Early life

His parents are William Keith Swindell and Betty Carol Rainey. His father died unexpectedly on September 2, 2013 at 65. He grew up in Glennville, Georgia, and has two brothers.

Swindell attended Georgia Southern University, where he majored in marketing. He met Luke Bryan, who attended the same university some years earlier and was also a fellow Sigma Chi member, at the fraternity house when Bryan came back to Statesboro to do a show. They kept in touch, and after Swindell left college in 2007 and moved to Nashville, he sold merchandise for Bryan for three years, and wrote songs on the road.

Music career

Songwriting

In 2010, Swindell signed a publishing deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing.

Cole Swindell wrote Craig Campbell's "Outta My Head"; Luke Bryan's "Just a Sip", "Beer in the Headlights", "Roller Coaster", "Out Like That", "I'm Hungover", "In Love with the Girl", "Love in a College Town", "Shore Thing", "Shake the Sand" and "The Sand I Brought to the Beach"; Thomas Rhett's "Get Me Some of That"; and Scotty McCreery's "Water Tower Town" and "Carolina Eyes". He also co-wrote Florida Georgia Line's "This Is How We Roll" with Bryan, who was featured on the song. Chris Young also had a song on his A.M. album co-written by Swindell, "Nothin' but the Cooler Left".

2013-15: Cole Swindell

In 2013, after his independently released debut single "Chillin' It" was played heavily by satellite radio channel "The Highway" on SiriusXM, the song began to climb the charts, Swindell signed a record deal with Warner Music Nashville. The song was produced by Jody Stevens, who is the son of Luke Bryan's producer, Jeff Stevens, and was formerly one-half of the duo Fast Ryde. The recording of "Chillin' It" was a demo consisting of Swindell's vocals and Stevens performing all instrumentation, and it was sent to radio before it had been mastered.

Swindell released his self-titled debut album on February 18, 2014. Luke Bryan's guitarist, Michael Carter, produced the rest of the album. Along with Lee Brice, Swindell opened Luke Bryan's 2014 That's My Kind of Night Tour. The tour dates began in mid-January and ran into early March. "Chillin' It" became a top 5 hit on Country Airplay and number 1 single on Hot Country Songs. The album's second single is "Hope You Get Lonely Tonight", which Swindell co-wrote with both members of Florida Georgia Line. The album's third single, "Ain't Worth the Whiskey" released to country radio on November 3, 2014. It reached number one on the Country Airplay chart in April 2015. The album's fourth single, "Let Me See Ya Girl", was released to country radio on April 20, 2015. It reached number two on the Country Airplay chart in November 2015.

On November 17, 2014, Swindell released a five-song digital EP titled The Down Home Sessions. The EP release coincides with his headlining tour of the same name.

Swindell won the ACM New Artist of the Year Award in April 2015.

2015-present: You Should Be Here

The album's first single, "You Should Be Here" was released to country radio on December 14, 2015. It was written with Ashley Gorley. It reached at number one on the Country Airplay & Hot Country Songs in April 2016. The album's second single, "Middle of a Memory" released to country radio on May 2, 2016.

Swindell also released a music video for the song which featured a video of him telling his father he received a record contract and subsequent montages of Cole and his brothers grieving outside of the family home and at their father's grave. The video also shows images of Swindell's rising popularity while clearly conveying that he wanted to be able to see his father and share this fame experience with him.

Tours

Headlining

• The Down Home Tour

Supporting

• Burn It Down Tour with Jason Aldean (2015)

Discography

Albums

Title	Album details	Peak chart positions				Sales	Certifications
		US Country	US	AUS	CAN
Cole Swindell	Release date: February 18, 2014 Label: Warner Bros. Nashville Formats: CD, digital download	2	3	—	4	US: 432,000	RIAA: Platinum
You Should Be Here	Release date: May 6, 2016 Label: Warner Bros. Nashville Formats: CD, digital download	2	6	52	10	US: 88,600

Extended plays

Title	Album details	Peak chart positions			Sales
		US Country	US	CAN
Down Home Sessions	Release date: November 17, 2014 Label: Warner Bros. Nashville Formats: Digital download	8	36	—	US: 12,000
Down Home Sessions II	Release date: November 6, 2015 Label: Warner Bros. Nashville Formats: Digital download	11	43	74	US: 10,300
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions					Certifications	Sales	Album
		US Hot Country	US Country Airplay	US	CAN Country	CAN
2013	"Chillin' It"	1	2	28	5	38	RIAA: Platinum MC: Platinum	US: 1,075,000	Cole Swindell
2014	"Hope You Get Lonely Tonight"	7	1	50	6	74	RIAA: Platinum MC: Gold	US: 617,000
	"Ain't Worth the Whiskey"	3	1	43	10	62	RIAA: Platinum MC: Gold	US: 678,000
2015	"Let Me See Ya Girl"	9	2	59	8	99	RIAA: Gold	US: 282,000
	"You Should Be Here"	1	1	31	3	67		US: 567,000	You Should Be Here
2016	"Middle of a Memory"A	31	34

• ACurrent single.

Other charted songs

Year	Single	Peak chart positions			Sales	Album
		US Country	US	CAN
2014	"Hey Y'all"	—	—	93		Cole Swindell
2015	"Should've Ran After You"	27	118	—	US: 42,000	Down Home Sessions II
2016	"Flatliner"	36	—	—	US: 14,000	You Should Be Here
	"Stars"	41	—	—
	"Remember Boys"	27	—	—	US: 18,000
	"Broke Down"	28	—	—
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Music videos

Year	Video	Director
2013	"Chillin' It"	Michael Monaco, Shaun Silva
2014	"Hope You Get Lonely Tonight"	Peter Zavadil
2015	"Ain't Worth the Whiskey"	Michael Monaco
	"Let Me See Ya Girl"
	"You Should Be Here"

[ Source: Wikipedia ]