Never thought it would turn into the career he has now. Wyatt Flores has quickly become a household name among country music’s red dirt scene and beyond after breaking out back in 2023 thanks to the continued success of his 2022 platinum single, “Please Don’t Go,” and other viral hits such as “Losing Sleep” and “Break My Bones.” The 24-year-old singer/songwriter stunned everyone upon the release of his debut album, Welcome To The Plains, released in the fall of 2024.
The record, which instantly transported you to Flores’ home in Oklahoma, proved to be one of the year’s best releases. Not only did it build upon the patented red dirt-inspired sound that he has been curating throughout his career, but it also contained some of the best songwriting moments of the year on stellar tracks such as the heartbreaking “Oh Susannah,” the brooding “Stillwater,” and the morbid, yet hilarious “When I Die.”
Outside his headlining tours, Flores has also opened for major names like the Turnpike Troubadours, 49 Winchester, Charles Wesley Godwin, and, soon, George Strait.
Flores has hit significant milestones in a short time and has no plans to slow down, sharing at the end of 2025 that his next record is complete and will take fans into a new chapter of his sound, sounding nothing like Welcome To The Plains.
“Well, folks, it’s that time of year again. We’re all wrapping presents up and being around family, and I just want to say thank you for the last year of being on a whole bunch of ‘Welcome To The Plains’ tours. And watching y’all really latch onto that music means a whole lot.
By the time that you probably will get this video, I’ll have the next album done, and I’ve got to say it is nothing like ‘Welcome To The Plains.’ I’m very excited to show off what I’ve been reflecting on over the last year. Hope y’all like it.”
While fans are eagerly awaiting what is in store for Flores this year, during a recent sit-down with Dale Brisby for an episode of the Rodeo Time Podcast, the Stillwater native revealed that he never thought playing music would lead him to where he is today.
In fact, his goal was never to be famous but to build a fulfilling career that would support him and, one day, a family:
“The way that it all came about in my head was that I just wanted to be happy with what I did. I watched so many people grow up, you know, they all think that they’re going to have the job and blah, blah, blah, blah, all that. And then I watch them, and they’re miserable. And they come back to town, and I look at them, and I’m just like, ‘You’re dead in the eyes. You hate life.’
And I’m like, ‘I don’t want to do that. I’d rather just go be free.’ So my goal, literally my goal, was just to make enough money to support myself and to support a family. At that time, I was a ranch hand, and my boss was nice enough to let me go play shows on the weekends.”
Flores then shared that after dropping out of Oklahoma State University, he put his goal of staying happy into action, working on a ranch during the day and playing bass in a band at night.
“Because I quit school because I was getting into all these bars up in Northeast Oklahoma, and I was with the band at that point. I’d open up for them for 45 minutes, and then I’d play bass the other two hours with the band. 19 years old…It’s a heck of a gig. So that band ended up not working out, and I chose a solo career and just went for it and just started playing gigs, and gigs, and gigs, and gigs, and I’d just go to work and ranch and farm, and ranch and farm.
Then the next thing you know, it just led from one big show went to the next and it just started going. Then I moved Nashville for two years, still wasn’t really making… At that point my shows quit and they were like ‘We need you to start writing,’ because I got with some management company. And I’m grateful I did start writing and start taking it serious.
But I didn’t start making money for a long time, and it wasn’t until last year, yeah, last year, February, I finally started getting paychecks.”
When you’re touring, a lot of the money you’re making is going back into the business of paying your band, travel expenses, and more. It takes a long time to make a living in this industry, and it’s encouraging to hear Flores speak so openly about the time it took him to get to this point. Flores’ dedication to his craft not only fulfilled his goal of having a career that made him happy, but it also fulfilled his secondary goal of having five people sing one of his songs back to him.
“I was just like, ‘I want to be happy playing music.’ And then it turned into all of this.”
Flores has surpassed the second goal by more than 100x. Although it sounds cheesy, hearing Flores talk about how he made his dreams come true is a good reminder never to stop chasing your dreams because you never know where they could take you.
Check out the entire interview while you’re here:
