Ashley Cooke Artistfacts

June 12, 1997
She doesn't have an easy answer to the question, "Where are you from?" Her dad worked for General Electric and was constantly getting relocated, so Ashely spent her childhood on the move, living in various parts of Wisconsin, California and Florida.
When Cooke enrolled at Belmont University in Nashville, she moved to the city. She was a corporate communications major, but somehow defeated all the music majors to win Belmont's Country Showcase her senior year - previous winners include Brad Paisley and Tyler Hubbard, so it's a pretty big deal. Her degree in corporate communications came in handy when navigating the business side of her music career.
She built a following on TikTok during the pandemic when touring was verboten. She released an EP called Already Drank That Beer – Side A independently in 2021, and the following year she signed to Big Loud Records, which released the full album version (Already Drank That Beer). The song "Never Til Now" took off when Brett Young joined her for a duet version.
Cooke made her national TV debut performing "Never Til Now" with Brett Young on The Bachelorette in 2022. Backed by a string quartet, it was supposed to be a very romantic moment for the couple Rachel Recchia and Jordan Vandergriff, but when Rachel sent Jordan packing, Cooke and Young ended up performing it for just her.
When she was in her early teens, Cooke and her older sister Jenn sang in showcases as a duo called The Locketts. Jenn also attended Belmont University, but she went into acting.
Cooke has been writing songs since she was 11. Her forte is lyrics - she typically teams with other songwriters for the music. "I'm a lyricist, big time," she said on the Off The Record podcast. "I love reading. I love books. I love poetry. I just love words. So to me, the words are the most important part. And then I love to collaborate with people that are able to melodically, sonically make something feel bigger than what it is."
She shows up in the 2026 "Zone of Death" episode of Marshals singing her ballad "Next To You" in a bar scene. The song didn't get musch attention when it was released three years earlier on Cooke's debut album, so she was shocked when she got the call to sing it on the show. "Just believe in your songs," she said. "You never know."
Ashley's songwriting advice: "Get off social media and stop looking at what everybody else is doing." She says trying to copy what others are doing is "the quickest way to kill inspiration." (From her Off The Record episode).

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