Country singer Chase Matthew talks about dreams come true and his faith ahead of Pittsburgh show

Earlier this year, Chase Matthew checked off an item from his bucket list. Then a few months later, he got to do it again.

The 25-year-old rising country music singer hit the stage on March 14 at the iconic Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, with a return engagement earlier this month.

“It’s great, man,” Matthew said in a phone interview on Aug. 8, just hours before he was to hit the stage there again. “It’s a dream come true.”

Next up on his wish list are playing Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, having a No. 1 song and hitting platinum with his biggest single, “County Line.” In the meantime, Matthew will be hitting the road in support of his latest album, “Come Get Your Memory.” Matthew’s tour hits the Pittsburgh region on Sept. 8 with a stop at the Roxian Theatre in McKees Rocks.

“Come Get Your Memory,” his major-label debut under Warner Music Nashville, came out on June 9 and features 25 tracks, including songs co-written by country music veterans such as Hardy, Ernest, Ashley Gorley and Taylor Phillips. It follows on the heels of last year’s “Born For This.”

Matthew, a Nashville native, notably battled a drug problem and homelessness before straightening out his life and building his country music career.

In an interview before a tour soundcheck, Matthew touched on his faith, working with other songwriters, new music and the future:

On being from Nashville and making it in country music:

It’s a dream come true, being able to live the dream and also hear people’s stories. It’s one thing to see the numbers, see the likes and comments and follows and stuff on social media, but to actually see it translate into real people and hear them sing the music back, it’s crazy, man. I just want to make people smile and make the best music possible and live it up.

On encouraging people to believe in themselves and chase their dreams:

We’ve all been through something, you know. We all have a journey that brings us to where we need to be in life and things that God puts in our life to teach us lessons and teach us how to be better people. I think that my journey was, yeah, it was a tough ride, but, man, like it made me who I am today. A lot of people get down on themselves, we feel like we have to beat ourselves up to get somewhere, or blame ourselves. You just gotta live your life and trust God’s plan and trust Him to put you where you’re supposed to be and He’ll do it.

On the importance of sharing his faith:

Everybody comes through the doors every night and they’re probably trying to get their mind off of something, and my job is to make sure that they leave better than the way they came in. And the only way I can know how to do that is the way I was raised. I was raised up in church. I grew up playing in the youth band. It’s kind of wild to see where it all turned out and went from the youth band to out here to these big stages as well. I just want people to know that God’s got a plan for your life. Some people have been praying for a sign, and if you are, then this might be your sign, man. Chase your dreams and trust God to lead you where you need to be. Keep your eyes open and He’ll put you right where you’re supposed to be, for sure.

On the song he’s most proud of on his new album:

I really like “Come Get Your Memory.” I wrote it with Jordan Minton and Casey Brown, and it’s just become one of my favorite songs on the album so far, to the point we titled the album after it. It’s a great one.

On changing his mindset from only wanting to do his own songs:

I have a lot of friends in town and had an opportunity to write with a lot of really cool people, meet new people and make new friends. It’s kind of wild to see how they have changed my perspective as an artist. I’ve always been really stubborn about cutting outside songs and I had some friends that had these songs sitting in boxes. I was like, man, somebody has got to hear these songs, the world needs to hear these songs. I fell in love with them and really connected with them. … I just recorded them and we put them out, and it’s really cool. I hope people can relate to them, just like I did.

On who else he’d like to work with:

I’m working on my list. (Laughs) I don’t want to speak too soon, but we got some big things coming.

On new music in the works:

We always got new music coming, man. We’re always in the studio working on something, writing new stuff, even releasing older stuff. So we’ll see. There’s going to be a lot more projects coming so stay tuned, a lot of good things happening.

On hearing his music on the radio:

It was actually in West Virginia. I’ve never actually heard it like, just driving, say I’m just driving and my song comes on, that’s never really happened, just surprising me. But I have heard it being played on the radio and it’s a great feeling. I can’t explain it. There’s a lot of hard work that goes into this coming out and seeing how it just comes out tenfold to what you expected it, it’s wild.

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On the future:

I trust God’s plan. Every single day is a journey, you learn new things every day. Sometimes you just have to do it and learn as you go. But I’m going to keep recording music, putting out the best things I can, giving the fans what they want, shaking all the hands that need to be shook. It’s the industry, I’m glad to be here and I’m glad they’ve accepted me into this genre. As long as I’ve lived here, it’s been a dream of mine so I’m just glad to be living it in the city I grew up in.

On what concert-goers should expect:

The goal by the end of the night is that you leave better than the way you came in. We play a little bit of everything. We play a lot of originals, but we’ll play some cover songs, too. You’re not going to know all the music, especially if anybody who is new to coming to one of our shows, we want to play something they know that they can sing along to. It’s going to be great. … We couldn’t be more excited.