Lane PittmanThere's a version of Lane Pittman's story that starts and ends with a dare.
A fifteen-year-old from Tamworth, goaded by his mates into auditioning for The Voice, who ends up on national television singing Luke Combs back to Luke Combs.
That version is a good story. But it's not the whole story - and Pittman is making sure of it.
When we catch up with Pittman, he's at home in Newcastle, the city he relocated to a year and a half ago, with his dog napping beside him and a full morning of business calls finally wrapping up. "Meetings," he says, "which is the least fun side of the business."
It's a relatable groan, but also a telling one. This is not a kid coasting on a viral moment. This is someone running a career.
Born in Mount Isa and raised in Tamworth, Pittman has always been surrounded by country music.
Forced into a primary school choir, Pittman goes as far as to say he was “good at nothing else but singing and really just decided to give it a crack” from then on.
A dare from his mates sent him to The Voice at 15, where he quickly garnered plenty of air time for his young age yet matured voice – a croon that sounded like it belonged to a country veteran rather than a school kid.
Pittman made the semi-finals on Keith Urban's team, went viral, and the rest followed fast. He's since opened for Luke Combs twice, taken home the Golden Guitar for New Talent of the Year at Tamworth in January 2025, and played stadiums across Australia – all before turning 19.
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But ask him about the surreal nature of it all and he's refreshingly grounded. These days he's just as likely to be mowing the lawn in daggy clothes and walking to Woolies for a loaf of bread, AirPods in, minding his own business, only to have someone sprint at him down the aisle like a long-lost best friend.
"You have to stand there and have a full blown conversation in the middle of a Woolies aisle for the next 15 minutes," he laughs. "But you know, it comes par for the course. I wouldn't trade it.”
The lead single from his upcoming EP is one of those songs that feels like it could only come from someone who's actually lived it. Written with Benny Morrell and Robby De Sa during a prolific five-day writing session, Miss You In The Morning taps into the quietly unglamorous reality of life on the road.
"I say there's three things I miss most when I'm away from home," Pittman tells us. "It's my fiancée, my dogs, and my pillow. No hotel can get a pillow right and it's the worst thing in the world." (For the record: bamboo gel, memory foam, cooling. His fiancée converted him and now nothing else cuts it.)
But beyond the pillow complaints, there's a universality to the track that Pittman was deliberate about.
"For me, it's such a universal feeling. Regardless of the fact that I'm a musician, whether you're a FIFO worker or you're just someone who works long hours away from home, you miss the comforts."
Driven by pounding drums and slide guitar with a gear-shift in tempo that snaps you to attention, the song was written in roughly four hours on day one of a week-long Nashville writing session. Pittman has been playing it live for over a year, long before it was ever officially released.
Arriving on April 10th, What Now? is Pittman's second EP and has the aim in mind to show his growth as a songwriter.
"With the first EP there was a lot of chatter online about whether I could actually write music because they were all outside cuts," he says. "So this EP for me is kind of just... critics are now silenced. I can write songs. Here's the proof."
Every single track on the six-song project is co-written by Pittman, spanning two Nashville writing trips plus sessions at home, and it makes each track feel even more authentically Lane.
Man I'm Turning Out To Be was debuted live in front of ten thousand people on the Luke Combs stadium tour, weeks after being written. "I came back and I said, 'Hey boys, surprise, learn this, it's going in the set'. And they're like, 'Are you… we're like three weeks out from this tour starting and you want us to build an entire song from the ground up?'"
Meanwhile, Right Til Now started as a joke about Pittman's early reputation as a "weird little introverted music nerd who had no friends", and ended up as a proper love song. "I got so many things wrong in my life before this and it wasn't right until I met you.”
He says of Right Til Now’s meaning, “That's the stuff you get in Nashville. They find the tiniest little nuggets and turn them into beautiful songs."
The What Now? title has been a long time coming. "We dropped the first EP in March of 2024,” he points out. “It feels like we've just sort of slowly been building it." T
here were moments he nearly pulled the trigger earlier, but Pittman's self-described perfectionism held things back. "I don't want to put these out yet. I want them to be perfect. Which is a typical Lane move. Ask anyone I work with."
Pittman's first headline tour kicks off in March and runs through April, with viral breakout Billy Vincent confirmed as direct support – a booking Pittman personally pushed for after spotting him on socials.
"I sent a video to my management and was like, 'Can we get this kid on the road, please?'“ Pittman remembers. “He's having a really huge moment and I think he'd be such a cool vibe for the tour."
The pair have already been in writing sessions together, and Pittman's excitement for what's ahead for Vincent is genuine: "He's going to have a massive year. It's similar to the year I had after The Voice – you go from nothing to everything in a year."
The run takes in La La La's in Wollongong, Crowbar in Sydney, Mo's Desert Clubhouse on the Gold Coast, The Brightside in Brisbane, and The Evelyn in Melbourne, among others, plus a couple of first-time towns Pittman is particularly looking forward to.
"We're going to Wollongong for the first time, playing in Orange for the first time – a beautiful part of New South Wales – and Corryong, where they filmed The Man From Snowy River,” he notes. “My dad used to love that movie, so I'm super excited."
VIP tickets are edging towards sold out in select cities, so moving quickly is advised.
And then, in late April, comes possibly the most exciting new milestone in Pittman’s career. "It's technically not on the tour poster but we're still kind of considering it part of the tour," Pittman grins referring to none other than California country music behemoth, Stagecoach Festival.
Sharing a bill with high profile acts like Post Malone, Cody Johnson, Lainey Wilson, Riley Green, and Brooks & Dunn, it marks Pittman’s fourth trip to the States and the first time outside of his writing enclaves in Nashville.
"Every trip's been Nashville. My running joke was that the most I'd ever seen of LA was walking out of the international terminal, going up a lift and walking back into the domestic terminal,” he jokes, making light heart of the situations you end up in when in long-haul transit.
But despite his youth, Lane Pittman has grown leaps and bounds since his first time in front of a proper stage. "Each day that I get to wake up and do this as a job... it's mind blowing. I never thought while getting into the industry five years ago that I'd be playing Stagecoach."
When asked if he has any advice for young musos, Pittman is quick to be honest about the hard parts: the grind, the loneliness on the road, the mental load of going from school kid to stadium act in under three years. He emphasises the importance of being consistent, being committed, but also looking after yourself.
"Get a therapist, man,” he urges. “Those things are godsends. The road, while it seems fun, is sometimes a very mentally draining place."
But underneath all of that sits something that can't be faked: a genuine, bone-deep love for this thing we call country music.
Lane Pittman’s What Now? is out April 10, with tickets to his upcoming tour on sale now.
The Lane Pittman Show – 2026 Tour Dates
Supported by Billy Vincent
Thursday, March 12th – La La La's, Wollongong NSW
Friday, March 13th – Crowbar, Sydney, NSW
Saturday, March 14th – A Night In Nashville, Orange, NSW
Thursday, April 9th – Mo's Desert Clubhouse, Gold Coast, QLD
Friday, April 10th – The Brightside, Brisbane, QLD
Saturday, April 11th – Meatstock, Toowoomba, QLD
Thursday, April 16th – The Evelyn, Melbourne, VIC
Friday, April 17th – Man From Snowy River Bush Fest, Corryong, VIC
Saturday, April 18th – Meatstock, Gippsland, VIC
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
