For BackRoad Records recording artist, Lenny Cooper, the road to success has been a muddy one — an unexpectedly fast ride to his newfound recognition as the “Mud Digger King.”
From uploading a home-made video about his favorite pastime and selling hundreds of thousands of downloads of the “Mud Digger” compilation series, to opening for country star Colt Ford on a national tour, life has been a whirlwind for the 23-year old North Carolina native.
“Mud Dynasty,” Cooper’s sophomore album, produced by hit producer, Shannon Houchins, is geared toward giving fans what they want. “With my second album, I really tried to focus on what my fans would relate to – their lifestyle, which is also my lifestyle,” commented Cooper. “I’ve incorporated more lyrics into this record, and it also has a lot of cool artist collaborations. Some of those featured artists includeBlue Foot from MTV’s popular reality series, Buckwild, on “Mud Life;” platinum-selling artist, Bubba Sparxxx, on “What do You Call That,” newcomer Charley Farley on “Country Folk Anthem and Brian King from The LACS on “Adrenaline”.
Born and raised in rural Jacksonville, NC, Cooper was first introduced to country music by his dad. “When I was little, I remember dad sitting in the garage playing Merle Haggard, Hank Williams Jr. and Conway Twitty on his cassette player,” said Cooper. “Dad was also a poet; I’d hear him out in the yard rhyming stuff, and he was really good at it. He’d also write poetry for my mother.”
Inspired by his dad, Lenny started to write and record music when he was only 12 years old. His record collection not only included country, but popular rap artists like ICE Cube and Dr. Dre, which were amongst his first CD purchases.
As a teenager, Cooper and his friends would frequently drive their trucks to the local Wal-Mart to hang out. One night at the suggestion of a friend, Cooper wrote his first song about one of their favorite pastimes, mud-digging. “After downloading a beat, I sat there the whole night writing the song and recorded it. I made five CDs and took them back to the Wal-Mart parking lot so we’d have something to play when we went mud-digging.”
That summer on a trip to Myrtle Beach, Cooper heard a familiar song coming from some of the trucks. “One of my buddies put “Mud Digger” on the Internet and it spread like wildfire. I went home and reposted it on YouTube tagging it with ‘Colt Ford.’” Five months later, the video reached 2 million views and Cooper knew that he had something.
And so did Country star Colt Ford. Ford started getting requests for the “Mud Digger” song at his live shows. Within a few months, Cooper found himself in the recording studio with Ford and Average Joes Entertainment’s CEO/producer, Shannon Houchins, whose credits include T.L.C., Usher, Jagged Edge and others. Before long, Cooper signed a recording contract with BackRoad Records, a subsidiary of Average Joes Entertainment.
“My head is much more clear now, and I know what I want. I’m excited to be hitting the road this summer, playing lots of new places and sharing new music with my fans,” said Cooper.