Koe Wetzel Dropped 30 Kilos As He Helps Carry Nation Music

Koe Wetzel has been laser-focused on persevering with his present nation music success. He’s attaining it by showcasing the identical depth and ferocity onstage as he displayed whereas chasing down quarterbacks throughout his days on the soccer discipline. He’s additionally taking over a brand new problem: sustaining his music momentum whereas regaining his pass-rushing physique.

The previous school linebacker’s reputation has taken off with the 0-60 velocity of a Ford Mustang Shelby, the basic muscle automotive whose creator resided in the identical East Texas city because the 32-year-old musician. On the similar time, Wetzel’s ascent up the charts could be thought of unconventional by nation music requirements. He’s promoting out venues nationwide whereas refusing to promote out his Texas roots.

He now resides within the bigger Fort Price area, however Wetzel and his bandmates preserve the down-to-earth mindset that they had once they carried out for 30 individuals at native bars, incomes sufficient money for each beer and fuel to get to the subsequent gig. In different phrases, Wetzel takes creating music severely whereas refusing to take the celebrity that comes with success too severely.

“We nonetheless speak about how dangerous we suck,” Wetzel chuckles. “We’re nonetheless that band that’s persevering with to get higher. The celebrity is actually badass and funky, however I don’t assume we ever actually checked out it like that.”

In 2024, Wetzel skilled a breakout 12 months. His single “Excessive Street,” a collaboration with Jessie Murph, spent 5 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Nation Airplay chart and was additionally named the eighth finest total track of 2024 by the LA Instances. Moreover, final 12 months’s Rattling Close to Regular tour was profitable sufficient to warrant the discharge of a full-length reside album, Reside from the Rattling Close to Regular Tour.

Wetzel is much out of your cookie-cutter nation artist. Although labeled as nation, he blends rock, hip-hop, and even grunge—because of early influences from teams like Nirvana—which has allowed him to attach with broader audiences and amass over 3.7 billion streams alongside a million-plus followers on social media.

“We had been type of outsiders—no one actually f***ed with us,” he displays. “We simply went in our lane and did every thing the best way we thought it must be performed. And it’s labored out.”

As his reputation continues to soar in 2025, Wetzel can also be centered on downsizing his waistline. Amazingly, for somebody recognized for songs about consuming—and having been arrested for it—he’s misplaced as a lot as 35 kilos in the course of the tour—and is working to proceed the development. “I’m hoping to remain round 245 every time we’re touring,” he says, “simply so I’m not an entire fats a**.”

Whereas he hasn’t sworn off alcohol fully, Wetzel, whose setlist consists of alcohol-infused anthems comparable to “Drunk Driving,” “Casamigos,” and “February 28, 2016,” attributes his weight reduction to a major discount in beer and liquor in addition to a recommitment to the weightroom. Lighter and leaner, Wetzel has seen noticeable adjustments not solely in his physique but in addition his reveals. “That was the routine I adopted all through the Rattling Close to Regular tour,” he explains. “It helped me so much with my voice and efficiency, and I feel it was the very best tour we’ve had thus far.”

The highway to health hasn’t been fully easy; he admits to have gained just a few of these kilos again over the vacations. Nevertheless, his new concentrate on relaxation, improved vitamin, and slicing again on late nights has been crucial for Wetzel to ship standout performances night time after night time throughout his present tour.

“I’m again within the fitness center, getting after it,” Wetzel states confidently. “I really feel like I’ll get right down to 245 and keep on high of it this time.”

As a linebacker at Texas’ Tarleton State College in 2011, Wetzel’s gameday program had him listed at 6’1” and 220 kilos, practically 50 kilos lighter than his beginning weight on the Rattling Close to Regular tour. The “Good Die Younger” singer was leaner, sooner, and stronger, because of a weight-training routine that always had him within the fitness center as much as thrice a day. The football-specific workload allowed Wetzel to devour hundreds of energy with out accountability whereas nonetheless remaining athletic.

“I used to be fairly yoked up,” he shares. “I do know you may’t most likely inform now, however in school, I used to be fairly huge.” Wetzel says he was all legs and will squat near 500 kilos. When it got here to higher physique power, he admits to struggling barely. “I don’t assume I ever hit over 275 [on the bench press],” he admits, “however I might throw it out of the room on the squat.”

At Tarleton, the child who grew up idolizing Brian Bosworth and Clay Matthews was honed in on smashing quarterbacks. “I used to be, like, filling the hole after which hitting individuals within the mouth—that was my outlook,” he says. Sadly, his season—and obsession—with soccer ended after a brutal ankle damage. “I watched the video a few times and virtually threw up once more,” he recollects. “I used to be like, no, I can’t be doing this.”

Whereas he fell out of tune with soccer, Wetzel started choosing up further money singing nation tunes in native bars. Having grown up singing and taking part in guitar, he and a teammate, a bass participant, shaped a small band and began taking part in extra typically. “We had been taking part in music much more than video games. Then I stated the hell with soccer. I went to high school for one more 12 months, after which they kicked me out.”

Wetzel’s transition from soccer to nation music isn’t distinctive. Artists like Chase Rice, Riley Inexperienced, and Tucker Wetmore had been additionally standout athletes earlier than turning their attentions to music. He’s beginning to perceive the enchantment and connection between music and sports activities.

“I didn’t notice that was a factor till about 5 or 6 years in the past once I began trying round at my buddies. All of them performed both baseball or soccer, and when that didn’t work out, they went into nation music,” Wetzel displays.