Chris Young credits one country legend from his formative listening years with inspiring a career that so far has earned him 10 No. 1 hits.
"A female artist that has definitely influenced me from perspective of stage show, vocalist, performance and just how much she has accomplished in her career that I look up to is Reba McEntire," Young told Sony Music Nashville in 2021.
If Young were to list off his Mount Rushmore of all-time great country artists, McEntire would make the cut, and there's "a whole lot of reasons why she should be on there." He added that "she's just a fantastic person, fantastic artist and like I said, [I] look to her for sure."
Young also credits Liz Rose as a major influence. Rose is a member of the Love Junkies team of songwriters with Lori McKenna and Hillary Lindsey as well as a regular Taylor Swift collaborator. Rose co-writes of note include "You Belong to Me" plus 16 other officially-released Swift songs as well as Little Big Town's "Girl Crush" and Carrie Underwood's "Cry Pretty."
"I got a chance to meet her really early on in my career and obviously she's had so many hits , so many hits," he shared. "But just being in a room with her, being able to learn from her, I feel incredibly lucky to have that opportunity and to have someone that's that adept at songwriting help me learn and help guide me as a songwriter and an artist."
Young is currently working on a new album, which likely will include the recently-released "Looking For You" and "All Dogs Go to Heaven." It'll be the followup to the Middle Tennessee native's 2021 release Famous Friends, which featured a Kane Brown duet as its title track.
