Michael Warren Is Ready to Fight for His Place in Nashville: 'Country Is Different for Everybody'

Michael Warren has driven down Interstate 65 hundreds of times, back and forth from his home in Birmingham, Alabama to Nashville, Tennessee for one reason and one reason only.

"I do it for her," says Warren, 39, to PEOPLE, referring to his 7-year-old daughter Reese. "Every time I go up and down that road, I know I'm doing it for a reason. I want to finish what I started so long ago. I want her to see my journey, and when I tell her not to give up on her dreams, she truly can say she won't, because her daddy didn't."

Granted, as much as parenthood can be a rough road to take alone, so too is the journey to country music stardom for a guy like Warren.

"Even the most confident people still understand that there are a lot of doors that you got to get through," explains Warren. "Sometimes, you got to peel some layers back to get to where you want to go." He pauses. "People have just always been welcoming to what I'm doing because I believe they feel like what I'm doing is not fake."

And in the music video for "What's Country to You," premiering exclusively on PEOPLE, it's this undeniable authenticity that shines through.

"I wanted to make sure that all the friends that I've met in Nashville were a part of [the video]," says Warren. "They are the ones that were there for me when I was moving to the city and getting acclimated to the city. So no, we didn't hire any extras. Those are just all my friends."

Friends and family have long supported Warren ever since he was just a little kid growing up on the sounds of Willie Nelson and Earth Wind and Fire and singing on the stage at Shelby Christian School back in Alabama.

"I think my mom still has the video," laughs Warren, whose father played the saxophone in the University of Notre Dame band. "I remember my mom saying, 'Wow, the boy's got some vocals on him.'"

In 2009, Warren was signed to Atlantic Records and headed to Los Angeles, where he went out on the road playing his music and writing songs for the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Akon and Toni Braxton. However, he soon found himself craving something more.

So, he moved back South, and worked as everything from a car salesman to a package delivery person. But during his breaks, he retreated back to his car to write songs. Eventually, he moved to Nashville and people began to take notice of not only Warren's talent and his voice, but also his positive personality that can be seen all over "What's Country to You."

"I wanted whatever I recorded to be authentic, and I knew that I didn't want my first song to be a breakup song," he says of his debut single, which was written by Dylan Schneider, Zac Kale and Jake Rosereveal. "You know, some of us grew up on farms, some of us grew up in the suburbs, some of us listen to rap, some of us listen to country, some of us listen to Kenny Chesney and some of us listen to Morgan Wallen. Country really is different for everybody."

And when it comes to Warren's brand of country music, what you see is what you get.

"I'm just southern," concludes Warren, who will release a new EP early next year. "I like southern things. I like southern food. I like southern culture. I grew up in it, but I'm not trying to prove that I'm any more southern than I am. I'm going to represent people that wear cowboy boots and people that don't wear cowboy boots. That's who I am."