Growing up on her family's seventh-generation grain and cattle ranch in California, Callie Twisselman knows a thing or two about country life.
Now she is set to take the country music world by storm after signing a deal with Dolly Parton’s legendary manager.
Under Danny Nozell's tutelage, she has since moved to Nashville where she has honed her trade and been touring practically non-stop.
Music insiders predict her heartfelt lyrics and soaring choruses could make 2022 the year a new Country star cements their place in the public's hearts.
Mirror Online caught up with Callie in London shortly before her performance at C2C: Country to Country, at London's O2 Arena.
Q: How did you end up working with Dolly Parton’s manager
I met Danny through a producer, Kent Wells, who also plays guitar for Dolly. He was producing my project at the time. I didn't have a manager, and he said, "I think you really need a manager to get you going, and I know a guy that you should meet." And so we met up and the rest is history.
Q: Have you met Dolly and what was that like?
Well, I met her in 2016 on her last tour that she did, just passing backstage, but recently, I got to interview her with a few other girls for International Women's Day. That was really cool. She's very nice. Sweet, just like you'd think, in person.
Q: Were you quite nervous? She's the sort of person who puts you at ease quite quickly, isn't she?
Yeah, I thought it would be way more nerve wracking, but once you got in the seat and you started talking, she was so easy to talk to and just like, "Okay, this is easy. I'll just ask you a question."
Q: What did you talk about?
I asked her about fashion, because I love her style, and then some of the other girls would ask about the business, how do you stand up for yourself in a business when it's pretty much male dominated, and she just was giving us a lot of good advice about what to do in our careers and how to keep at it.
Q: What do you think about potential comparisons to her? Because obviously, you're with Danny, she's with Danny, and people might compare the two of you. How do you feel about that?
I mean, I would hope to have half the career she had one day, but if they compared me to her, I would say that's an honour. But she's always been an idol to me, and I look up to what she's done in the business as far as a songwriter and an artist, but also she has a very savvy business mind. So, being compared would be amazing.
Q: I mean, increasingly now, as well as obviously the music side of things, you do need that business acumen, don't you?
Yeah, I've been trying to learn more about that side rather than just the creative side of being an artist
Q: Tell me a little about your upbringing, it sounds idyllic.
Seventh generation. Yes. Central California, which most people think, California, the city, but there's lots of countryside. And so I grew up in the country on a grain and cattle ranch, and grew up riding horses and competing in rodeos,. But yeah, just lived the country life. My mum was a singer in a local country band, so that's kind of where I got the bug to want to try it myself, and just decided to move to Nashville four and a half years ago, and here I am.
Q: Tell me about when you first started singing, then. Were you quite inspired by your mum first? Do you remember her singing?
I remember a little bit, I was very tiny at the time. But her as well as Shania Twain was a big inspiration, because as I got a little older I remember her music video for Man, I Feel Like A Woman came on the TV, and I was like, "I want to be her.” I started out just singing the national anthem at 10 years old wherever I could, and kept at it, and then that's when I knew this is really what I want to do.
Q: When was the actual moment you thought perhaps you’d take singing professionally?
Well, I always knew I enjoyed it. I guess in high school, when I started putting a band together, and I'm like, "Okay, I'm going to be serious about this." But pretty much when I moved four and a half years ago is when I was like, "I'm going full fledged, moving 2000 miles from home, and I'm going to go for it and just see what happens."
Q: What was it like uprooting yourself from all your family and friends?
It was the hardest thing I have ever did, because I was going back and forth a lot recording and playing some shows, but then I finally made the move because my manager, Danny, was like, "You got to be here. You got to be where the music's at." But it was so hard moving from my family because we're so close. But then I was like, "Wow, this is where you got to be." and it was the most inspiring place to write songs. I wrote as many songs in one month as I could in California in a year.
Q: That’s amazing. That's what they say about Nashville, isn't it? It's got some sort of strange aura around it.
Yeah, something about the town is really creative and inspiring.
Q: There are lots of sharks in the industry. You have to be quite careful. Is that something you've been very mindful of, in terms of your career and navigating through it all?
Yes, because you meet people that'll just want to take your money or are like, "We'll do this for you if you pay," and then nothing happens. And so when you meet someone that's genuine, like Danny, you can tell now, okay, this is the type of person that will actually help you and not try to...
Q: Tell me about the video for your song Cowboy. Obviously, it draws from your childhood?
Yes, that was really fun because we shot it on my family's ranch. It was fun to be home and riding my own horse. I grew up riding horses and have my own horse back home. Eventually I want to get him over to Nashville, but that'll come.
Q: What do your parents think about your career, particularly your mum?
They love it. My mum, she's practically living through me, her dreams, because that's what she wanted to do. But they're very supportive and just always there when I need them and happy to follow along the journey.
Q: What's your plan this year music-wise
Well, yes, we released the EP and then doing a lot of live shows, trying to hopefully book a tour here coming up soon. We're playing the South by Southwest, and then after that we're going to try and record some new music in the studio and write a lot with some other writers, and hopefully go from there.
Q: As you said before, Dolly's got such a business head on her shoulders, and she's got her fingers in many pies. Is there anything that you want to do beyond music to branch out or are you just firmly focused on the music?
Well, mostly the music right now and then eventually maybe have a shoe fashion line.
That would be a dream. But I got to start somewhere. Start with the music, then go from there.
Q: Once you’ve got past the jet lag, what have you been up to in the UK
Well, we saw Big Ben, then the London Eye. I love it here and would love to come back.
*Callie’s new single Cowboy is out now
