GEORGE PIPPEN’s childhood was nothing short of idyllic.
“I was able to play football in grade school, and I was a swimmer on the swim team in my neighborhood and then played hockey all through high school,” the country music singer-songwriter tells Indianapolis Monthly in a recent interview from his home in Nashville.
He paints a beautiful picture of his hometown of Carmel, Indiana.
“I always tell people that one day when I start my own family, it’s very likely that I will start it in Carmel,” he says with a sigh of nostalgia.
A 2015 Carmel High School graduate, Pippen’s love of music truly ignited when he was a senior at Wabash College. “I was always the guy that people would text to find out what music to listen to, whether old or new,” recalls Pippen. “A buddy of mine had actually moved out to Los Angeles to pursue music and do his own artist project. When I was about to graduate, his management just reached out to me and asked me if I wanted to come work for him. So I just took a chance.”
It was in Los Angeles that Pippen—who was working as a tour manager at the time—discovered his own voice one night, thanks to a few friends and a few too many drinks. Now the country-rock artist finds himself up-and-coming in Music City.
“It’s honestly incredible to me that there’s so many people that believe in what I’m doing,” says Pippen, who went viral with his addictive song “Indiana Knows My Name” and recently signed a deal with Virgin Records. “I’ve really developed my vocals and guitar playing over the last year-and-a-half. I never could have dreamed of something like this happening to me.”
Pippen has already opened for the likes of Megan Moroney and David Kushner and says his dreams don’t stop there. And his future is certainly looking good, with his EP Magnolia Nights, out last year and his latest single, “Rest of Our Life,” released in February.
“I’m a bit of a hopeless romantic, and I like to daydream about scenarios and thinking about spending the rest of my life with a girl that I’ve never even spoken to in my entire life,” says Pippen of the inspiration for the tender song he wrote alongside Rhys Rutherford and Mike Robinson. “I just felt myself having that experience and then brought it into my writing session.”
The rest is sure to be history.
“I’ve seen what God’s done for me so far,” he concludes. “And I can’t wait to see what is going to happen next.”
