Kashus Culpepper, a 27-year-old country singer from Alabama, is reaching a significant milestone in his career. In an interview, he shared that he is about to board a plane to the UK to participate in the C2C Festival.
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03-23, 2025At the C2C Festival, Culpepper is performing alongside country music stars such as Lainey Wilson, Dierks Bentley, and Cody Johnson. Currently, Culpepper has arrived in Australia, preparing to participate in the grand, sold-out CMC Rocks festival in Queensland this weekend.
"This is the first time I've taken my music to an international stage, and I'm incredibly excited," he exclaimed. "Since I started creating original music, I've received many messages from overseas asking when I would visit the UK or Australia. I'm thrilled to finally be able to make it happen."
Although he says "finally," the journey hasn't actually been that long. In early 2020, Culpepper was still a Navy soldier stationed in Spain. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, and he suddenly needed to find something to pass the time. He recalled, "Italy had shut down, and Spain was right behind it, so I needed something to occupy my brain."
"A friend of mine found me a guitar in the barracks. I had always wanted to learn guitar. I grew up in the Disney Channel era and always thought bands like the Jonas Brothers were cool, rocking out on guitars. I thought, 'Man, I wish I could do that too,' but I never did it as a kid." During the pandemic, he felt the time was right because his favorite artists all played instruments. "I thought, 'I have nothing else to do. I can't work. So let me try the guitar and finally commit.' It wasn't long before I started learning chords and started singing along while playing."
He quickly learned some chords and taught himself how to fulfill requests from his fellow Navy members. He recalled, "They wanted me to play 'Sweet Home Alabama,' and occasionally some Fleetwood Mac and Bill Withers songs. Just all kinds of stuff. I had some of the best times of my life there because it gave me an opportunity to learn a lot of new songs I never would have learned because people wanted me to learn them and play them for them at bonfires." He added, "I hated that COVID happened, but at the same time, I did learn something really cool."
Culpepper's love for music predates the day he picked up a guitar. From a young age, he sang in the small community church in Alexandria, Alabama. These experiences, and the way he talks about them, explain his soulful rendition of country music. He recalled, "I grew up in a little white church, up on top of a hill, and we had to walk up there every Sunday morning or Wednesday night if we had Bible study. We had red pews, and the air conditioning was broken, so everyone was sweating profusely. But it was always packed, and whatever troubles you had during the week, at church, everyone poured their souls into the music. You could feel that, whether you had a tough week or a happy week, all of that would be released in the singing and the pastor's sermon."
For Culpepper, this was an early insight into the transformative power of music, its ability to unite people and provide an outlet for emotional release. "I witnessed firsthand the raw souls that people showed when they sang and praised God in church. That was my first experience with music, and it was really impactful because it was so soulful. People were just pouring their entire being into the singing, the pastor's sermon. I just loved the soulfulness of the sound and how it made me feel."
Kashus Culpepper is scheduled to perform at the CMC Rocks festival at Willowbank Raceway on Friday and Saturday. For the latest information on country music, tune in to the ABC Country radio channel.
