By Alisha Davis
CNN Headline News
(CNN) -- It is a singer's dream: earning three Grammy nominations for your very first album. Now that dream is a reality for country musician Joe Nichols. His debut single, "The Impossible," is taking the world by storm.
He is nominated for Best Country Album, Best Country Male Vocal Performance and Best Country Song . Nichols found time in his whirlwind schedule to talk to Alisha Davis of Headline News about achieving the impossible.
DAVIS: A year ago, you hadn't even released a single yet. Now you are up for three Grammy Awards. Do you have to pinch yourself in the morning to remind yourself that this is real?
NICHOLS: Oh yeah! It's a pretty big honor being where we're at this early in the career. And getting to go to New York with a big prestigious award on the line like a Grammy is pretty cool.
DAVIS: And your success comes at a time when country music is doing so well. It's just about the only bright spot in the struggling music industry right now. Why do you think country as a genre is doing so well right now?
NICHOLS: I don't know. ...I think country music is about the homeland, and I think people need that right now. They need to feel support from the homeland. They need to hear songs about things that really happen in the real world.
DAVIS: Speaking of music people embraced after September 11, you toured with Alan Jackson last fall, and now you're rejoining a tour this year. Tell me what it's like being on the road with him
NICHOLS: It's fun. I get to go out and play in front of, say 15,000 people, and they're all screaming country music fans. It's great to grace a stage and open up a show for one of my heroes, Alan Jackson. It's pretty incredible.
DAVIS: You mentioned screaming country fans. I understand you performed at the Grand Ole Opry -- in fact, you performed there quite a bit -- and I understand you made some history of your own, thanks to a very enthusiastic fan...
NICHOLS: Well, it's not the kind of record you want to break, but ... yeah, we set an Opry record. We had the first bra thrown at us on stage -- not something that happens all the time at the Grand Opry. But hey, we'll take it.
DAVIS: That's a lot of love. And your second single, "Broken Heartsville," is getting a lot of love and climbing the charts. Congratulations! Where do you get your musical inspiration from?
NICHOLS: A lot of my musical inspiration came from my father, and I have several uncles who played country music when I was a child. Growing up and watching them was a big influence on me, and I always wanted to be like them. It's something I grew up watching. I wish I could be as good at it as they were. And a lot of those traditional country singers were big influences on me, like Merle Haggard and Randy Travis, George Strait and Keith Whitley and those guys were all big influences on me as well.
DAVIS: Well, Joe, thank you so much and good luck at the Grammys!
The Grammy Awards will be handed out February 23 in New York.
