Craig Campbell is a husband, a father, a singer, a songwriter, the head of his own Grindstone Recordings record label, and a coffee shop owner. The Tennessee native and his wife, Mindy opened Grindstone Cowboy in 2022, a full-service coffee shop, with a wide variety of coffee creations and other beverages, along with a full menu, cocktails, live music and more.

It was an idea Campbell had for years, but didn’t see come to life until last year, when Grindstone Cowboy finally opened.

“I had the name and I thought about, ‘Maybe this would be a cool name for a coffee shop.’ A couple of years passed by and I’m thinking, ‘Maybe we should open a coffee shop’ and my wife didn’t love that idea,” Campbell tells American Songwriter with a laugh. “I wouldn’t let it go. So eventually she was like, ‘Okay, let’s do it, but we got to have this and this and this.’ I said, ‘Okay, let me see if I can make all that happen’ and ended up making all that happen for her.”

 

Once Campbell had the initial idea for what became Grindstone Cowboy, the 44-year-old became a student of other coffee shops, seeing what did and didn’t work at various locations.

“I’d go to the airport, and you’d see a line that you’d [be] waiting, waiting for an hour for a cup of coffee, and I didn’t quite understand it,” Campbell admits. “Then I started doing some research and I found out that people love coffee, and it’s more of a community. Doing some research, I realized that the coffee shop business is one of the fastest-growing businesses in the country. So then I’m like, ‘What do I need to do to make it successful?’  I started looking at what would keep us from being successful, and competition was one.

“Then I realized that we didn’t have any of that,” he adds. “Location is key and I felt like the place that we picked out was perfect. It was about a three-year process, but we tried to take out as many ‘nos’ as possible and we felt really good about it.”

 

Now that Grindstone Cowboy is open, Campbell is grateful for the opportunity, and for his supportive spouse who keeps things running when he is working on his music career.

“It’s been a blessing,” Campbell admits. “It’s everything we dreamed it would be. To be honest, doing the music thing and touring and all that stuff this place would not be what it is without Mindy, my wife, running it. My greatest fear opening this place and then me having the continued music and touring and all that and then her being “stuck” with the coffee shop. But it’s not that at all, and she loves it. We’re blessed.”

Grindstone Cowboy is at 115 North Main Street in Eagleville, located about 40 miles outside of Nashville. Find more information on Grindstone Cowboy by visiting their website.

Campbell just released The Lost Files: Exhibit A, and plans to release Exhibit B in June. Music and tour dates are available at CraigCampbell.tv.