Tyler Childers w/Marcus King at The Armory

Childers grew up in Lawrence County, Kentucky, with a father in the coal industry and a mother who worked as a nurse. As a boy, he sang for his Free Will Baptist Church congregation and learned a few chords on a guitar given to him by his grandfather. He absorbed the classic rock his father liked, along with country artists of the ‘80s, such as Alabama, Ricky Skaggs, and Hank Williams Jr. He started writing songs at 13 and occasionally played them for friends at parties. At 15, when his grandfather died, Childers turned to bluegrass as a way to remember him.

With this kind of musical versatility even as a teenager, Childers started pursuing weekend gigs, enabling him to get into local bars well before he turned 21. In 2011, he released an independent album, followed by a couple of live EPs, but it wasn’t until Purgatory in 2017 that he garnered international attention.

GRAMMY® Award-nominated artist, performer, and songwriter Marcus King was downright destined to play music. By eight-years-old, the fourth generation Greenville, SC native performed alongside pops, grandpa, and his uncles for the first time. Logging thousands of miles on the road as “The Marcus King Band,” he established himself with unparalleled performance prowess and a dynamic live show. During 2020, he linked up with Dan Auerbach [The Black Keys] and cut his solo debut El Dorado, garnering a GRAMMY® Award nomination in the category of “Best Americana Album.” Beyond praise from NPR, American Songwriter, and more, Rolling Stone christened it “excellent,” and Associated Press went as far as to claim, “El Dorado already stands out as a definite high point of 2020.” In between packing venues on his own, he performed alongside Chris Stapleton, Greta Van Fleet, and Nathanial Rateliff in addition to gracing the bills of Stagecoach and more with one seismic show after the next. Along the way, he caught the attention of Rick Rubin and signed to American Recordings.

Plugged into his old man’s dusty amp with a ’59 Les Paul in hand, Marcus set out to make a rock ‘n’ roll record in 2022. He didn’t disguise his ambitions at all. He didn’t hold back. He didn’t think about anything but writing from the gut, shooting from the hip, and playing straight from the heart. Joined by Auerbach, he made the kind of rock ‘n’ roll record that makes arenas and asses shake, and it’s called Young Blood [American Recordings/Republic Records].