Gabby Barrett Went Somewhere Scenic for Her First Time on the Radio

Gabby Barrett heard herself on the radio for the first time when she was a young teenager, and the experience is one that she'll never forget. Read on as Barrett recalls the first time she heard one of her songs on the radio, and why it's still special for her every time she hears one of her songs today.

The first time I ever had a song play on a legit radio station, I think I was about 13. It was a song of mine that I had written called "Young Blood." There is a Froggy Radio in Pittsburgh, [Pa.], and there is a guy there named Jeremy Mulder -- he goes by Danger -- and he has his own show. He has been so supportive of me, to this day. [Back then], he would play, like, demos on the radio.

So he played my song "Young Blood" every week on rotation, and I remember first hearing me. He told me, "It's gonna be on at this day at this time," and we went to this place called Mount Washington in Pittsburgh. Mount Washington is basically this place where you can go and you can basically see the whole downtown. So we were up there, and we had a speaker, and had the radio blasting. We danced around the top, and people looked at us like we were nuts! But it was fun.

I think it's really cool when any of your songs play on the radio for the first time. "Young Blood" was really exciting. And then later, when I heard "I Hope" on SiriusXM for the first time -- it's like children. I don't have any children yet, but this is what I imagine it being like. Each child you have, you love them, but it's a different feeling. That's how it is with songs on the radio.