In the year and a half since Vincent Mason scored a breakthrough with “Hell Is a Dance Floor,” he has found himself in more than a few conversations concerning country music’s next superstar. The Georgia native has played prime opening slots for Luke Bryan and Miranda Lambert, made his Grand Ole Opry debut, and landed a major-label deal with Interscope Records, who last week released Mason’s 14-track debut album, There I Go.
“It’s me kind of letting the dream win,” Mason says of the album. “This record ended up being a story of me learning to have success, and what it takes to start that — this battle between what I’ve known and what I want to do.”
Mason, who turns 25 on Monday, first picked up a guitar as a high school student in Roswell, Georgia, and started taking music seriously when the pandemic forced him home from college at Ole Miss and he began writing songs to pass the time. Two years later, he wrote and released “Hell Is a Dance Floor.” More than 120 million streams and an RIAA gold certification later, the song is now the cornerstone of Mason’s burgeoning career, and he sees There I Go as his story of learning the ropes as he goes.
“It starts with ‘There I Go,’ and ends on ‘Days are Numbered,’ and with everything in between, we wanted you to feel like you’re on three months of a tour,” Mason tells Rolling Stone. “It’s more felt than heard. You catch that with the way it’s tracked. I tried to be very intentional about that. You’re set off on the road. ‘Little Miss’ represents a girl but also the battle between having a routine and being home and being settled — the life that most people set out for — versus the life that I have out on the road.”
Mason is assessing both his new record and his quick rise from an orchestra seat in an otherwise empty Radio City Music Hall in New York, before he opened for Jordan Davis in early October with a four-song set made up entirely of singles from There I Go. “Hell Is a Dance Floor” made the cut, naturally, along with “Painkiller,” “Damned If I Do,” and “Wish You Well.”
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The next time Mason plays in Manhattan, he’ll be atop the bill at the 1,200-capacity Irving Plaza in May, on the next-to-last night of his headlining tour that launches in January. Between now and then, he’ll open for Gavin Adcock in Las Vegas during the National Finals Rodeo, tour Australia with Davis, and play three stadium shows opening for Morgan Wallen. Mason sees himself and his career — which is not yet five years old — as a work in progress.
“I’ve been getting used to it,” he says. “Headlining for the first time, I thought there would be less pressure. When you go out for an opening crowd, you’re trying to win them over and it feels like an away game. You’re like, ‘What if I get out there and they talk over me or they yell at me to get offstage?’
“When I headlined, I didn’t have that feeling, but I had a different feeling. I worried that they were going to get up and leave: ‘I spent my money on this and it wasn’t what I wanted it to be.’ That’s all mental. But that’s the anxiety,” he continues. “There’s nobody coming out there after you. You gotta make sure you give them the show. When we go out to headline next year, I want to let my guard down a little bit. I want to treat the room and treat the fans like we’re hanging out with friends.”
It helped considerably that Mason’s first headlining tour in 2025 sold out. But if he feels like he’s growing into the spotlight in real time, he has the songs to merit the attention. There I Go is heavy on introspection, whether about the road or about broken relationships, and both attendance and streaming numbers suggest his music is resonating.
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“Damned If I Do,” for example, finds Mason’s voice nearly cracking as he laments, “Damn right, I’m a damn mess,” over a heavy two-four beat.
“It felt like a rock song from the beginning, and I felt like that was great for where I was at. People have started calling me ‘the Heartbreak Kid,’ and I love those kind of sad songs. This one’s less wide-eyed and heartbroken and surprised and sad. It’s more pissed off and frustrated. You’ve seen it go wrong a few times. It’s the natural process of getting your heart broken a lot. You eventually stop being sad. I think people need to know that I can get pissed off. And for me, that grittier sound up against my vocals, which are pretty soft, it fits.”
Growing up, Mason was heavily into sports, and he still carries an athlete’s mentality, measuring success less in streaming numbers and more in the reaction of fans and fellow artists to his music. One night last summer, Mason opened for Parker McCollum, and at one point, McCollum addressed the crowd: “When you go home tonight, don’t listen to my new record right away. Go listen to Vincent Mason.” The payoff to such shout-outs, Mason hopes, will help buoy There I Go.
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“I hope that the fans who turn on the record at midnight and listen to it all the way through feel that it’s what they want it to be. Because I know what it’s like to wait for an album from your favorite artist. I know what it’s like when it hits, and I know what it’s like when it doesn’t,” he says. “I hope it’s what they want it to be, and I hope they can live with it.”
Josh Crutchmer is a journalist and author whose book (Almost) Almost Famous will be released April 1 via Back Lounge Publishing.