Billy Currington Surprised by Success: Earns His First Platinum

Billy Currington has a hot new single in “Tangled Up” and he’s just earned his first platinum album. At a recent party in Nashville celebrating the platinum status of Doin’ Something Right, he told Country Weekly that success snuck up on him.Billy Currington - Courtesyof GATV.com“I didn’t see it coming,” he says. “It was out of the blue, because we had the first album, and there were a lot of songs on there that didn’t make the radio, so it didn’t allow the record to get out there and sell and do what it needed to do. So at 200,000, it crashed, so it was like a heartbreak back then.”

Billy says things got better when he released his next album Doin’ Something Right and the title song went gold. “I think, ‘Wow! We’re on our way to platinum,’ ” he says. “Then all of a sudden, sales just dropped for some strange reason, and I was told we had to move on to the next album. And that just crushed me. It broke my heart…when you’re a songwriter and you dream this big dream for years and years and it doesn’t happen.”

Billy told his label, ‘Just put another song out there and I know it’ll go platinum.’ And they were so nice. My record label was so good to me. They were like, “All right, Billy. You want to put the turnip greens song out there, let’s put it out there.” And they did and they got behind it. And we’re sitting at platinum. It’s such a cool experience to see it happen like that.”

Now Billy has learned to deal with the ups and downs of the business. “It always feels like you’ve just gotta keep working,” he says, “which is good for me, ’cause if I ain’t working it’s like my grandma said, ‘Idle time is the devil’s workshop’ and I’ll get in trouble. So, I’m just glad to be working. I’m glad to have a record deal. It’s very hard to come by.”

~Courtesy of GACTV Country Music Photo Gallery

About Shauna "WhiskeyChick" Castorena

Shauna "WhiskeyChick" Castorena is a freelance writer for both Country Music News and Country Music On Tour. Want to collab on some content? Email me. Want my rates for commercial promo work outside of music? Get them right here.

One Reply to “Billy Currington Surprised by Success: Earns His First Platinum”

  1. I need lyrics to ‘Turnup Greens” for a young man in jail. How do I get them online?