Brett Young

Brett Charles Young (born March 23, 1981) is an American country music singer-songwriter from Orange County, California. He was a college baseball pitcher but took up songwriting after getting injured. His self-titled debut EP, produced by Dann Huff, was released by Republic Nashville on February 12, 2016. The lead single, "Sleep Without You", was released on April 11.

Young was born in Anaheim, Orange County. He attended Calvary Chapel High School in Costa Mesa, California, and then Ole Miss, Irvine Valley College, and Fresno State University. He started singing in the late 1990s when he stepped in to replace an absent leader of the band during a Christian worship meeting at high school.

Young was a pitcher on his high school baseball team and led the squad to a CIF championship. He went to Ole Miss on a baseball scholarship in 1999 after turning down pre-draft selection by both Tampa Devil Rays and Minnesota Twins. In his one-season on the Rebel baseball team in 2000, he earned a varsity letter and posted two wins and two saves. He lettered for one season at Irvine Valley before moving to Fresno. However, his pursuit of a professional baseball career was cut short by an elbow injury while at Fresno in 2003.

According to Young, he was inspired by Gavin DeGraw after he heard his album Chariot and decided to return to music. Young independently released a self-titled 4-song EP in 2007, then Make Believe in 2011, followed by the albums Brett Young, On fire, and Broken Down in 2012-13.

After eight years based in Los Angeles, Young moved to Nashville. He was soon signed by the Big Machine Label Group in August 2015.