His parents are William Keith Swindell and Betty Carol Rainey. His father died unexpectedly on September 2, 2013, at 65. He grew up in Bronwood, Georgia, and has two brothers. Swindell attended Terrell Academy in Dawson, Georgia. Swindell attended Georgia Southern University, where he majored in marketing. He met Luke Bryan, who attended the same university some years earlier and was also a fellow Sigma Chi member, at the fraternity house when Bryan came back to Statesboro to do a show. They kept in touch, and after Swindell left college in 2007 and moved to Nashville, he sold merchandise for Bryan for three years, and wrote songs on the road.
Music career
Songwriting
In 2010, Swindell signed a publishing deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Cole Swindell wrote Craig Campbell's "Outta My Head"; Luke Bryan's "Just a Sip", "Beer in the Headlights", "Roller Coaster", "Out Like That", "I'm Hungover", "In Love with the Girl", "Love in a College Town", "Shore Thing", "Shake the Sand" and "The Sand I Brought to the Beach"; Thomas Rhett's "Get Me Some of That"; and Scotty McCreery's "Water Tower Town" and "Carolina Eyes". He also co-wrote Florida Georgia Line's "This Is How We Roll" with Bryan, who was featured on the song. Chris Young also had a song on his A.M. album co-written by Swindell, "Nothin' but the Cooler Left".
2013–15: ''Cole Swindell''
In 2013, after his independently released debut single "Chillin' It" was played heavily by satellite radio channel "The Highway" on SiriusXM, the song began to climb the charts, Swindell signed a record deal with Warner Music Nashville. The song was produced by Jody Stevens, who is the son of Luke Bryan's producer, Jeff Stevens, and was formerly one-half of the duo Fast Ryde. The recording of "Chillin' It" was a demo consisting of Swindell's vocals and Stevens performing all instrumentation, and it was sent to radio before it had been mastered. Swindell released his self-titled debut album on February 18, 2014. Luke Bryan's guitarist, Michael Carter, produced the rest of the album. Along with Lee Brice, Swindell opened Luke Bryan's 2014 That's My Kind of Night Tour. The tour dates began in mid-January and ran into early March. "Chillin' It" became a top 5 hit on Country Airplay and number 1 single on Hot Country Songs. The album's second single is "Hope You Get Lonely Tonight", which Swindell co-wrote with both members of Florida Georgia Line. The album's third single, "Ain't Worth the Whiskey" released to country radio on November 3, 2014. It reached number one on the Country Airplay chart in April 2015. The album's fourth single, "Let Me See Ya Girl", was released to country radio on April 20, 2015. It reached number two on the Country Airplay chart in November 2015. On November 17, 2014, Swindell released a five-song digital EP titled The Down Home Sessions. The EP release coincides with his headlining tour of the same name. Swindell won the ACM New Artist of the Year Award in April 2015.
2015–18: ''You Should Be Here''
The album's first single, "You Should Be Here" was released to country radio on December 14, 2015. It was written with Ashley Gorley. It reached at number one on the Country Airplay & Hot Country Songs in April 2016. The album's second single, "Middle of a Memory" released to country radio on May 2, 2016. It reached at number one on the Country Airplay in November 2016. The album's third single, "Flatliner" released to country radio on January 23, 2017. It reached at number two on the Country Airplay in August 2017. The album's fourth single, "Stay Downtown" released to country radio on September 5, 2017. “You Should Be Here”, “Middle Of A Memory” and "Flatliner" all hit No. 1 on Mediabase country radio singles chart. Swindell also released a music video for the song which featured a video of him telling his father he received a record contract and subsequent montages of Cole and his brothers grieving outside of the family home and at their father's grave. The video also shows images of Swindell's rising popularity while clearly conveying that he wanted to be able to see his father and share this fame experience with him.
2018–present: ''All of It''
Swindell released "Break Up in the End", the lead single from his third album, on February 23, 2018. The new album, All of It, was released on August 17, 2018. After the album became available for pre-order in July 2018, Swindell released the #1 track "Love You Too Late" as a promotional single. "Love You Too Late" was announced as the album's official second single, being released to radio on November 19, 2018
