Adam Mac Is Bringing a 'New Vibration' to Country Music: 'I Didn't See Anybody Else Like Me'

As a kid, Kentucky native Adam Mac loved spending his days singing and dancing, and come Sunday, he loved finding his way into a church pew. But never did he see himself finding a home in Music City.

"It was always just a crazy dream that I didn't think was possible for someone like me," says Mac, 32, in a recent interview with PEOPLE. "I always thought it would be incredible to live in Nashville and to sing country music and do all the things that I've watched so many people do my whole life, but it just seemed like such a far-off thing. Nobody from my hometown does anything like that. We stay here, we grow up, and we get married and have kids. That's what we do."

But Mac had bigger plans.

"The week before my senior year graduation, my very best friend passed away very suddenly and very unexpectedly," reflects Mac, who grew up on the sounds of Shania Twain and Garth Brooks mixed in with a little Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley. "That kind of triggered songwriting for me. I needed a place to put all those feelings."

And at the age of 22, Mac packed his things, drove to Nashville, and came out as gay the very next year. "I had lived my whole life just terrified to come out and to tell anybody who I was," he says. "And then when I moved to Nashville, it hit me that I didn't see anybody else like me in country music, so I didn't think they would want me, and it certainly wasn't going to be a place where I could thrive." He pauses. "I struggled with that for a really long time."

But eventually, Mac pretty much said "screw it."

"I don't really care what anybody else's perception of me is or their opinion of me is or if I belong here or not," he says with a smile. "I'm just doing what I love and just making music that fulfills me."

Indeed, Mac can now deservedly count himself as one of country music's rising LGBTQ+ country artists finding their way and their purpose in a genre that once was guided by the strictest of guardrails. And make no mistake — country music's very own Elton John with a little Dua Lipa mixed in looks to be a force to be reckoned with, especially as he turns out barnburners such as the country-pop heavy "New Vibration."

"It just felt like that is what we're doing here," Mac says of the song premiering exclusively on PEOPLE. "We are creating a new vibration and a new frequency of music and style. And plus, I wanted something sexy and sultry, especially coming out of the pandemic."

And apparently, he wasn't the only one with this craving. Mac's debut single "Disco Cowboy" was the No. 1 video on CMT Music's 12-PackCountdown for two weeks in a row earlier this year, despite Mac's understandable hesitation.

"I was probably the most nervous to put that song out and to put that video out just because, I mean, I was in a damn leather harness," he says with a laugh about the song which will soon live alongside "New Vibration" on his forthcoming album Disco Cowboy. "I couldn't have been more myself in that moment."

And it is that self that's just looking to have a good time at the end of the day.

"When I think about 'New Vibration,' I think about how anybody who's in a long-term relationship can attest to the fact that sometimes, you just find yourself caught in the monotony of life and you forget about the spark and the connection that you have," says Mac, who has been dating his boyfriend for the past five years.

"It's about you and your partner reigniting that flame and falling in love with each other again. That's really where those songs jump from. It's just exploring that idea of just reconnecting with your partner."

And while Mac says it's certainly been a journey to get to where he is today, there is a method to his madness. "Hopefully, there are other little boys out there who were just like me, and they too looked at country music and didn't see anyone like them here," he says. "But now they do."