When CountryMusic.co.uk last sat down with Josh Ross, there was one thing the Canadian singer seemed particularly conscious of changing.
He needed to slow down.
It was October 2025, Ross had just released his long-awaited debut album Later Tonight, both of his Camden Assembly shows had sold out, and his career was gathering momentum on several fronts at once. Yet even while talking about everything that was happening, he admitted that his instinct was always to look towards whatever came next rather than appreciate what was already in front of him.
Less than a year later, we catch up with him again at The Long Road Festival and there is considerably more for him to take in.
The intimate London rooms have become the 1,300-capacity Electric Ballroom. Single Again and Hate How You Look have delivered consecutive No.1s at US country radio. Back home in Canada, another seven CCMA nominations have followed. And the UK audience Ross was already excited about last autumn is getting noticeably bigger.
This time, though, he insists he is actually stopping to notice it.
“Honestly, yes,” he says when reminded of that conversation. “It’s something I really worked on the last six to eight months.”
That has meant deliberately finding space away from the relentless cycle of buses, stages and airports.
“Taking time just fishing on my own or going to, like, a cabin by myself and just enjoying things,” he explains. “Even yesterday, I was in London and went to a play last night. Just trying to enjoy the culture of everything a little more and not just, you know, living on the bus and going to the next thing.”
It is a small change, perhaps, but one that feels significant for an artist whose career currently gives him plenty of reasons to keep looking forward.
“I’ve really worked on taking time… just trying to enjoy the culture of everything a little more and not just living on the bus and going to the next thing.”
A UK audience that keeps growing
Ross can see the progress particularly clearly when he looks at his relationship with the UK.
“I came here first in 2024 with Bailey, then obviously last year doing the two nights in London and then to come back and have, I think it was like 1,300 people there at Electric Ballroom,” he says.
“So, very, very special. It just shows how much the music’s appreciated here and growing too, which is awesome.”
Josh Ross: Then and now
When we spoke – October 2025
Two sold-out Camden Assembly headline shows in London. Ross had just released his debut album, Later Tonight, and spoke about establishing his identity, his growing connection with UK audiences and needing to slow down enough to enjoy what was happening.
When we caught up – August 2026
A substantially bigger UK run, including The Long Road and London’s Electric Ballroom. Single Again and Hate How You Look have become consecutive US country radio No.1s, while Ross heads into the 2026 CCMAs with seven nominations.
What comes next
Another new song is due in the autumn, and Ross is already working towards his second album. He says he has “a good batch of songs” he is excited about — and promises the wait between albums will not be as long this time.
The size of the room has changed, but something Ross noticed about British country audiences on those earlier visits apparently has not.
When we spoke at Camden Assembly, he told us UK fans “listen differently”. They wanted to hear not only the songs but the stories behind them — something that can easily disappear as shows move into larger venues.
Ross is determined not to let it.
“I make sure I have time,” he says. “That’s why I love the headline shows. Even in London, I feel like I have more time in between songs just to actually talk and describe what a song’s about.
“I do feel like that is something that you guys really appreciate here.”
For Ross, that connection appears to be becoming part of the reason for returning rather than simply a pleasant discovery made on his first few visits.
“Going from the two smaller rooms in London last year to the big room, it’s like people are appreciating the music,” he says. “And that also makes me appreciate it. I want to come back.”
“People are appreciating the music. And that also makes me appreciate it. I want to come back.”
“I still am just kind of a nobody in my own mind”
There is another comment from our previous conversation that feels rather different when revisited ten months later.
Ross became emotional at Camden while discussing Nobody From Nowhere. Despite everything already happening around him, he said there was still a part of him that felt exactly like the character at the heart of the song.
Since then, the evidence suggesting otherwise has become considerably harder to ignore.
Two consecutive US country radio No.1s would be enough to change how many artists see themselves. Add the bigger shows, awards recognition and increasingly international audience, and Ross’s career looks rather different from the outside.
From the inside, apparently, less has changed.
“I do,” he says when asked whether he still recognises that version of himself. “I think me to my core is always who I am.
“I think I’ve had to learn to adjust to a different lifestyle, but one that I love, so I’m very grateful for that.”
Then comes the line that perhaps says more about Ross than any chart statistic could.
“I still am just kind of a nobody in my own mind.”
It isn’t delivered as false modesty. Rather, Ross seems to regard retaining some of that ordinariness as essential to the connection between his life and his songs.
“I hope that’s why people connect with me and my music, because I am just a regular guy that likes to have a drink and hang out with his friends and hopefully finds love and all those things.
“That’s just very much who I am, and I want people to be able to connect with that.”
“I still am just kind of a nobody in my own mind. I hope that’s why people connect with me and my music.”
When one No.1 becomes two
There is, nevertheless, a growing confidence in what Ross is building.
Single Again reaching No.1 was an emotional experience partly because its journey there had been anything but straightforward.
“Single Again was an emotional one in the sense that it went up and down the chart a couple of times and then finally, you know, continued to grow,” he recalls.
Following it with Hate How You Look meant something slightly different.
“I hope everybody now knows that I’m serious about it,” Ross says, pointing particularly to “solidifying my spot in the US market”.
It is an interesting choice of words. The first success proved he could reach the top; the second began to establish that he belonged there.
But amid those career milestones, Ross’s latest single has allowed him to do something much less serious.
Kicked Out Of Bars is designed to be fun — and its inspiration isn’t especially complicated.
“To be honest, it’s an honest subject,” he laughs. “I’ve been known to get kicked out of bars, especially when I was younger.”
The idea immediately lent itself to the more energetic side of a Josh Ross show.
“When we had the idea, it was just a fun idea,” he says. “For festival atmospheres like this, it’s just a lot of fun to play songs.”
Hearing the album differently
There has also been time for Ross’s relationship with Later Tonight to evolve.
He deliberately waited before making his debut album, wanting to reach the point where a full record genuinely represented who he was as an artist. Almost a year of performing those songs has inevitably changed how some of them feel.
Asked which has shifted most for him, Ross initially points to Leave Me Too.
“It’s just kind of stuck as one of my favourites that I put out,” he says.
More surprisingly, the album’s title track has grown in his estimation too.
“Later Tonight, the song itself, I’ve learned to appreciate,” he explains. “It was kind of interesting how we named the album that because I was unsure of putting that as the first song originally.
“It’s definitely grown on me as the year’s gone by.”
Yet this is Josh Ross, and even in a conversation about learning to stop thinking constantly about the future, eventually the next record inevitably enters the picture.
“As soon as I’m kind of done the record, I’ve listened to it so many times that I’m already ready for the next thing,” he admits.
Success magnifies who you already are
Ross is also heading into another CCMA Awards with seven nominations, having already become one of Canadian country’s most recognised performers.
Ask him what he has learned about being an entertainer rather than simply somebody who sings songs, however, and his answer doesn’t begin with stagecraft.
“It’s about being a good person.”
For Ross, greater visibility doesn’t fundamentally change somebody. It reveals more of what was there already.
“I think that as you get more popular, it just magnifies who you really are as a person,” he says.
“I’ve always been one of those people that says if you’re a good person, it’s only going to magnify you to become an even better person.”
The recognition from home clearly remains important too.
“I’ve been very grateful for, obviously, the CCMAs and the recognition in Canada,” he says. “Just continuing to keep growing and having the support of Canada is really, really awesome.”
“As you get more popular, it just magnifies who you really are as a person.”
The next thing
So has Josh Ross really stopped looking towards whatever comes next?
Not entirely.
Perhaps the difference is that he is now allowing himself to enjoy where he is while still being ambitious about where he wants to go.
And there is already movement on that next chapter.
“I’ve got a song coming next month, which I really look forward to,” Ross reveals.
Beyond that, attention is turning towards what will eventually become the follow-up to Later Tonight.
“I’m trying to work towards another album,” he says. “I won’t put it out until it’s ready, for sure, but I feel like right now I’ve got a good batch of songs I’m excited about.”
Ross waited until he felt ready before committing himself to his debut album, and there is clearly no intention of abandoning that instinct simply because expectations are now higher.
There is, however, one promise.
This time, we suggest, perhaps fans won’t have quite so long to wait.
“Yes,” he says. “It won’t be so long of a gap, for sure.”
It is an appropriately Josh Ross way to end our second conversation.
Ten months ago, he was trying to teach himself not to spend every moment chasing the next milestone. Since then, the rooms have grown, two songs have reached No.1 and his career has accelerated again.
He may have become better at stopping occasionally to enjoy all of that — whether alone with a fishing rod, at a cabin or taking in a play during a day in London — but the instinct that helped get him here hasn’t disappeared.
There is still a next thing.
Ross is simply getting better at enjoying the road towards it.
