BY IAN ASPINALL

Some of us will know the name Mason Ramsey as we remember the video of him yodelling in Walmart going viral and the subsequent fame it brought (more on that in a bit). Some, however will know the GIF of the young lad in a cowboy hat twirling and pointing his fingers but don’t realise that GIF is a clip from the viral video and that young cowboy hatted man is in fact the young man in question. 

Mason had a meteoric rise to fame following the video in Walmart going viral in March 2018, when he was just 11 years old. Following that he went on Ellen, played the Grand Ole Opry, performed at Coachella and released music, including his most well known song from the time, ‘Famous’. Understandably he took some time away from the limelight, played some basketball, got a job making sandwiches and slowly made a return to the spotlight appearing in a commercial and joining Tiktok in 2021 where he has amassed 2.8 million followers and his videos have attracted 81.9 million likes (meaning a likely viewership of over 300 million). 

In June 2023 he released his first single in 4 years, ‘Reasons to Come Home’, and followed that up with ‘She Got it Outta Me’ in August, and ‘Next Right Thing’ in September. All 3 of those songs, along with 2 others were included on the EP ‘Falls into Place’, released in October 2023, 4 years after his previous EP release. January and February 2024 featured further releases, ‘Here All Day’ and ‘Blue Over You’, and after his C2C performances released ‘Something You Can Hold’ in April 2024. For those readers who like the traditional sounds, who want to hear music that harks back to the sounds of Hank Williams I would highly recommend listening if you haven’t before. Some decry the Tiktok generation of ruining Country music or taking it away from its roots. Mason is firmly taking it back to those roots.

I had the privilege of interviewing him before C2C, and this is what he had to say. 

IA Welcome, first time in the UK or London? Are you excited for C2C?

MR Yes, and yes I sure am. I’ve been having so much fun on the other shows that I’m really excited to do this one at the O2 Arena.

IA Awesome. Have you heard much about C2C back home, from the other artists?

MR I actually just started discovering it so this is all kind of new to me, but I’ve had many people explain it to me, so I’ve got a good idea about what it is.

IA Obviously you got your first taste of fame really young and got to be involved with some really cool stuff. How did you handle that?

MR It all just happened really fast and the first month after the whole Walmart thing was the Ellen show, Stagecoach, Coachella, it was just crazy. It was back to back to back, no stopping for nothing, just keep going, so it was really cool. But I think I handled it really well.

IA Did you not really have time to actually process it until a little bit later as it all happened so quick?

MR I was pretty young at the time so I didn’t really understand what fame was but I had somewhat of an idea but I think I just handled it very well over time, over 2018, but now you know I just think that I handle it very well still.

IA You took a bit of a hiatus – was that to try and get some normalcy back, working at Subway, playing basketball etc?

MR The restaurant I was working at was like Subway but it wasn’t a Subway. But I was doing that for a little while then before I knew it things took off and that was my kind of reintroduction to all of the craziness.

IA Was that an opportunity for a bit of normalcy?

MR I would say so yes.

IA You’ve performed quite a range of music over the years, but your own releases have been on the quite traditional country side of things. Who are your musical influences and heroes?

MR Well, to name a few because I have many actually, Hank Williams for a start obviously, I really like the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Richie Valens, Buddy Holly. That’s just to name a few, I’ve got a lot more. Ricky Nelson, Roy Orbison. Roy Orbison is probably one of my top favourites. 

IA You’re growing up in the world of social media and there is a lot more influence thrown your way, and obviously you’ve done a bit of TikTok.

MR Yes, quite a few actually.

IA Do you see that really how the music industry is going and growing? If you look at what you’re doing, and Shane Proffit, and Zach Bryan exploded through social media rather than more traditional ways. Do you see that being really how the industry is going to go?

MR Yes. I see the way of the future being TikTok – a lot of people are on it and it’s a very popular app. I’ve got 2.7million followers, which is the probably the most for me, on that platform.I see that’s the way of the future and a lot fo the other artists are doing very similar to what I’m doing on it. By the way I am a huge fan of Zach Bryan, and I got to meet him once. Did a show.

IA He came to the UK last year, sold out a tour with never having been here before and it was all because of the explosion through Tiktok. The C2C audience you’ll see this weekend is probably a bit different than had you come to C2C last year or the year before, because of Tiktok, and the demographic changing.

IA You released some new music in 2023 and latest releases Here All Day and Blue Over You earlier this year. Is there more music coming up? What should we be expecting from you? I love ‘Blue Over You’ by the way. I could listen to it repeatedly. In fact I was earlier.

MR Thank you. Some of that I was inspired by the guys from the 60s, Ricky Nelson, Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley.

IA That comes through and it is brilliant. Is there more this year?

MR Oh yeah. There is definitely more. I don’t wanna say too much, as I want it to be a surprise, but there might be an EP coming out, and a music video for ‘Blue Over You’.

IA It’s going to be an amazing weekend. You were saying on the way up that you are going to be performing on the top of the O2. That’s cool!

MR I’m scared of heights, but it’s going to be fun.

IA I always ask this – what would be your super power if you could choose.

MR Invincibility.

IA Genius answer – no one ever says that.

Thank you so much for joining us at Country Lowdown and I hope you have a fantastic weekend at C2C.