Drake Milligan looks like Elvis and sounds like Strait
Texas heartthrob Drake Milligan banked his stripes as a kid Elvis Presley tribute artist before starring as the pre-King of Rock ‘n’ Roll in director William Bryan’s indie short film Nobody which premiered at Graceland in 2014. Three years later Milligan’s national exposure received a boost when he joined the cast of the CMT mini-series Sun Records, again emblazoning Elvis.
He was a contestant on American Idol in 2018 and won the judges over with his rendition of George Strait’s “You Look So Good In Love.” Milligan was not eliminated. Rather, he willingly withdrew his name from consideration during the Hollywood herd-thinning round as he felt he was not mature enough to face the scrutiny and pressure the show demanded of him.
Ronnie Dunn, lead singer of Country Music Hall of Fame duo Brooks & Dunn, covered “If Love Ever Comes My Way Again” on solo album 100 Proof Neon. Milligan, who had pulled up stakes in the interim, ditched the Elvis impersonation act, and settled in Nashville, penned the falsetto-laden, mid-tempo tune in collaboration with Brett and Jim Beavers.
Perhaps the pangs of unfinished reality TV competition business, if not the chance to collect a million dollar prize and residency at the Luxor Hotel in Vegas, precipitated Milligan’s decision to try out for the 17th season of Simon Cowell’s America’s Got Talent in June 2022. For this time around Milligan came better armed — a major label deal with BBR Music Group-Stoney Creek Records, a five-song self-titled EP, and a four-piece backing band accented by fiddle pro Joseph Shackelford.
Comical judge Howie Mandel crowned Milligan the “New Elvis of Country” after a rapturous “Sounds Like Something I’d Do.” The timing of Mandel’s statement could not have been more perfect. Forty-five years after Elvis’ sudden death, the Tom Hanks-Austin Butler Elvis biopic reaped $286 million worldwide at the box office and actually beat Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick behemoth during its opening weekend. Elvis is that rare diamond in the rough film without superheroes or dinosaurs to earn north of $100 million. Elvis’ charisma and magnetism as the first rock star have been totally rehabilitated by director Baz Luhrmann. The jumpsuit-endorsing, over-the-hill, fat Vegas entertainer mercilessly mocked as a cautionary tale of American decadence is a faded memory. You don’t have to consider the blowback before telling friends you’re an Elvis fan. The King is back, and Milligan is Exhibit A.
Relying on original material throughout his entire AGT sojourn, “Kiss Goodbye All Night” continued Milligan’s forward momentum, especially among members of the fairer sex. Debut full-length album, Dallas / Fort Worth, dropped on Sept. 15, two days after Milligan placed third on AGT behind pole dancer Kristy Sellars and the Mayyas, a Lebanese female dance crew who ultimately emerged victorious. Dallas / Fort Worth rose to No. 1 on both the iTunes All-Genre Top Albums and iTunes Top Country Albums charts, as did the afore-mentioned AGT performances on the corresponding iTunes singles charts.
Milligan is guided in the studio by Strait’s longtime producer Tony Brown, the source of the quote naming this story and incidentally the final acoustic pianist in the Memphis Flash’s TCB Band. Regardless of what materializes next for the ascending 24-year-old singer-songwriter-guitarist, he’s in country music for the long haul [Telecaster kingpin and pivotal Elvis accompanist James Burton sits in on, as you may have imagined, “Long Haul”].
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