Gunnar Nyblad of Gunnar & the Grizzly Boys: Music is the 'Apple' of His Eye!

Ram Country feature (EXCLUSIVE PERFORMANCE & INTERVIEW Gunnar Nyblad (Gunnar & The Grizzly Boys))

Sure, Gunnar Nyblad would love it if you rocked out to his band's uber-catchy single, "Standard American." Or perhaps stopped by one of his shows to let him know how much you like his music. However, he does have a very important directive that he wants to make sure fans get front and center.

What's that? Turns out it has to do with, well, fruit. "Eat Michigan apples," the singer-songwriter bellows. "Michigan apples are the best thing on this Earth!"

OK, don't worry, this guy hasn't gone off his rocker, nor is he a health nut on a Steve Jobs-esque fruitiarian diet. As a matter of fact, when Nyblad isn't playing music, he's working for his family's fruit farm. The Michigan native has an agricultural degree from Michigan State University and spends a good amount of waking hours tending to thousands of apple trees ... so when he says his apples are the best, it's probably best to believe his expert opinion!

"I planted 14,000 Fuji apple trees this spring," he notes. "it’s nice having your dad as your boss because he obviously believes in the music, but he has a hard time firing me too!"

Interestingly enough, Nyblad's college degree paid off in both of his vocational passions. While learning the family trade, he also met the guys who'd be the members of his band at MSU. Like so many college bands, they began in humble fashion and grew from there: "We started playing in an attic," he explains. "Our first show was November 19, 2009. Opening for a sold-out Justin Moore crowd. And kind of hit it running there, and three weeks later we won a little battle of the bands in Grand Rapids."

Two years later, the Grizzly Boys found their signature sound in the tune "Standard American," a party-friendly ode to "basically your neighbor or anyone you know or people you interact with throughout the United States every day," Nyblad says.

From there, the band hit on further notoriety by posting a prank via its video for "Could Be Me," in which they claimed to have ambushed a Google Street View car to use in the clip. Of course, it was all a spoof: "It was on Reddit, it’s got like a million views or something," the singer says with a laugh. "That was just exciting, to be like trending in the Internet world for a day."

They're trending lately for more than goofy Google jokes. Nyblad notes that the band has been getting considerable radio support, as well as been played on Sirius XM's The Highway. "Since then we’ve had 800 to 900 downloads a week," he marvels.

Nyblad, who chatted with Ram Country backstage at Michigan's own county Faster Horses Festival, is cheerful to be playing for a home-state crowd. "The homeland has totally supported us for so many years before actually releasing our first single and they’re definitely helping us to grow and want to write. Pretty good," he says with a smile.

Oh, and the homeland is definitely supplying him with apples. Lots of apples. Just don't ask him to make any apple pie: "That’s the only thing," he admits. "I'm not a very good cook."

Luckily he's much better at cooking up some rockin' party anthems!