NASHVILLE, TENN. (February 23, 2026) – Preston Brust and Chris Lucas didn’t have a master plan when they met twenty years ago at the Wildhorse on Nashville’s 2nd Ave. They just knew they liked lightning people up, loved writing country songs and had a fire in their belly to see where the music could take them. Ten years into a career that saw the fiercely independent duo follow their platinum “I Love This Life” with the release of “I Know Somebody,” the hard-working pair finally hit Number One.
“Talk about a moment,” says Chris Lucas. “All the hope, all the years we’d been chasing the songs, we’d come close with ‘I Love This Life,’ but… There’s nothing like hitting Number One, and we knew that. When we did, all the nights driving to the next city to play for the next crowd, all the missing our families, we didn’t feel so crazy.”
“When it happens, when you’ve been at it as long as we had, it’s still hard for us to believe when it does because it is that special,” adds Preston Brust. “We’d always recorded for independent labels; found partners who saw what we did, always trying to get the stars to align. So next, you trade that label momentum to do it your own way, David and Goliath, right? But so many people at radio, on the road, the fans were rooting for us, when it went in, I think the whole world cheered.”
That burning desire for independence and trusting a vision that wasn’t obvious led the earworm farmers to literally put their music where their hands and hearts are: founding the Galaxy Label Group. Taking on the responsibility, the extra work and building a team who shared their flare for honing a kind of country for fans who have no interest in the flossy, glossy, even bossy take on how life ought to be lived. Stripping things back to the basics, moving the rhythms forward and digging into what it means to be smalltown working class and proud of it, LOCASH kept the spirits high, the anxiety low and the reality they’re living the best possible outcome.
“Maybe we took a harder path,” says Lucas. “But we built it from the ground up, honest and looking people in the eye. Everyone needs a little Saturday night, us most of all, so to be able to keep delivering those kinds of vibes, no matter what else happened, Preston and I were all in.”
“Maybe the fact Chris and I are really friends, and this came out of dreaming the same dream,” Brust continues, “it was easier when things got tough. We knew the songs hit people where they lived and let go; whether we were having massive radio success, we could see it on people’s faces that they were feeling everything we were singing about. You don’t walk away from that.”
Beyond the work of starting a label, writing life-affirming hits for Keith Urban (“You Gonna Fly”) and Tim McGraw (“Truck Yeah”) and raising their own families, LOCASH has established a knack for bringing diverse groups of people together. Whether George Jones, Fernando & Soracabo, The Beach Boys, Blanco Brown, the Gronkowskis, Leslie Jordan or the Dude, a good time is always had by all.
“We get to work to a different measure of success,” explains Brust. “To us, when we hit that stage, if it’s our own or Kane Brown’s, we’re bringing the party, but we’re also talking about the way people like us have fun.”
“We’re not called LOCASH ‘cause we’re about all the money you have to spend to have fun,” adds Lucas. “Best things in life may not be free, but they’re not high dollar – and since 2006, that’s a big piece of everything we write and sing about. Get out there, live your life, turn us up!”
