Country Thunder — the largest Country music festival brand in North America — rounds out an unforgettable 2025 with a must-watch episode of its popular podcast “On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer” featuring GRAMMY® Award-nominated MULTI-PLATINUM artist Gavin DeGraw. It’s the next installment of Season 3 and the final episode of the year. It’s one of the show’s most special conversations yet. Country Thunder CEO and host Troy Vollhoffer takes a trip down memory lane with DeGraw, discussing his now-classic collaboration with Colbie Caillat, what could’ve been a real-life Seinfeld episode, and his journey thus far.

The story starts in the Catskill Mountains where DeGraw grew up. With a smile, he immediately draws a comparison between the area and arguably its most famous film.

He notes, “The Patrick Swayze character in Dirty Dancing, my brother likes to say, is based on my great-grandfather who was a dance instructor in the Catskill Mountains…because he was a dance instructor at a place called ‘The Laurels’.”

Despite playing piano throughout his childhood, music never seemed like it could be a career. Instead, he actually dreamed of life as a doctor. That’s until the age of 15 when he and his family witnessed a Billy Joel show at the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany. Everything changed at this point.

He recalls, “When I saw these strangers around me watching the show overjoyed, that’s the first time it occurred to me that I thought, ‘Wow, music is medicine. This is something that helps people. It’s helping me. It’s helping these people here’…That’s the first time I thought that’s what I’m going to do for a living.”

Coming a long way from sitting in that crowd, he followed his dream to eventual widespread success. However, there was no shortage of follies along the way—from turning down early deals to eating free hotdogs that may or may not have contained “a finger”. He initially moved to New York City in order to pursue acting, and he grinded from the bottom, absorbing the aftershocks of rejection without letting it change him. “That was a great lesson for me, because I learned how to get rejected,” he observes.

Nevertheless, he powered through and delivered MULTI-PLATINUM smashes such as “Not Over You,” “I Don’t Want To Be” (which became the theme to One Tree Hill), and “In Love with a Girl” in addition to the GRAMMY® Award-nominated “We Both Know” [with Colbie Caillat]. 2024 notably saw him commemorate the 20th anniversary of his PLATINUM-certified debut Chariot with the release of Chariot 20.

They also spoke about his commitment to uplifting our men and women in the Armed Forces wherever and whenever possible. In fact, he had even traveled to Nashville in order to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. military, taking every opportunity to play for the troops.

“I love doing it,” he affirms. “I feel like there’s a percentage of the public that goes and does a harder thing for the rest of the public, and that’s what they’re doing…a lot of people from all different political teams, as it were, are showing up and playing on the bases and supporting the troops, and it’s really nice to see.”

You can catch him on the road next year as direct support to O.A.R. on their Three Decades Tour.

Expect more music from DeGraw soon.

It’s truly been a stacked year for “On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer,” with Season 3 guests including The Boxmasters (Billy Bob Thornton and J.D. Andrew), MULTI-PLATINUM Country superstar Cody Johnson, history-making award-winning band Old Dominion, Tennessee-born singer and songwriter Larry Fleet and GRAMMY® Award-nominated, MULTI-PLATINUM Country star Cole Swindell. Prior, Season 3 launched in September with an episode featuring 23x No. 1 hitmaker Tyler Hubbard. Now, the podcast has steadily emerged as one of the premier Country music podcasts, elevating Vollhoffer as an industry tastemaker and sharp businessman. Over the course of its first two seasons, he sat down for insightful, revealing, and often hilarious interviews with the likes of Jake Owen, Blake Shelton, HARDY, Gavin Adcock, Koe Wetzel, Dierks Bentley, Bailey Zimmerman, Ashley McBryde, Marty Stuart, and many more. During Season 1, the podcast notably shook the charts and reached #1 in Music among Apple Podcasts in the U.S. Not to mention, the Dustin Lynch episode debuted in the Top 1% of all podcasts. Following this success, all episodes in Seasons 2 and 3 performed better than 95% of podcasts in their first seven days. Additionally, with the expansion to video in Season 2, Blake Shelton’s episode received over 105K views, with Jordan Davis and Gavin Adcock each gaining over 95K views.

With cameras rolling and tape running, he engages in funny and freewheeling discourse with major Country talent as well as buzzing acts. The episodes are filmed from Vollhoffer’s tour bus and home studio, providing an unfiltered vignette into the lives of artists as they tell stories, recall memories, and share unwavering passion for music.

The podcast stands out as a must-listen for Country aficionados and music lovers of all kinds, thanks to its intimate format, exclusive insights, and a lineup packed with all-star guests. Its momentum reflects Vollhoffer’s own imprint on the industry; he was recently featured in MusicRow magazine’s “My Music Row Story,” underscoring his long-standing impact on live music production and festival leadership.

 

ABOUT GAVIN DEGRAW:
GRAMMY® Award-nominated multiplatinum singer and songwriter Gavin DeGraw first broke through with his 2003 Platinum-certified debut, Chariot, which delivered the Gold single “Follow Through” and Platinum hits “Chariot” and the iconic “I Don’t Want To Be.” His self-titled sophomore album debuted in the Top 10 of the Billboard Top 200, powered by the Platinum-selling single “In Love With a Girl,” while his Gold-certified Sweeter produced the 4x Platinum smash “Not Over You.” DeGraw’s duet with Colbie Caillat, “We Both Know,” earned a GRAMMY® Award nomination for Best Song Written for Visual Media from the feature film Safe Haven.

With his 2022 album Face The River, DeGraw paid tribute to his late parents and their lasting influence on his life and music. He followed with A Classic Christmas, his first-ever holiday EP, and Chariot 20, a reimagined anniversary edition of his landmark debut. DeGraw just wrapped a co-headline Christmas tour with Colbie Caillat, alongside four solo holiday shows on the East Coast.

DeGraw is the rare talent who can seamlessly share the stage with Billy Joel and The Allman Brothers or Maroon 5 and Shania Twain with his signature fusion of pop, soul, country, folk and funk.

ABOUT COUNTRY THUNDER:
Country Thunder Music Festivals thrives as the world’s preeminent Country music festival brand. Led by President and C.E.O. Troy Vollhoffer since 2005, it continues to set the tone for Country music and culture. This global powerhouse encompasses annual multi-day events in six major markets across two countries, earning “Festival of the Year” at the ACM Awards three times and entertaining millions of fans to date. Its stages have welcomed GRAMMY® Award-winning generational superstars, genre-busting trailblazers, and rising talent alike. Beyond boasting a reputation for once-in-a-lifetime collaborations, it has perennially provided a launchpad for breaking acts. Between those powerhouse performances, each location features an immersive concourse consisting of numerous cuisine and beverage options, local vendors, and various attractions. Dubbed “a pillar of country festival culture” by Holler., American Songwriter has hailed it as “a country music lover’s dream,” while The Tennessean summed it up best, “For three decades, the Country Thunder brand has succeeded in offering fans top-tier performances.” The brand’s festivals include Saskatchewan, Arizona, Wisconsin, Alberta, and Florida. As always, Country Thunder Music Festivals embodies the past, present, and future of Country music and so much more.

ABOUT TROY VOLLHOFFER:
Between running the world’s preeminent Country music festival brand, hosting a popular podcast, and giving back at every turn as a philanthropist, Country Thunder President and C.E.O. Troy Vollhoffer has quietly distinguished himself as a music industry renaissance man. Raised in Regina, Saskatchewan, he went from working in his father’s local theater to spending more than a decade playing minor and junior professional hockey before using a Pittsburgh Penguins signing bonus to launch Premier Global Production, which supported major tours for Rod Stewart, Def Leppard, Metallica and more. In 2005, he took ownership of the longest-running music festival event in North America, leading it as the Craven Country Jamboree for twelve years before bringing it into the Country Thunder family in 2017. During that time, he expanded the brand by acquiring Country Thunder Arizona and Wisconsin in 2009 and launching Country Thunder Alberta in 2016 and Country Thunder Florida in 2019, which will move to the beach for the first time in 2026—occupying the largest footprint of any Country Thunder festival and overlooking the crystal clear waters of The Gulf. His leadership has earned multiple ACM “Festival of the Year” honors, prestigious awards from the ACM and CCMA, and recognition on Billboard’s “Touring Power Players” list. A dedicated philanthropist and host of “On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer,” he continues to shape the future of live music with the same passion that launched his career.

ABOUT “ON THE BUS WITH TROY VOLLHOFFER”:
The “On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer” podcast presents deep dive discussions with Country music’s living legends, the 21st century’s hottest headliners, and even the players behind-the-scenes. In the driver’s seat, Country Thunder CEO and host Troy Vollhoffer inspires intimate, thoughtful, and often hilarious conversations with top-tier talent. Shot on his actual tour bus, at his home studio, or on location at one of Country Thunder’s many festivals, it taps into the pulse of Country music culture. Over the course of three seasons thus far, episodes have featured everyone from Bailey Zimmerman, Blake Shelton, Cody Johnson, Dierks Bentley, Gavin Adcock, HARDY, Jake Owen, and Old Dominion to Ashley McBryde, Tigirlily Gold, and The Boxmasters (Billy Bob Thornton and J.D. Andrew). Beyond generating millions of views and plays, it has notably reached #1 in Music on Apple Podcasts in the U.S. multiple times. “On the Bus with Troy Vollhoffer” continues to roll on as one of Country’s most captivating podcasts.

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