tailgate. But I wanted to write my experience growing up in my little country town. There’s nothing to do, so we just ran around all the time and went to all these different places and got into trouble there. I wanted to write about that side of stuff, and less about the country stuff.
Being a new band coming into the indie and roots music scene, did it feel like there’s a lot of opportunity and energy out there?
Everything’s been so great. We kind of blew up on social media and I don’t know if any of us were ready for that to happen, but it did. I think that the reception’s been great. We went out and started headlining shows fairly early and we were selling them out. That’s a great feeling, because when you do blow up like that on social media, it’s hard to really put a gauge on what that means – until you go out and play a headline show and you see the crowd and they’re singing, and you go play a festival with all these big names and it’s your first time out there, and the crowd’s into it. And that’s kind of how it was.
True, and you finished last year with a huge statement in Owensboro, right? Hometown show, New Year’s Eve. Your first arena show and you sold it out. What was the feeling like on stage?
It was weird because it was both the most nervous I’ve ever been and the most comfortable I’ve ever been. You look out in the crowd, you see people you know, and you don’t get that a whole lot when you’re touring. It was just super cool. I got to sleep at the house I grew up in. The whole day just felt good. It was nice to be home and have family coming in and out and friends. Just the perfect way to end the year.
Y’all cleaned up nicely in the tuxedos. Did you put some extra polish on the performance, too?
Yeah, I thought it was New Year’s, we might as well get some tuxedos. I thought everybody looked nice. I want to do it more often. I dunno how the other guys feel about it. We’ll see.
@ole60music🗣️ said it don’t hurt and I called your bluff♬ original sound – Ole 60
You’re getting back on the road for the Smokestack Town Tour this winter. What’s everybody looking forward to? What’s the vibe?
The new year feels like a fresh start to change the show and really put a lot of thought into what we want to do with it. We’ve got some new production stuff, new lighting, and I’m really excited for everybody to see it. I think everybody just wants to go out there and every night needs to be the best show we’ve ever played. We’re playing bigger shows this year and we’re super excited, super grateful.
Earlier you said you’ve been writing, can you give us a hint about what’s been inspiring lately?
Yeah, I’ve been listening to a lot to indie rock, and what I listen to comes through in what I write. So definitely it sounds like Ole 60, but it’s new, and I’m still kind of figuring it out. But I’m really excited that the direction everything’s headed. I don’t have any idea about timelines for new music, but I have been writing a lot and I’m really excited about all of it.
Jacob, thank you for the time. I’ll leave you with the big picture – I always ask people what they hope listeners take away from their work. So what’s that look like to you?
I just hope that our story can be inspiring to others through the fact that we came from a town where after you graduate, you either go to college, you go to the military, or work in a factory, and that’s your options. And there’s always other options out there. You just got to put your head down, work hard and good things will come.
Photo Credit: Wales Toney
