Billy Dean will celebrate the 34th anniversary of his debut album, Young Man, later this year, but he still has a lot more music he wants to make. The 61-year-old is embracing a new, fun-filled chapter of music, more than three decades after his impressive country music career began.

“My music was serious, I guess you could say,” Dean tells Everything Nash. “It was like, ‘Man, I just want to have a lot of fun in my music.’ And so I did an album called The Rest of It’s Mine. It was like kind of a message to my kids who are grown adults, like, ‘Don’t even be circling back around. Now, the rest of it’s mine. My time’s mine. My savings are mine. You guys are doing good.’ I wanted to write a song for all of that crowd.”

Dean has plenty of masters, recorded since 2006, that have never been released, which he wants to share with the world.

“I think it is some of the best stuff that I’ve ever been a part of as a writer,” Dean boasts. “It’s gonna come out. So, I’m gonna work on the thing this year, including a song with my daughter, who’s a nurse. And I talked to Vince Gill a few days ago. He said he’d love to sing on it and play with me. I just want to collaborate with some friends that I’ve known for years, but haven’t really collaborated with.”

Dean also penned the song, “Never Back Down,” which was used for now-former Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis’ campaign. Although Dean has notoriously stayed away from voicing his political opinions, the song was written as much in honor of Dean’s father as it was to support a political candidate.

“I do have my own personal views and everything, but basically I am trying to honor my father. My father was a World War II veteran. Try being raised by a guy that was in the Battle of the Bulge,” Dean says with a laugh. “But he tried to grow me up really quick. It was a dangerous world, and he was very American, and he was very much about certain ideals, freedom and all that kind of stuff. And I just felt like there are so many people trying to shame us for liking a country and loving your country … The more I thought about it, the madder I got, and that song spewed out of what I wanted to say.

“We gave it to the DeSantis campaign, totally thinking that they were going to go, ‘Oh no, that would be too controversial,'” he continued. “They didn’t change a word of it, and they ran with it, and it struck a nerve. And so just as quick as I stepped into politics, I’m stepping right back out, man. That’s it. I speak through my music, I guess.”

Find all of Dean’s music and upcoming shows at BillyDean.com.

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