'Georgia has my heart forever.' This singer-songwriter from Flowery Branch is sharing the limelight with his hometown

Dec. 29—Having a Nashville address might deem him a city slicker, but Andrew Jannakos' roots remain loyal to his hometown soil.

Born and bred in Flowery Branch, the 29-year-old indie country singer-songwriter's debut single, "Gone Too Soon," recently struck gold with the receipt of a RIAA Gold Award — Jannakos' very first — presented to artists whose singles reach 75 million streams.

He was surprised with the plaque during his Dec. 23 concert at Branch House Tavern in Flowery Branch, which sold out in a record time of about three hours, suggesting the loyalty runs both ways.

"The owner called us and he was like, 'Dude, what is going on? This is the fastest any event has ever sold out at Branch House, ever,'" Jannakos said. "It was pretty crazy to come back to Flowery Branch and have so much support. If (Branch House) had a room for a thousand, we probably could have sold it out the way that people were asking for tickets."

"It almost sounds like an ol' rub in the face, but it's not," Jannakos went on to say about sharing the experience with his hometown. "I want my friends in my hometown to see my accomplishments and be proud of me the way that I'm proud of my hometown."

Jannakos' love and respect for where he came inspired his newest single, "Heaven's Like a Hometown."

With lyrics paying homage to porch swings and ice-cold Texaco beer, the "honey hole where the fish always bite" and traffic lights that flash yellow after 10 o'clock, the song is rooted in the hope "that when you get to heaven, whenever that time comes, it's filled with people and acreage and big backyards and fishing holes and deer and family — everything you love and wish heaven would be," Jannakos said.

Having spent 27 of his 29 years in Flowery Branch, Jannakos said it was "pretty crazy" to witness the growth and development that's taken the city by storm in the short time he's been away.

"When I grew up in Flowery Branch, it was still real little. All we had was the Blockbuster on the corner, the gas station and really that was it. It was a huge thing for Flowery Branch when we got a Publix. It's changed a lot. But change is always a good thing for people and communities. It breaks your heart a little bit to see it, but also, you know it has to happen."

Jannakos has a few more songs up his sleeve awaiting release — one of them, "That Texaco," waxing poetic about his inner circle's meet-up spot for Friday night football.

"Me and my buddies would meet up there on Friday nights and head to the football game and figure out what we were doing for the weekend. That Texaco in Flowery Branch was just a staple for me and my generation," he said.

Last week's hometown reunion spurred a bout of homesickness, Jannakos said, but also further cemented a couple of his own values.

"I was like, 'Should we buy a small house in Georgia just to have it?'" he said. "I'll die in Georgia dirt. Tennessee has me for a little bit, but Georgia has my heart forever. We'll definitely end up back in Georgia somewhere on some property."

Jannakos' first order of business upon returning to Nashville earlier this week was giving his new plaque a spot on the wall.

"It was a long time coming," Jannakos said. "It was like, 'Finally, my plaque, yes! I've been waiting for this so daggum long."

Jannakos may be hanging another plaque here soon, as "Gone Too Soon" has nearly reached RIAA's platinum level. As of Dec. 28, the single is sitting at 115 million streams and needs just 35 more to warrant the award.

'A way of living'

Jannakos' rise to stardom began in 2019, when he competed in season 16 of NBC's "The Voice," then skyrocketed in 2020, when "Gone Too Soon" garnered 250,000 likes on TikTok, boosting his following from 25,000 to 150,000 overnight and eventually landing him on Billboard's Hot 100 and No. 1 Emerging Artists charts.

Then the record companies came calling. Jannakos was approached by 20 or 25 of them before signing with Sony Music Nashville. He also signed a publishing deal with Spirit Music Nashville.

"We were just holding onto the wheel for the ride," he said. " It happened really fast. I got off the show and I had every opportunity that every person that goes on one of those shows has — you get a little bit of momentum and you can take that momentum and run with it, or you take the momentum and you go back to your hometown and do the same thing you were doing and you were the guy on 'The Voice.' And I didn't want to do that."

If not for his wife, Katie Jannakos, however, Andrew said he never would have had the gumption to pursue a career in music, crediting her as "one of the biggest puzzle pieces to my career so far."

According to Andrew, Katie handles the bulk of the videography and overall management of his TikTok and Instagram accounts.

"I'm really bad with social media — like, terrible — and she's really, really good with social media," he said. "We work in harmony. I never would have done this without her. I never would have pursued music if it weren't for my wife."

But Katie counters Andrew has always had it in him; he just needed to see it for himself.

"I think everyone who knew Andrew knew he had the talent to reach the level that he's at,' she said. "Andrew just had to get to the point where he believed he could do it himself. I think seeing how many people connected to 'Gone Too Soon' really opened his eyes to, 'Wow, I can actually do this.' It wasn't really even 'The Voice,' it was people connecting to his own original song."

Written from the vantage point of a long-distance relationship, Andrew attributes the wild success of "Gone Too Soon" to its universal relatability.

"Anyone can relate to having someone or something in their life that they loved that was gone too soon," he said. "It was just such a relatable song that I saw thousands and thousands and thousands and people commenting, 'I don't even like country music' or 'I don't even listen to country music but I love this song.'"

A purebred Georgian walking in the footsteps of fellow natives like Alan Jackson, Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan and Thomas Rhett, country music is as fundamental to Jannakos' being as his own DNA.

"Country's just in our roots," he said. "It's something that we're born with. We hunt, we fish, we are good to people, we open doors — it's just something that we do, a way of living."

Largely raised on Brooks & Dunn, Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams, Shania Twain and Keith Whitley, Jannakos has listened to a little bit of everything, from rap and R&B to post-hardcore punk and hip-hop, but he's always found his way back home.

"I've listened to ... all kinds of stuff — but I always went back to country music. I spent a lot of time with my dad growing up, hunting and fishing out in the woods or on the water somewhere. It was definitely a known thing that I was going to do country music. I don't know if I could do anything else with my drawl."

Jannakos cites Brad Paisley as his greatest vocal influence.

"A lot of his music speaks volumes on things that I felt about my dad growing up," Jannakos said. "He's hit every nail on the head. Whenever Brad Paisley had a new song that came out, it wasn't just a song — it was a story."

The last three years have been an undoubtedly wild ride, and in the years to come, Andrew hopes to play a lot more shows, produce a few more gold singles and maybe some platinum for good measure, along with a few albums.

"I'm just going to take every day and take what God gives me," he said. "That's all I can do, really. I'm going to take what he gives me and run with it when it does. We ain't done yet, that's for sure."