When plans for a professional golfing career were derailed by an injury, country songwriter
picked up a guitar and never looked back. A native of Vero Beach, Florida,
and his fraternal twin, Jarrod, grew up in the Florida sun playing sports like baseball and football before
turned to golf and Jarrod to tennis. They continued their respective sports together as students at Florida State University, until a water skiing accident resulted in reconstructive surgery for
. Off the golf team and struggling with depression, he borrowed a neighbor's guitar and passed time teaching himself to play by listening to childhood favorites like
.
Ambitious but inexperienced, with good looks and a smooth baritone,
Jake could next be found playing country covers in campus bars for free beer and a few bucks. Soon growing tired of covers, he began penning his own songs, which were met with a positive response. This motivated
Jake even more to follow his new dream of becoming a singer, eventually causing him to skip out on his remaining college classes -- only nine credit hours remained on his English and political science degree -- and head to Nashville. He constantly wrote songs in his Bellevue apartment, and a chance lunch meeting had producer
Jimmy Ritchey (
Clay Walker,
Mark Chesnutt) befriending the young musician. For over a year, the two wrote songs together, including a track called "Ghost" (also co-written by
Chuck Jones) that
Kenny Chesney almost wound up recording -- the track would later be included on
Jake's own album.
Eventually, his friendship with
Ritchey led to a meeting with Sony/BMG Nashville and resulted in a record contract for the determined 24-year-old, who already had his album basically finished. His debut,
Startin' with Me, appeared in summer 2006 on RCA, spearheaded by the single "Yee Haw." As the song climbed higher in the charts,
Jake supported the record on the road opening for
Kenny Chesney. In 2007, the title track ballad became the album's second single, reaching number six and spending a whopping 35-plus weeks on the Billboard country charts. "Don't Think I Can't Love You" appeared in the summer of 2008, heralding the release of his second full-length,
Easy Does It, in February of 2009.
Easy Does It spawned a number two hit in "Don't Think I Can't Love You," and "Eight Second Ride" peaked at number 11 in early 2010. He delivered his third album, Barefoot Blue Jean Night, in the summer of 2011. Barefoot Blue Jean Night was his biggest hit to date, launching number one country singles in its title track and "Alone with You." As the summer of 2012 wound to its end, he released the Endless Summer EP; the collection of four new songs came out that September.
–
Corey Apar, Rovi