Ben Rector
Background information
Birth nameBenjamin Evans Rector
Born (1986-11-06) November 6, 1986 (age 37)
Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.
Genres
Occupation(s)Singer-songwriter, musician
Instrument(s)
  • Piano
  • guitar
  • vocals
DiscographyBen Rector discography
Years active2006–present
LabelsAptly Named/Roar, OK Kid
Websitebenrectormusic.com

Benjamin Evans Rector (born November 6, 1986)[1] is an American singer, songwriter and record producer based in Nashville, Tennessee. He has released seven studio albums, including Brand New (2015), which peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard 200,[2] and Magic (2018), which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Americana/Folk Albums chart.[3]

Early life

See also: Old Friends (Ben Rector song) § Euromart

"I didn't sing at all, until I saw a guy from Tulsa named Ben Kilgore sing at my school. Ben Kilgore had a great voice, and it changed that atmosphere of the room, and I had never seen that before. But I was just like 'What was that?' I want to find and feel that again."

Rector on the origin of singing, 2016 interview[4]

Rector was born in south Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is the son of Evans Rector, a banker, and Bette Rector, a psychologist. He has two sisters. He did not grow up in a musical household, although Evans was a fan of Steve Winwood and Rector became a fan of his work at a young age.[5] Evans recalled a moment where Rector performed in a talent show when he was 8 years old and enjoyed the attention, specifically when they called his name.[4] His first musical memory was at a young age, where he was able to recognize Pachelbel's Canon by ear at a wedding.[6] He became interested in music in eighth grade, listening to the Star 103 radio station in Tulsa, which played music from the 1960s and 1970s. He grew fond of pop music, beginning with "Drift Away" by Dobie Gray.[7] The first song he learned on piano was the theme song of the animated television series Rugrats in the 1990s.[8]

He took some piano lessons as a child, and after being inspired by camp counselors at a summer camp who played acoustic guitar, he began learning the instrument at 16, which later led him to begin songwriting at 16.[9][10][11] His first song, titled "Tonight", was an acoustic guitar piece about kissing a girl.[11] Rector attended high school at Tulsa's Metro Christian Academy. High school was also when he began listening to modern pop music.[7] One class he took was dedicated to praise and worship, which he credits as the beginning of his interest in music. The class required an audition. Each week he was taught the technics of music, forming a set, and performing in a band; Rector praised this education structure in retrospect.[5]

He did not sing until musician Ben Kilgore performed at his school, the atmosphere of his performance inspiring Rector to do so. Rector formed a high school band, Euromart, for a Battle of the Bands competition hosted by Tulsa World. His first performance was at Cain's Ballroom. The band did not place.[4] He would re-recruit Euromart to perform in the music video for his song "Old Friends" in 2018.[12][13] Throughout high school he would perform locally.[7] He graduated from Tulsa's Metro Christian Academy in 2005 and resumed playing piano,[10] and from the University of Arkansas in 2010 with a degree in business and marketing.

Music career

2006–2009: Ben Rector and Twenty Tomorrow

Rector started seriously writing songs in college and began looking at it as something that needed to be practiced.[7] releasing his first musical effort, a self-titled extended play (EP), in 2006. It was produced by Chad Copelin, who was in a band with Kilgore which would be how Copelin discovered Rector.[4] Rector requested to work with him, and he agreed; Copelin owned a studio and Rector would record there in his free time.[14] After hearing about the 2006 John Lennon Songwriting Contest he submitted a song from the EP, "Conversation", and later forgot he did so.[4] Rector would win the grand prize in the Pop category, making him the youngest person to win the contest.[14] He was surprised he won, and it gave him affirmation he could pursue a career in music.[4] His sophomore year he would attend classes in the weekdays and tour exclusively on the weekends,[15] performing two to three shows a week.[7] He would perform out of town, specifically anywhere within an 8-hour radius.[7] Rector struggled with money in early touring efforts, usually making just enough to pay Copelin. Rector would approach each performance like it was his last. He almost gave up when he risked driving through a blizzard to a venue, causing the car to spin out and crash into the embankment of the highway. Early offers for management were overwhelming for him as he did not know which path to take forward.[4] Rector described his early impressions of the music industry as a "fish out of water"; he gained more confidence as he noticed that the people attending his performances were exclusively those he did not recognize, giving him hope that he could pursue a music career.[4] A particular moment of clarity came when he performed at the Cambridge Room in Dallas, Texas to a sold-out crowd of 350 people, exclusively fans.[6]

Rector met manager of Private Entertainment Paul Steele at a performance in Texas between 2006 and 2007, who would manage many of Rector's future efforts.[15] Rector released Twenty Tomorrow in 2007,[15] his first full-length studio album.[16] His second album, Songs That Duke Wrote, released in 2008.[14] In April 2009, he was given the Northwest Arkansas Music Award (NAMA) for best male singer-songwriter.[17]

2010–2014: Into the Morning, Something Like This, and The Walking in Between

Rector posing for the album cover of Into the Morning in 2010
Rector performing in 2013
Rector performing in 2014

Main articles: Into the Morning, Something Like This, and The Walking in Between

Following the two album releases Rector still proceeded cautiously when it came to music. He was treating music like a part-time job and was unsure how to move forward and turn it into his career.[15] He did not have a choice regardless, still having to put time towards college years; he was thankful for this in retrospect, since he felt jumping into music directly at a young age would overwhelm him.[14] By his junior year he had officially planned to make music his full-time job.[18]

Rector's third studio album, Into the Morning, was released on February 16, 2010. At the time he was a senior in college.[14] The album was successful, reaching No. 11 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart. 2010 would also see him moving to Nashville, Tennessee after graduation.[14] Rector was particularly drawn to Nashville for its atmosphere and high level of music activity.[18] Following the release, he co-headlined the Three Amigos Tour with fellow Nashvillians Steve Moakler and Andrew Ripp. The rest of 2010 brought support slots with Dave Barnes and Five for Fighting, The Beat Lives Forever co-headline tour with Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors, and the Feels Like Home tour in Germany, organized by Johannes Strate of the German band Revolverheld.[15] Rector would also see additional exposure when the song "After All" from Songs that Duke Wrote was used in the television shows Pretty Little Liars and Castle.[15] In early 2011 he performed on the VH1 Best Cruise Ever with artists including Train, The Script, Colbie Caillat and Lifehouse.[19] Rector explained that the cruise felt like he "showed up to a formal party in a T-shirt and shorts", and was "shocked that anyone on that boat had heard of me."[15]

Up to 2010 Rector was "covering the instruments and production, but also the publicity and booking himself". With his increasing momentum he began receiving help to keep up.[14] For Rector's fourth studio album, Steele focused promotional efforts on people who were already aware of who Rector was. The publicity would see Rector's social media accounts grow fourfold. Something Like This was released on September 13, 2011, just over a year after Into the Morning, which Rector saw as "ridiculous" in retrospect. Something Like This reached No. 41 on the Billboard 200, his highest achievement at the time.[15]

The Walking in Between was released on August 20, 2013.[20] Produced by Rector, Jamie Kenney and Charlie Peacock, it was the first release on Rector's own Aptly Named Recordings label. The album debuted at No. 16 on the Billboard 200 chart.[21] In 2013 he performed a sold-out performance at the Ryman Auditorium, a venue he opened for last year, which he found emotionally moving. 2013 also saw his mother less worried about his career in music.[22]

In 2014, Rector briefly took a break from songwriting to front the Huey Lewis and the News cover band Newy Lewis and the Hues.[23] On August 8, 2014, Rector released an EP, singing and recording all parts titled Newy Lewis and the Hues: Greatest Hits highlighting three of the band's greatest hits.[24]

On October 8, 2021, Rector and Cody Fry released a new version of "Sailboat", the sixth track on The Walking in Between.[25] The song was arranged by Fry and featured on his 2022 EP Symphony Sessions.[26]

2015–2017: Brand New

Rector performing live in 2016

Rector toured with Needtobreathe, Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors, and Colony House for the first leg of the "Tour De Compadres" tour in early 2015.[27]

Rector released his sixth studio album, Brand New, on August 28, 2015, via Aptly Named Recordings. The album debuted No. 9 on the Billboard 200 chart, marking his first Top 10 album.[28] It also debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Top Current Rock Albums chart, No. 2 on the Billboard Album Core Genre Rock chart, No. 6 on the Billboard Album Sales chart, No. 3 on the Billboard Top Current Digital Album Sales chart, and No. 1 on the Billboard Top Folk Albums chart.[29][30]

In January 2016, he was picked as Elvis Duran's Artist of the Month[31] and was featured on NBC's Today show where he live performed his single "Brand New", which initially received airplay on Sirius XM's The Pulse in September 2015.[31][32] "Brand New" was his first single to enter the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 82.[33] The song also reached No. 6 on the Billboard Adult Top 40,[34] No. 7 on Hot Rock Songs,[35] and No. 10 on the Adult Contemporary chart.[36] The song saw over 40 major movie and television placements by 2019, including advertising efforts for The Edge of Seventeen, The Fundamentals of Caring, The Croods: A New Age, and Moana. It was one of the most licensed songs for film and television from 2015 to 2020.[37][38]

Rector credits Brand New for helping establish him as a more mainstream artist.[37] To support the commercial success he would spend two years touring for the album. The first tour, The Brand New Tour, spanned two legs from 2015 to 2016. It was commercially successful, having 15 sold-out shows in the first leg and selling over 41,000 tickets.[37] When he returned home from The Brand New Tour his label team pushed for him to release a music video accompanying "Brand New"; exhausted, he wanted to make something that would be fun for him, so he selected a group of fans to fly to Six Flags Over Texas to ride roller coasters, which would be the footage for the music video.[39] He followed the tour with The Biggest Tour I Have Done So Far Tour, aptly named, which featured an additional 20 dates and spanned the rest of 2016.[40] Touring for Brand New was 73 performances in total.[41]

He co-headlined The Rock Boat in 2017,[42] and supported Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on their 2017 Soul2Soul Tour.[43]

2018–2020: Magic and A Ben Rector Christmas

Main articles: Magic (Ben Rector album) and A Ben Rector Christmas

Commercial attention towards Brand New persisted in the years following, including Rector himself. His 73-date touring run for Brand New would keep him from working on future projects in the meantime.[37][44] He took a break following the tour in 2017, giving him time to assess his career. He recognized that he had reached a peak that he had been trying to achieve in a "dead sprint since college", and he was therefore no longer experiencing that. He found this time of reminiscing and feeling of nostalgia overwhelming, and would use it as the basis of his next album. It was written following the tours and recorded over a six-month time frame.[44]

On June 22, 2018, Rector released his seventh studio album, Magic, his first with OK Kid Recordings, which was led by its first single, "Drive".[45] The album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Americana/Folk Albums chart,[3] and peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Independent Albums chart[46] and No. 44 on the Billboard 200.[47] Rector toured for Magic with Magic: The Tour, a headlining tour spanning 28 dates, beginning on September 19, 2018, to November 17, 2018.[41] A second leg was performed that continued into mid 2019.[48] A live album, Magic: Live From the USA, was recorded during Magic: The Tour in various locations and was released on June 21, 2019.[49] Also in 2019, Rector was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Best Performance for his appearance on Pickler and Ben in 2018.[50]

Rector announced The Old Friends Acoustic Tour featuring Cody Fry in late 2019.[51] In January 2020, he recorded the music for his next album following Magic in Los Angeles featuring what he called his "dream band".[52] He began touring for The Old Friends Acoustic in February 2020. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic had become a national threat in the United States, and lockdowns had begun to take effect. He had flown to perform a show in Dallas, Texas, but was forced to return home.[53] The first distributed project from this period was a single, “It Would Be You”, with a music video of compiled fan submissions via the #CoffeeDadShuffle trend.[54] He wrote the song with John Fields the day after returning home from the tour.[53] In October 2020, Rector released an acoustic version of the song featuring Ingrid Michaelson.[55] Although disappointed about the tour being cancelled, he found his open schedule to be freeing creatively. All of his efforts were focused onto his next album. It helped him "rediscover" what he enjoyed about writing music in the first place.[56] Throughout the pandemic, most of his next album would be rewritten from scratch.[52]

In November 2020, Rector debuted “The Thanksgiving Song” — the leading song of his forthcoming holiday album that celebrates the familial Thanksgiving experience. Rector has since been dubbed “The Mariah Carey of Thanksgiving”.[57] On November 13, 2020, Rector released his first holiday album, A Ben Rector Christmas, which features joyful renditions of Christmas classics such as “Frosty the Snowman”, “The Christmas Song”, and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. The album was followed by an additional rendition of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” in the following year.[58] His next album was completed by December 2020, but he held off on releasing it until he could continue touring again.[59]

2021–present: The Joy of Music

Main article: The Joy of Music (album)

On May 21, 2021, he released the single "Range Rover", which features musician Steve Winwood playing the Hammond organ. Winwood is one of Rector's musical heroes and was originally named in the song's lyrics before agreeing to take part in its composition as well.[60]

On March 11, 2022, Rector released his eighth studio album, The Joy of Music, following five pre-released tracks: "Living My Best Life", "Dream On", "Supernatural", "Steady Love", and the previously mentioned "It Would Be You".[61] The project features Snoop Dogg, Dave Koz, Kenny G, and Taylor Goldsmith and a short film created in conjunction with the record. In the film, Rector is led through seven songs brought to life with cinematography featuring Joy — a muppet monster he created in collaboration with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.[62]

Rector embarked on his headlining tour, The Joy of Music: Live Tour, in May 2022 with support from JP Saxe, Jake Scott, Jordy Searcy, and Stephen Day. The tour finished with a sold-out show at Ascend Amphitheater in Nashville.[63] Rector was featured on "Back in Time" by Christina Perri for her album A Lighter Shade of Blue, released on July 15, 2022.[64]

On August 5, 2022, Rector released "What Makes a Man", a new single featuring Thomas Rhett. He performed the song as part of his Grand Ole Opry debut on August 9, 2022.[65] On September 23, 2022, Rector released his most recent work to date, "Wonderful World", as a reflection on fatherhood and the things that matter most.[66]

On March 3, 2023, Rector released a live, a cappella version of "Range Rover" with Stephen Day and Jordy Searcy.[67] The single later became the eighth track on his live album Live from Atlanta, which also featured live renditions of many songs from The Joy of Music as well as from other albums.[68]

That year, Ben Rector collaborated with The Choir Room to release a new version of "Joy", the final track on The Joy of Music. Released on September 1, the song was recorded at Belmont University. The African Children's Choir, a Christian music education program, will receive all royalties collected from the song.[69]

Sports and television

Rector made his television debut performing "Beautiful" on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on October 14, 2013. On April 12, 2016, he performed "Brand New" live on Conan.[70] He made his Live with Kelly and Ryan debut on July 12, 2016,[71] and appeared live on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC on November 24, 2016.[72] He has also performed on Today,[73] Pickler & Ben,[74] the 2017 Stanley Cup Finals (game 6),[75] and Bachelor in Paradise.[76] His songs have appeared on television shows including America's Got Talent, American Idol, Ellen DeGeneres Show, World of Dance, Heartland, Hawaii Five-O, Pretty Little Liars and Castle.[77][15] "Brand New" was featured in the trailers for Edge of Seventeen and Moana, in a Weight Watchers campaign starring Oprah Winfrey, and on ads for the Olympics and the World Series.[15][23]

Ben Rector's performance of “Old Friends” from Pickler & Ben was nominated for an Emmy - Outstanding Musical Performance in a Daytime Program.[78]

In 2021, Rector was a mentor for two contestants on season 19 of American Idol, alongside Ryan Tedder, Jason Aldean, and Jimmie Allen.[79]

ESPN used four iterations of songs from The Joy of Music, the most prominent of which was the use of “Sunday (ft. Snoop Dogg)” as the soundtrack to Sunday Night Baseball.[80] Rector’s track “Sunday (feat. Snoop Dogg)” off 'The Joy of Music' was inspired by a piano track Rector found while taking a break from watching the 2021 Masters to scroll through Instagram, and as such, Golf Digest has since recommended it be the new theme song for PGA Tour.[81] Another track “Dream On", serves as the 2022 soundtrack and sole audio for the advertisement for The University of Arkansas — Rector’s alma mater.[82]

U.S. soccer partnered with Rector to feature his unreleased song “New Day” as the soundtrack to promotional content for the qualification matches for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Rector headlined a pre-game performance at U.S. Soccer's first home match of the qualifying campaign in Nashville.[83]

Rector has spent significant time playing in and performing at PGA golf tournaments across the continent. Rector played in the 2022 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am alongside Darius Rucker, Jake Owen, and Macklemore.[84] He also played in the AT&T Pro-Am in 2023.[85]

Personal life

"Stewardship of talent and gifts is a major aspect of faithfulness in the Christian life, and Ben has done this very well. I teach my students that talent and hard work are essential but only part of why people are successful in the music business. An essential component of the music business is hire-ability and being comfortable in your own skin. Ben has this and he imparts it to whoever is around him."

Producer Charlie Peacock, 2017[86]

Rector is a devout Christian. Themes relating to his religion, notably Jesus, are present throughout his works, such as "When a Heart Breaks" and "If You Can Hear Me".[87] Religion was emphasized in The Joy of Music with songs including "Supernatural" and "Thank You", where he had grown to be more comfortable discussing his faith more openly. He described his faith as "a frame or a lens that I look at the world through."[88] Rector said that he is not a Christian artist since he wanted the freedom to write about religious themes in a way that wasn't typical of traditional worship music.[87] He became increasingly reliant on his beliefs as his career grew, and he tours with those who share like-minded beliefs as him.[89]

Rector met his future wife Hillary Swanton at the University of Arkansas their freshman year. Rector originally had a crush on Hillary's college roommate, resulting in him spending more time with her and attracting feelings towards her. Since Hillary had a parking space close to the college she would pick up Rector often, resulting in them spending more time together.[9] They married in 2009 and relocated to Nashville shortly afterward.[9][90] They had one daughter in 2017, Jane, and twin sons in 2020, Roy and Robert "Bert".[9]

Discography

Main article: Ben Rector discography

Studio albums

References

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