Rising country singer Wade Forster isn’t exactly shy about where he came from — even if his love of country music once made him a target.
The “Fighting Tears” singer recently opened up about growing up in rural Australia and getting picked on after leaving home for boarding school, where his fellow students weren’t exactly lining up for Brooks & Dunn.
For the aspiring singer, loving country music came with a price at school.
Bullied for Loving Country Music
Forster recalled that country music wasn’t nearly as cool in Australia as it is today, particularly among the city kids at his school.
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After leaving his rural hometown as a teenager to attend boarding school in the city, Forster said his love of country music quickly became something other students mocked.
“I got bullied for it,” he said on the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast. “I got bullied, and I was like, ‘What are you going to do? These are city kids, I could knock your teeth out.’ They stopped bullying me pretty quick.”
Apparently, the country boy had a simple solution.
Brooks & Dunn Was the Catalyst
Forster’s love of country music started much earlier, thanks in large part to his parents.
I grew up rodeoing with my dad and mom, and they had the big CD folder, and it was a mixed bag. We’d go from Limp Bizkit to George Jones, then to a Tom T. Hall CD straight into a Gorillaz CD. I was very blessed to live a very cultured life in music.
While Forster said he had a particular soft spot for Reba McEntire, Brooks & Dunn ultimately became the duo that pulled him deeper into country music.
“I think the first band that I sort of fell in love with was Brooks & Dunn,” he said. “Who doesn’t love Brooks & Dunn?“
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Forster said “Memory Town” was one of his favorite songs as a kid, and his passion for the genre only grew from there.
“Country music in Australia, it was taboo,” he explained. “It was for us outback kids, (or) bush people.”
Now, the rising country singer is turning that childhood love of the genre into his own career — and proving that the music he once got picked on for loving was always worth standing up for.
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Gallery Credit: Sterling Whitaker
