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MAGNET EXCLUSIVE

MAGNET Exclusive: Premiere Of Ron Pope’s “The Life In Your Years”

Born in Newark, N.J., and raised in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, Ron Pope has been moving in one direction or another for much of his life.

“I’ve been traveling to play music since I was a kid, and I was never especially attached to one place—or to very many people, for that matter,” says the platinum-selling singer/songwriter. “I felt as if I’d been specially crafted to live in constant motion. Other people got homesick on the road; I got sick of home whenever I was forced to sit still.”

Pope played two years of baseball at Rutgers University before an injury prompted a transfer to NYU in 2003 to pursue another love. In Manhattan, he met future bandmates Zach Berkman and Paul Hammer. Four years later, he and Berkman cowrote “A Drop In The Ocean,” a surprise internet hit Not long after that, Pope was featured on MTV’s TRL as an up-and-coming artist.

In May 2009, Pope signed with Universal Republic, releasing a few singles for the label. “A Drop In The Ocean” eventually went platinum, and Pope co-founded his own label, Brooklyn Basement, with manager Blair Clark. The indie imprint was literally birthed below ground in the New York City borough—though, these days, Pope is now living the family life in Nashville.

“As I’ve gotten older, I love to be at home,” he says. “I’m a father and a husband way before I’m anything else. Now, I go out on tour for my family and then get home to them as quickly as I can.”

Pope’s latest Brooklyn Basement release, American Man, American Music, is out February 14. For now, there’s this live acoustic version of somber, reflective ballad “The Life In Your Years.”

—Hobart Rowland

See Ron Pope live.