Doors that open are a funny thing. They can deliver opportunities but never promises. In the music business, anybody who packs up and moves to Nashville will have a ton of stories about the next door being the “it” door where everything is going to come together.
You must convince yourself continually that the next door is “it” or you won’t make it very far in Nashville, where it is widely known for daily rejection and harsh feedback.
Put simply, Nashville is a “no” town with continuous hopes of “it” doors.
Perhaps its why heartbreaking country songs get written in Nashville – repeatedly, all day, in what is called “writing sessions,” where publishers sign songwriters to sit in a room and write songs with each other.
One heartbreaking song you might recall from 2017 is the No. 1 country song, “Ask Me How I Know”, written by East Tennessee native, Mitch Rossell (pronounced Row-Sell).
Mitch has spent years opening many Nashville doors, and it just so happened that in 2016, Mitch landed the email address of the best-selling solo album artist of all time, and boldly reached for the handle of that door to see if it would unlock from the other side.
On the other side, Garth Brooks unlocked and swung the door open for Mitch in the most red-carpet, life changing event of Mitch’s music career at the time.
Mitch admits he “literally starved for 13 years” after walking, running, and sometimes crawling through Nashville’s many doors – but that day, Garth told Mitch he was going to record his song.
“I couldn’t believe it. Not only did he email me back, but he told me he loved the song, and my life changed forever,” said Mitch.
Mitch admits when he first started writing and recording, he didn’t get the feedback he was hoping for from an industry veteran he was introduced to, who liked Mitch’s songwriter, but didn’t believe his voice was strong enough to be a performer.
“At first, I was told my singing wasn’t there and I just accepted that. I didn’t have the confidence for it even though when I would write, it felt euphoric to sing my songs,” said Mitch.
Just about the time Mitch had accepted his fate of being a non-performing songwriter, the same industry veteran who told him his singing wasn’t up to par, changed his tune after hearing Mitch cut a song in the studio.
Soon after, Mitch was invited to perform weekly at Tootsies Orchid Lounge on Broadway every Friday night, where Mitch cut his teeth on how to understand performing and how to entertain.
If you’re a country music fan, you may know Tootsies is the stage where so many current country music artists started when they moved to Nashville and started their music careers – including Garth Brooks.
“Everything changed from there, as I was able to get confident and learn how to be a performer,” said Mitch.
After Garth recorded and released Mitch’s song, not only did it go No. 1 on the Country Billboard charts, but he invited Mitch to perform on the road with him as an opening act on select dates of his stadium tour.
Mitch admits, he would left Tootsies (second location at the Nashville Airport) one afternoon to go out with Garth and perform for a sold-out stadium show, then be back in Tootsies playing for less than 100 people – all transpiring within a few days’ turnaround.
“It was an emotional rollercoaster; I was an absolute emotional wreck,” said Mitch.
While Mitch continues to write and record his own music, he has decided to open quite a big door – “America’s Got Talent”.
In June, Mitch auditioned with an original song, “Son”, which garnered a standing ovation from the audience, and went on to hit No. 1 on iTunes across all genres of music.
On Tuesday, Mitch competed in the first round with another original song, “All I Need to See,” where Howie Mandel predicted his song would yet again go No. 1 on iTunes.
Mitch says he is listening to God’s voice and letting him direct him on which doors he should open and believes God speaks to him.
“I listened to His voice, and I did debate going on the show, but for me, it’s a place where I can share my own songs, which isn’t something that people typically get to do on the show.”
You can see Mitch perform his original songs “America’s Got talent” season 18 airing multiple times per week on NBC.