Rising country artist Nick Hickman pays tribute to a special fan with new single “I’ve Been Prayin’”

As Nashville artist Nick Hickman hustled for years to make a name for himself in country music, he’s always had the support of his grandmother.

But his biggest advocate, now stricken with dementia, won’t get to see what all that hard work was for.

Hickman, a Tennessee native who’s been in Nashville about six years, penned his latest single “I’ve Been Prayin’” in her honor.

I’d call her up about every day, just to hear her say, I’ve been prayin’, he sings in the song’s first verse. She’d ask me how I am and how Nashville’s treating me. Then she’d tell me how she’s waiting to see me on TV.

“I wanted to do something for her,” Hickman says, “kind of say thank you. When I moved to town, for about a year or two I couldn’t afford anything. I slept in my car and she always had my back. I wanted to write a song to let her memory live on. She has dementia now so she’ll never get to see the payoff. Every dime she invested in me, every hour she was awake worrying about me being on the road, sleeping in my car, she’ll never get to see the payoff and we’re close. It was just a way to say I love you Granny, hope you know that.”

Now thousands of Hickman’s fans are hearing for themselves the impact his grandmother has made. The single has already been streamed more than 100,000 times on Spotify – along with his other 2023 release, “Turn The Other Cheek.”

The single’s release comes right as bigger doors are about to open for Hickman, who’s already shared the stage with influences like Blake Shelton, Lee Brice, Justin Moore, Jason Aldean, Love & Theft and Eli Young Band. And those opportunities came despite never having taken a meeting with a record label.

“I’ve never taken a meeting with anybody,” Hickman says. “I’ve never reached out to anybody. When I moved to town I had a vision and I had people helping me. You get one shot at this thing and I wanted to make sure I was completely ready. I’ve been literally waiting six years for this point. I feel like all the stuff I’ve done has been pretty good, but not to the level this new stuff is on.”

Hickman, who built his own recording studio in Nashville while going from sleeping in his car to a full-time touring musician with a band he pays a salary, has had a prolific career to this point.

He released nearly a dozen singles before dropping his first EP, Let’em Speak, in 2017 and followed that up with the Green Light Go EP in 2019. He dropped a full album, Feels Like Home, in 2022 – and followed that up with a six song self-titled EP and the six-song Oakdale EP all before the end of the year.

“I bet on myself and figured it out as I went,” he says. “The recording has gotten better but I’ve also gotten better as a writer. I play 170 shows a year so obviously I’m a better singer. I’m better than I was six years ago. Ten-thousand hours to be an expert and I’m getting damn near close to that.”

Hickman and his band will start recording a new record in October and are currently wrapping up the Bridges to Burn tour, which closes with more than two dozen dates across six states this autumn.

“We’ve put out four records in the past three years with no outside influences,” he says. “I wrote every song by myself or with my guitar player Jeff who’s my best friend. We’ve got nobody telling us what to do or how to do it. We produce and engineer it ourselves. That was always my goal, to chase down me. Just trying to do what I love and whatever comes out, comes out.”

“We’re all authentic mainly because we don’t have anybody telling us what do to,” he says. “We work our asses off. I demanded everybody in my band be passionate, sweet, kind and loving. I don’t care if somebody is mean to us or we get treated like trash and heckled. Always remember you get paid very well to play music, so don’t be anything other than kind and humble and loving.”

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