Time, hard work earned Carroll spot in limelight

• By JOHN WIRT
• Music critic
• Published: Jul 4, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 am

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His first album, Waitin’ in the Country, debuted at No. 1 on the country albums chart. His song, “Alyssa Lies,” was country music’s fastest-rising single by a male artist in 2006. Succeeding hits included “I Can Sleep When I’m Dead” and “Livin’ Our Love Song.” Tours with country stars Alan Jackson, Trace Adkins, Brooks and Dunn, Brad Paisley and, most recently, Carrie Underwood, followed.

Things happened fast for Jason Michael Carroll, but only after he paid those proverbial dues for years.

“By the time I got my record deal, I joked that I was a 10-year overnight success,” the 30-year-old singer and heartthrob said.

“The first thing anybody heard of me was, ‘Here’s Jason Michael Carroll signing with Arista Records,’ ” the Raleigh, N.C.-based singer added. “But people in the Carolinas and Virginia and Georgia and some in the Houston area already knew about me during the decade before that, when I toured and played shows on my own.”

Carroll’s hard-won breaks included winning a pop radio station’s karaoke contest. Becoming well-known in the Raleigh-Durham area, he came to the attention of producer Don Gehman (Pat Green, Hootie and the Blowfish and John Mellencamp). 

 A deal with Arista followed. When Carroll’s ambitious wish to write songs for his CD debut with pop-rock star Rob Thomas didn’t happen, he wrote with Jewel instead. Carroll and Jewel even recorded their collaboration, “No Good In Goodbye,” as a duet for his album.

“It’s really cool that I was able to actually see my dreams unfold,” Carroll said recently from New Orleans, where he opened a show for Carrie Underwood.

 After being a supporting act for Underwood in June, Carroll is touring as a headliner this month. When he tops the bill, Carroll’s shows are typically 75 to 90 minutes long, rather than the 35 minutes he got as Underwood’s opening act. 

“First of all, for her to trust us with that opening slot on her first headlining tour, that’s a big deal,” Carroll said. “A lot of thought went into picking us for that and we really appreciate the opportunity.”

That said, Carroll and his band made the most of their 35 minutes.

“Even in a 35-minute set, we want people to feel like they got their money’s worth,” he said.

Carroll’s childhood in North Carolina was anything but a prelude to being a country music singer. Pop, country and secular music were forbidden by his fundamentalist Baptist preacher father.

“I hid a Walkman and a set of headphones,” the singer remembered. “Just in case my parents found them, I tuned to the local Christian station so they’d think I was listening to that. But soon as I’d go to bed, I’d change the channel and listen to country or rock. Most of the time it would wind up dialed to the country station.”