Adam Doleac remembers nearly every detail of the first moment he laid eyes on his now wife, MacKinnon across the room. It was a life-changing encounter that will forever be known as the day he left a piece of his heart with her. While reflecting on the start of their journey, Doleac was inspired to pen his latest single, “Bye Heart,” a tender tune with a clever lyrical twist that beautifully captures the magic of finding true love.
The “Another” singer penned the soulful new tune back in late 2022 alongside Jacob Davis and lalo guzman and also acted as co-producer with guzman. Doleac has always been one to write exactly feels and draw from his real-life experiences, but “Bye Heart” will pull at fans’ heartstrings in a whole new way.
The song opens with Doleac showing pride for some familiar aspects of his life that he knows by heart, such as the back roads of his hometown in Mississippi, the scent of Magnolias in the breeze, fishing, etc. As the track continues to unfold, he adds to that list, making note of all the little things he’s come to know so deeply about his wife. By the end of the chorus, he was happy to acknowledge that she holds a piece of his heart.
Doleac offers a set of soul-stirring vocals while delivering the chorus that resonates so deeply with listeners. He sings, “By heart I could tell you every word you said/ Every smile every sip every song/ By heart I could tell you every shade of red/ Of the drop dead you had on/ Stole a kiss, stole my breath/ Stole the beat from my chest/ Just like it was yours from the start/ And then I said good Bye Heart.”
“Bye Heart” is just the start of all the new releases on the horizon for Doleac. Looking at 2025 with a wide lends, the singer/songwriter says he hopes “the music won’t stop all year.” In a recent interview with Country Now, the rising sensation teased that another song will be dropping next month followed by a possible collaboration this spring as well as an EP in May. These songs are slated to be a direct product of authenticity from Doleac and the freedom he gained since parting ways with his label, Sony Music Nashville, at the end of 2023.
“There is going to be an EP, but that, I think it’s just going to roll right into an album eventually…And I think it’s some of my best stuff I’ve ever written. I think the collaboration that’s coming out in March is the best song I’ve ever written, so I’m excited for people to hear that. No one’s ever heard it. I’ve never teased it, so it’s going to be fun to watch that kind of roll out,” he shared in anticipation.
Keep reading the exclusive Q&A below to learn more about Adam Doleac’s new song, “Bye Heart,” life at home, exciting plans for 2025 and more.
What inspired you to write the clever story behind “Bye Heart”?
I’m always lyric-first when I’m writing songs and I really love the way that you hear everybody say, ‘you remember this by heart, remember that by heart.’ But I thought it was a cool spin on the hook to land on saying ‘goodbye heart.’ And I love that the song called “Bye Heart” is actually a love song. If you see that title, you may think it’s a sad song, but I thought it was cool that these moments that we fall in love with somebody or something or some song or some place, we kind of leave a little piece of our heart there with that person every time. And so I thought it was really cool that the stuff that our minds and hearts remember by heart are the moments that we say goodbye to at least a little bit of our heart. I love that idea and we wrote it and really love how it came out. And it seems like everybody’s loving it, so I’m pumped about it.
Since this song is inspired by your real-life love story, how did you and MacKinnon first meet?
So when me and my wife met, the first night we actually never spoke. Long story short, I went in, I don’t know if you listened to SiriusXM The Highway, but Storme Warren was the DJ on there for a while, and he was there and he was about the only person I knew at this place where I met my wife. She was the event coordinator at the studio and so I saw her and asked Storme, I saw them talking, I was like, ‘who is that? I’d love to meet her.’ And he ends up telling me ‘her name’s MacKinnon, I think you guys would really hit it off, but she’s got a boyfriend.’ And anyway, she ended up not having a boyfriend, and I’m still not really sure why Storme told me that. So the night of, I went back into pee three times trying to bump into her and I was going to hit her with, ‘I’ve done my research, I know you have a boyfriend. Just wanted to say you’re beautiful,’ blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so I never did run into her. Her friend ended up coming out of the venue and handing me and all of my friends brochures and saying, ‘we have to give these out before you leave.’ It was really awkward and I was about to throw mine away and I looked on the back and there was a phone number. And so it ended up being her phone number. She wanted to talk to me the whole night. I wanted to talk to her the whole night. We had some bad information, but I remember I flew out the next day. It was a Thursday night. I flew out Friday and I remember telling my family and everybody, I was like, ‘I’m going to marry this girl.’ And I hadn’t even gone on a date with her yet, so I sounded like a lunatic, crazy person probably. But just that thing that it felt right. It felt like I knew somehow. I had really no basis to say that, but I ended up being right. So I guess it worked out.
How did you truly know that she was the one?
I wish I had a good answer for that. I just kind of knew. I think that’s the craziest part about it is it’s almost like meeting somebody that you know is going to be your friend for a long time in life. You just kind of click and you get a feeling about this person like, oh, I think this is going to be cool. I think we’re going to hang a lot. It’s almost the same thing with meeting your wife. It was just like, oh yeah, this is the one. This is the person I’m going to stay with.
What was MacKinnon’s reaction to hearing “Bye Heart” for the first time?
She does hear songs all the time, but it actually makes her kind of the best person to hear them because she’s heard, I mean, I bet she’s heard a thousand songs at this point. And she hears them a good bit so she knows the ones that stick with her normally end up being, it’s a good meter for me to kind of go off of. But she’s always loved this one and she goes through phases of songs. I think it’s been her favorite song for probably the last year or so. So you can’t ignore that. Your wife’s favorite song normally means something, and she’s got a good track record of picking songs. So I listen to her and like I said, we listen to new stuff all the time and she’s not a great, actually, she’s a terrible liar. So when she doesn’t like something, I can tell pretty easily. When she likes something, I can tell pretty easily. So that part’s easy.
Talk about your role in bringing this song to life not just as a songwriter but also as a co-producer.
Yeah, I’ve been doing it since, I mean, go all the way back to “Famous.” I’ve been right there next to whoever was producing for every song that I’ve released. So the time has been there, the effort, the ideas, I’ve always been right there. I just started kind of last year taking a little bit of credit for that, but I’m very picky. I care a lot about what all goes on the songs. And so most of the songs that you’ll hear coming out this year is that situation, the co-production situation. And it’s actually on my goal list this year to produce my first song completely by myself. So I’m working towards that and putting together a record. I’m going to pick a few songs and do it all by myself and see how it turns out.
You got to enjoy a break after embarking on two headline tours in 2024. What did that down time look like for you and your family?
Well, a lot of Jack, my boy Jack. It’s honestly been just a blessing, the downtime and when it happened, I had those two tours like you said, and I ended up leaving Sony Music, my music label at the end of 2023. And so it had been kind of a frustrating couple of years there and finally decided to get out of there. And that’s when we found out that we were getting ready to have Jack. And so the switch of owning my own music for the entire year, getting back to making money off of my streaming and SiriusXM and all that stuff combined with a little bit of downtime and being able to stay home but still provide in that way was really, really perfect. And so we’ve just been kind of soaking it all in. He turns 10 months old tomorrow, and so it’s been, he probably won’t remember that I’ve been home with him this entire time. The time is better for me that it is for him probably, but it’s been so sweet for me and for Mac, and we’ve never had to use a babysitter that wasn’t her mom or something like that. So it’s been really special time for us. And at the same time, I’m really excited about getting back out on the road. I have been getting a lot of messages from fans on social media like, ‘when are you going back on the road?’ And so we’re putting all that together right now. Hopefully we’ll be announcing here in the next month or so, some dates and some ideas there.
Did you notice your creativity/motivation to write and record new music see a positive effect from that time off as well?
I think it was less writing, but more zoned in on what I was writing. It was kind of like, since we had Jack, since we were kind of just taking some family time, I was really only sitting down to write with people that I absolutely love writing with and also writing ideas that I really love instead of more. So the normal program is write five days a week and on the way to the write every day, try to come up with a title and write that. I just had a little more time, more time to think through titles and kind of hone in what I wanted to write. And when you have a baby, your time is so, you’re just so much more aware of it. You don’t want to waste any time, you don’t want to go fly somewhere and play a show that you don’t want to play. It just kind of puts everything into perspective. So I wrote less songs, but I think I wrote more songs that I love as a result, which was really cool. Instead of writing 100 and keeping 12, I probably wrote 35 and kept 20 of them. So that percentage just kind of went up. And it’s also the lens of how you see things, the lens of how I see my own parents change. I’m excited to keep running with that. Also excited again to get back out on the road because a lot of inspiration for me does come from meeting people in new cities and new places and that kind of thing. So that’s been different writing without that. That’s what I’m used to. And so I’ve had to go into this other zone, which I think is great to switch it up every now and then.
It sounds like we will getting even more new music from your shortly. What can you share about your next set of releases?
Yeah, we’re cranking ‘em out quick this year. The new one is called “Dreamhouse,” and I’ve teased it a little bit online. People seem to really love it. It’s kind of bluesy, kind of soulful, which is my favorite stuff to listen to. It just kind of came from me and my wife, the house that we live in now, I bought right before I met her, so we’ve never gotten to go through the picking out a house process. And we’re kind of in that now and looking at new places now. And so basically the whole idea of the song is my dream house is just one with you in it. And so you get all in the weeds with what color, the paint and the walls and just all kinds of stuff. And there’s all the details. And at some point you just realize, ‘Hey, as long as you’re in there with me, I’m good. We can live there.’ And so that’s kind of the idea of this song. It’s me and Josh Jenkins and Brandon Hood, and it turned out really cool. It’s really kind stripped back, reminds me of “Famous” a little bit in that way. And I think it’s one of those, you’re going to be able to listen to it as many times as you want and never get tired of it. It’s just really easy listening. And we’re going to get that one out in time for Valentine’s Day too, for the lovebirds out there.
@adamdoleac I’m picking the shack all day long 🤍 #dreamhouse #unreleasedmusic #goodmusic #lovestory ♬ original sound – Adam Doleac
Being in this new chapter as an artist since parting ways with your label, what will your next collection of songs look like compared to some of your previous releases?
I think it’ll be more the same. Really the switch from label to no label is more personal for me than it is musicality and what I’m writing about. It’s really just more freedom. It made me feel like I’m back to doing what I love, working for myself and kind of writing in that way instead of feeling stuck in this thing. And when you get stuck in the label thing and maybe it’s not working as well as you want, you tend to start writing just what you think other people might want to hear. And so having the freedom to be back and control of my own stuff, it really just frees me up to write and put out the stuff that I love, the stuff that my friends, my wife love, the stuff that I feel passionate about. And normally that’s the stuff that fans end up loving the most too. So it’s good to have that feeling back. And I’m still picking songs. Like I’ve said, there’s probably 30 songs that I wish I could put on a record, and I have to whittle it down to 12 or whatever. So hard. Still picking songs, still writing songs, and so I’m just excited about getting a lot of music out there. There is going to be an EP, but that, I think it’s just going to roll right into an album eventually. So hopefully the music won’t stop all year. And I think it’s some of my best stuff I’ve ever written. I think the collaboration that’s coming out of March is the best song I’ve ever written, so I’m excited for people to hear that. No one’s ever heard it. I’ve never teased it, so it’s going to be fun to watch that kind of roll out.
What are your touring plans for 2025?
Yeah, we’re actually trying to, on top of the full band stuff, I’m trying to put together almost like a…so on the road I do a VIP show before every band show. And so that’s like an hour before the doors open. And it’s normally me and about 85 people, up to 100 people, whoever bought VIP that night. And in this last year, I’ve also switched management as well so I was talking to them and I’m like, ‘my favorite part of a lot of these shows ends up being this hour that I’ll spend with these VIP people just playing acoustic and telling stories and kind of doing it that way.’ And so we’re kind of toying with maybe getting out there and doing some acoustic tour residencies, so maybe instead of going to Chicago and selling 1,500 tickets at Joe’s, we’ll pick a smaller, more intimate room and we’ll sell out three or four nights in a row at three or 400 tickets instead and have this different experience. That combined with just watching my music, what works really well on socials and everything, it always tends to be the stripped down acoustic thing. And it’s always been that way. I mean, “Famous” was my first gold record and it was just a Rhodes piano and a vocal. It’s just always been that way. And so I’ve never done that and I’ve done an acoustic style thing. So we’re working, we’re toying with that right now.
Will you be bringing the family on the road this year?
If we’re able to go to Chicago or New York or some of these places and stay three or four nights at a time instead of doing the hop off the bus, get on stage, leave, then I think it would make sense for Mac and Jack to come with me and stay in the same city and we can kind of make this a little traveling family tour. So I hope we can pull that off. That’d be really fun. I know it’s going to suck really bad leaving him any other way, so hopefully we can make that work.
Fans can keep up with Adam Doleac on Instagram and TikTok.
The post Exclusive Q&A: Adam Doleac Talks ‘Bye Heart,’ 2025 Tour Plans, Family Life, and More appeared first on Country Now.
