Allie Colleen is opening up about her family, and being the daughter of Garth Brooks. The singer-songwriter just released Sincerely, Rolling Stone, five songs that were all co-written by Colleen. The EP marks a career first for Colleen, who opens up for the first time, about her famous father, in “Household Name.” Colleen has chosen to not use her father’s last name for her own career, choosing instead to tear down any walls and obstacles on her own merit. For that reason, the song is a brave and bold move for Brooks’ youngest daughter.
“Garth is not my dad. I can write songs about my dad, and have them not be about Garth,” Colleen tells Everything Nash. “This was a tough one, because it’s called ‘Household Name.’ And so, that’s very hard for you to listen to it as Allie, and understand that Allie just has a dad. But it’s so silly. I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with people who are like, ‘Big question: have you ever met him? Do you know him?’ And I’m like, ‘My dad? I was raised by him.'”
After notoriously staying away from arguably one of the most famous last names in country music, the Oklahoma native is now ready to embrace her father and his influence. With lots of music already released, Colleen is keenly aware of the struggles her father endured, and how hard he worked to achieve all the success that he did.
“My point with ‘Household Name’ is, I could not be more clear: I want to be just like my dad,” Colleen maintains. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted to be, is just like my dad. My dad came from the youngest of a six-kid household with no money in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and he’s a household name now. He’s worked his tail off, and he’s sacrificed everything socially on the planet that a normal person gets to receive to do this. And he didn’t do it any other way than being who he is and working his absolute butt off. And I want to be just like my dad. And I want to make Allie Colleen a household name, coming from nobody knew her to everybody knows her.”
Colleen wants to be just like her dad in every way, including his unstoppable work ethic. The one thing she doesn’t want is to have any success because of who he is.
“I want to be exactly like him. I just don’t want any favors,” Colleen says. “I don’t want someone to help me because they love him. I want to be just like my dad. And that’s what ‘Household Name’ is. The whole chorus is just song titles of his. The whole chorus is who he is to me as an inspiration, and I really think that, if you spend time to listen to it, you’re not going to have a question of how Allie’s trying to do this. And that’s why, for the first time on Sincerely, I got to put out a song about my dad.”
“Household Name” is just one of the deeply personal songs on Sincerely, Rolling Stone.
“I’m so proud of this project, and I really hope that someone listens to ‘Household Name’ and gets to learn about Allie and her dad, and not just go, ‘This is a song about so-and-so. This is his daughter.’ I really, really hope that I’ve been brave enough to share this in a way that it’s going to be received. I really do.”
“Household Name” isn’t the only stand-out track on Sincerely, Rolling Stone. All five of the songs are meaningful to Colleen, given as a gift to her loyal fans.
“I have a song about my family for the first time, and what that’s like for me, and then I have relationship songs for the first time since I got divorced,” Colleen reveals. “So it’s all brand-new stuff that Allie really, really cares about. This is not a project for the 99 percent. This is a project for the people who care about Allie as a human being, and who have followed me for all this time. I’ve worked so hard on it, and I’m really, really excited.”
All of the songs on Sincerely, Rolling Stone were intentional for Colleen, and not necessarily to gain more commercial success.
“I have people who have followed me since I was 13. I’m 28,” she says. “I wanted to put out a project that really taught you about Allie, that wasn’t an introduction for the 600th time. The Sincerely project is five songs that would have never been a single. They would have never been a radio single; they would never take priority over all the other songs to be a single and to be pushed. This was my chance to put out Sincerely, and. to put out songs about Allie. And I hope, I really hope that I wrote them in a way that the listener can put themselves into it.”
A vinyl release of Sincerely, Rolling Stone will be available on March 6. Find the new EP and all of Colleen’s music and upcoming shows at AllieColleenMusic.com.