The Perfect Time to Focus on Growth: Bryan Ruby Chats About ‘Growing Season’

Bryan Ruby, the professional baseball player turned country musician, is still relatively new to the music scene, having released his debut single, “Left Field,” in 2022. However, he has established himself as a sought-after songwriter with over 40 songs to his name and was a finalist in the 2023 John Lennon International Songwriting Prize. Since breaking out as a singer and songwriter, Ruby has made a name for himself in country music with earworm choruses, introspective storytelling, an energetic country rock sound, and a voice that was made for country music. His upcoming EP, Growing Season, is sure to win him over even more fans. Growing Season blends Ruby’s baritone voice with honest, gritty storytelling, anthemic choruses, and explosive country rock guitar riffs.

Ruby chats with OFM about Growing Season, coming out as gay while playing professional baseball, and founding Proud To Be In Baseball, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advocating, educating, and creating opportunities for future LGBTQ+ people in baseball.

How Growing Season Came to Fruition

“It is really just about where I’m at in my life right now,” Ruby says about Growing Season. “I put an EP out last year called Found & Lost. That was a story of a recent heartbreak and what comes after heartbreak. It’s growth. You have to sit with yourself and learn more about yourself. The reason why I decided to release this project now was because I just felt this is the perfect time to focus on growth. I’ve been here in Nashville for five years chasing this crazy country music dream, and it’s far from certain it’s gonna work out, but I’m believing it every day and telling myself it’s gonna work. The songs on the EP like ‘Diggin’’ I’m digging in and going for it with this dream. I’m going to work every day. That’s another song that’s on it. It’s literally called ‘Going To Work.’ This dream is going to work out. It’s motivational; it’s current with what’s going on with my life, and it’s got some grit to it with some country rock vibe.”

Trying to Find a Signature Sound, Making Authentic Music, and Musical Influences

With Growing Season, Ruby feels that he is trying to find his signature sound. “I have a lot of influences across country, pop, rock, and R&B,” he comments. “I have danced around what I have wanted my sound to be like with my debut EP, Diamonds Are Forever, in 2023, and then the recent heartbreak EP last year in 2024.” Additionally, Ruby finds this upcoming EP to be more focused on who he is as an artist. “A big part of it for me was saying, ‘As an LGBTQ+ person in country music, I’m gonna make this dream work out for me.’ I know that there haven’t been a ton of examples in mainstream country, like on country radio, artists who have been out and proud from the start of their careers, but I feel so lucky that we’re living in a time period where we can be out. I want to make my music authentic to me and country music and show that we belong here, too.”

One of Ruby’s biggest musical influences is Chris Stapleton. “I feel really connected to Stapleton as one of my hero figures because he started as a songwriter,” smiles Ruby. “He wrote a ton of songs for other artists before he got his chance, and I feel the same for me. I’m kind of trying to follow that path. I started out writing songs for a lot of different artists here in Nashville, written over 40 songs that have been recorded by various country, pop, and Americana singers. So I dream about starting from that songwriter spot and then one day getting a chance as an artist, and hopefully, we’re getting closer and closer to that day.”

The Creative Process Of Growing Season 

“Diggin’ (Til The Corn Comes Up)” is an infectious, energetic, lively country rock tune. “That’s probably my favorite song on the EP just because it’s got such an edge to it,” grins Ruby. “I love Aerosmith. I love Queen and the showmanship of Freddie Mercury. It’s a grit but also catchy. You can sing along to Queen songs. They’re catchy. I wanted to do that with ‘Diggin’’ with the repetitiveness of the chorus to try and make it an anthemic chorus like that but country. On the country rock side, I love Eric Church. That’s a big influence. And Ashley McBryde. It’s a combo of Aerosmith, Queen, Eric Church, Ashley McBryde, and Chris Stapleton because I love the power of the vocals, the honesty, and the storytelling.”

“Diggin’ (Till The Corn Comes Up)” also has a pretty dope guitar solo on it. “I’m always down for a guitar solo,” states Ruby. “I wanted to have that moment where our guitarist can really rip it—The electric guitarist on ‘Diggin’’ Nathan Keeterle, he is a real shredder. He did a great job with the solo. That’s not me on the solo. I wish I could play that well.”

It may surprise people that “Ball Cap,” considering its title and the fact that Ruby played professional baseball, is not actually about baseball specifically. “It’s really just what’s important to you,” shares Ruby. “You really learn a lot about a person when you see what hat they’re wearing and what’s important to them, whether it’s their favorite charity organization, sports team, of their school or church, and so on. You learn a lot about people. It’s people’s way of showing the world what’s important to them. Even though the song hasn’t come out yet, the people I’ve shown it to have connected with it in their own way, which is exactly what I’m trying to do as an artist. Put the music out there, and let people connect to it and form relationships with the music based on their own lives.”

Meanwhile, the song “Growin’ On Me” Ruby describes is very much about his life but that it is also about fitting in and feeling like you belong in the place where you live. “‘Growin’ On Me’ is a song for anyone who maybe moved somewhere where they felt like they didn’t fit in, like they maybe moved to the big city, and it wasn’t for them,” shares Ruby. “I know that there are a ton of LGBTQ+ people who aren’t in big cities, and I think that a lot of times, it’s assumed that you have to move to New York or LA to fit in. To that, I would say, ‘We’re everywhere, and y’all have every right to be a country music fan just like anybody else.’”

Coming Out as Gay While Playing Baseball

Before he was a country musician, Ruby played professional baseball. He came out as gay in 2021, while still playing baseball. Coming out was a very scary thing for Ruby to do but something he is very proud of doing. “I thought I was going to lose my job,” he recalls. “There were two goals. The first goal was to be the person I didn’t see as a kid: out and proud, actively playing. The second goal was to keep my job. That was literally it. I just wanted to show you could be a valuable member of the team and contribute to and help the team. And that it wasn’t a weakness, far from it. It was a strength to have different kinds of people on your team from different backgrounds and walks of life who could help the team win. I’m proud that I did that, and it was definitely something that the younger me, little me, needed to see. I have no regrets with baseball. I actually had several contract offers to continue playing, and I had come out and played for another year or two afterwards.”

Meeting Aaron Judge at Spring Training

“Throughout my time playing baseball, I was a journeyman guy playing at the lower levels of independent league and international league baseball, so I was never really on the path to the major leagues,” reflects Ruby. Despite never playing in the MLB, he did have a cool encounter with superstar player Aaron Judge during Spring Training.

“I was working out during the offseason with a lot of the minor leaguers in the New York Yankees system, and I was in Tampa during Spring Training. It must have been 2016 or 2017. We were at batting practice at night in the batting cages and a couple of cages away we kept hearing CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! One after another, and we were like, ‘What’s going on over there?’ We ended up walking over and introducing ourselves, and it was Aaron Judge and Pete Kozma. It was a cool day. We got to meet them, hang out, and talk. But it was also the day I realized I wasn’t gonna make it to the major leagues because that’s an example of what a major leaguer looks like, 6′ 7″ and built like a freight train.”

Pursuing the Dream of Being a Country Musician

For a while, Ruby juggled being a country musician and baseball player but realized that it was incredibly difficult to do so. Eventually, he decided to pursue his career as a musician, something he is very happy that he did. “I have no regrets with baseball, but I recognized that a decade and a half ago, I was that kid listening to country radio on the way to baseball practice and wondering if there was anybody like me out there that I could hear on the radio,” he reflects. “I take a lot of pride in being an artist who is out and visible. It’s definitely the path that I’m chasing. I feel like I didn’t really have a leg up coming from baseball. I had to start over in music.

A lot of what I’ve done over the past couple of years is playing at bars, hotels, small gigs, cover gigs, playing for tips, and trying to get booked. When I get to open for an artist or play a festival, it’s still the anomaly. It’s rare. Most of what I do is working my way up through the bar circuit—It’s going to work every day, playing your best, improving your skill set, working on your show, and working on your vocal delivery and audience interaction.”

Continuing to be Involved With Baseball

Even though Ruby no longer plays professional baseball, he still loves the game, has many friends who continue to play the game, and is involved in many aspects of the sport. “I sing a lot of national anthems—I’ve done the national anthem at a few dozen ballparks,” he says. Ruby has done the anthem for the LA Dodgers, Atlanta Braves, New York Mets, Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates, and San Francisco Giants. “I’m a community advisor of the Nashville Stars, which is the team here in Nashville that is trying to be a major league expansion team. That’s a great story. I really hope that Nashville can get a major league team one day.”

Shortly after coming out in 2021, Ruby founded the nonprofit organization Proud To Be In Baseball. “It’s just basically an organization to advocate for underrepresented groups in baseball,” he says. “I think anyone should be able to play baseball if they want to.” The organization, dedicated to advocating, educating, and creating opportunities for future LGBTQ+ individuals in baseball, is very close to his heart and something he is passionate about. “Even though I’m a country singer right now, my heart is also in that, and I do dedicate a lot of volunteer hours towards that as well. It’s a passion of mine, and hopefully, the charity can grow as well over the years.”

Concluding Comments

Growing Season is set to drop on July 11. “Personally, it really is a reflection of where I am in my life right now,” reflects Ruby. “I also think it’s a reflection of where we are in the world. We have to find a way to keep growing. In my own personal life and my music journey, there are days when I don’t want to get out of bed, and there are days when I feel beaten down. Being LGBTQ+ in country music, feeling like I have to work twice as hard or three, four or five times as hard just to get the same opportunities as other artists. Embracing the growth aspect of it and realizing that if you’re waking up and doing the best you can every day, that’s all you can do. So, Growing Season is that. It’s my personal way of saying it’s time to dig in and do the work. It’s 2025, and I want to be somebody who shows that chasing your dreams is possible and be a beacon of hope in country music and promoting positivity and growth. That’s really why I wrote these songs.”

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Photo courtesy of Bryan Ruby