Don Louis grew up in Cumby, Texas, where he worked on his mother’s farm while excelling as an All-District defensive end in high school football. He initially quit football after three years on scholarship at Ouachita Baptist University to provide for his growing family, taking a job at a sawmill. After the relationship with his child’s mother ended, he worked to get back into football shape. He earned a spot as a starter at Southern Arkansas University, eventually getting NFL tryouts. Despite his aspirations, a knee injury during a bar fight in 2020 prevented him from moving past the NFL combine. However, the setback forced him to shift focus and opened the door to a new passion: music.

“In between that time, I hadn’t really release music, but I had it on my phone. I was rapping, just because I like how I sounded,” the singer tells BET. “After I blew my knee out, I knew that somethings gotta give. Like, my body’s not gonna be able to keep doing this. It was too music mentally taxing on my body. There were a lot of people who were already fresh off, got a new body, who already hurt, literally getting recruited in the process, but, I had to be real with myself.”

He continues, “I knew that the Lord wanted me to do something that was big, and it's still gonna be in stadiums. I can feel it now even the bigger we get that I'm gonna be packing out stadiums here later on in life.”

Louis admits that the transition from football to music was initially difficult and even led to feelings of depression. However, over time, he discovered a deeper love and joy for music than he ever had for football. “It was really depressing at first because when you first get into music, nobody really believes in you. We as people don't like to see other people doing well, unfortunately. I'm not like that and if I’ve had any of those feelings in my life, I've tried to pray to not feel that kind of way. We have that real crab in a barrel mentality,” he explains. “When you start something new, any kind of business, I've realized it's not even just music, you really don't get that support, especially from friends. But, I had a couple people come up to me and say, ‘Hey, man. I think what you're doing here is something special, and you should stay on it.”

The 27-year-old adds, “My whole life has been sports or football, so I was really depressed there for a bit. But I was able to rally myself, and I took it to the Lord, and he made me stay on my discipline. He made me stay and realize, like, hey, “You could still be an athlete. You could still be in shape. You'll just play the guitar.” And once I started staying in shape, keeping myself pretty much still on that athlete accountability, I was able to apply that even to the music. And now I got young men around the world literally wanting to stay in shape, wanting to work out, wanting to replicate what I'm doing. And I think that's way more beautiful than me playing football where my voice would not be heard. I would just be pretty much a pawn of tackling.”

Louis is a country artist, but seamlessly fuses the genre with rock, hip-hop, and R&B, carving a distinct sound that has captivated a growing fanbase. His magnetic presence and raspy, sultry baritone, influenced by legends like George Strait and Toby Keith alongside modern musicians like The Weeknd and J. Cole, have earned him over 3.6 million TikTok likes and over 53 million streams. Since emerging on the scene, Louis has continued to thrive, recently releasing his debut under EMPIRE Records, Liquor Talkin', which dropped last month. He says that the project is a roller coaster of different vibes. “I’m loving it,” Louis says of the album. “I feel like it’s got a bunch of different emotions going on, period. Sad, up and down, happy emotions. I’m just bringing a good time to everybody. I didn’t want to make it just country. I wanted to make it for people that go to the bar and try to drink their pain and sorrows away and also people that are just there for a good time.” 

Louis expresses the challenges of being a Black artist in country music, explaining that as someone of mixed race, he finds it difficult to navigate the genre. He rejects the notion of diversity in music, believing that it should be appreciated for its artistry rather than categorized by race or identity. For him, music transcends labels, and the focus should remain on the sound quality, not the artist's background. “It f**king hurts. It is what it is,” he begins. “I'm a mix, so I have always kinda never really gotten the love from either counterpart of my races. I don't like diversity. I believe music is music, and if it's good, it's good. Fitting in was never really a thing for me, so I've always just tried to be me.” He continues, “White people were saying you shouldn't be affected by racism because you're not Black enough. Black people say you've never dealt with racism because you're not Black enough. And then you got people who can't believe you're from the country, and they'll try to be like, ‘You you ain't this, this, and that.’ And I was like, bro, ‘You ain’t gonna tell me what kind of farm I grew up on. You don't know my problems or my feelings.”

Louis reflects on his journey, acknowledging that he realized he would struggle significantly more to reach the top than his white counterparts. Despite this awareness, he remains unfazed and unresentful about the challenges he encounters “My voice is pretty d**n good. And I can't help that my beautiful chocolate brown skin, that I love so much, has been hated on and discriminated against. Until the people get in the room and get to have a conversation with me, then they’ll realize, like, ‘This is a man. He's a hardworking man, skin color or not. He's well rounded. He's educated. He's Christlike. He tries to show love to everybody around him.’ I”t just sucks that we have to deal with so much diversity between other people because they wanna put those labels on us.” 

Listen to Liquor Talkin’ here: