Listen to Luke Bryan talk, and the natural twang in his voice tells you he's from as deep into the rural South as a young man can be. Listen to Luke Bryan sing, and the true-as-dirt details tells you he writes about who he is and what he knows. "Even my friends in Nashville laugh sometimes at how country I am," says the strapping singersongwriter in his good-natured drawl. "I've lived in Nashville now for more than four years, but I'm still adjusting to it because I can't do the things I've done my whole life. I go stir crazy, because I can't just walk out my door and go fishing or hunting or do something outdoors."

He grew up in Leesburg, Georgia—"It's 100 miles north of th...

Listen to Luke Bryan talk, and the natural twang in his voice tells you he's from as deep into the rural South as a young man can be. Listen to Luke Bryan sing, and the true-as-dirt details tells you he writes about who he is and what he knows. "Even my friends in Nashville laugh sometimes at how country I am," says the strapping singersongwriter in his good-natured drawl. "I've lived in Nashville now for more than four years, but I'm still adjusting to it because I can't do the things I've done my whole life. I go stir crazy, because I can't just walk out my door and go fishing or hunting or do something outdoors."

He grew up in Leesburg, Georgia—"It's 100 miles north of the Florida border, 100 miles East of the Alabama border and in the middle of nowhere," Luke says. The town didn't get its first traffic light until two years ago, after he had left. Back home, he'd helped his father with his peanut and fertilizer businesses while playing sports and enjoying the great outdoors. But everyone in Leesburg knew Luke loved to sing. He can remember his mother urging him to belt out George Strait songs over and over while she drove him into town to shop. By age 14, his parents bought him an Alvarez guitar. By 15, he'd become so good at entertaining his family that his father would take him down to a nearby club, Skinner's, where he shared guitar licks and lead vocals with other local country singers.