Get To Know CMA Awards New Artist Nominee Cole Swindell Including When He Listens To Maroon 5

Cole Swindell is one of the five artists up for the CMA Awards New Artist award this year. The CMA Awards 2014 air on ABC on Wednesday, November 5 and the "Hope You Get Lonely Tonight" singer will have some tough competition. We are getting to know Cole and finding out what he likes musically and when he listens to Maroon 5.

The "Chillin' It" singer will be competing for the award of New Artist of the Year this year, but he is just happy to be playing music. Cole actually started out as a T-shirt seller for his fraternity brother and "Roller Coaster" singer Luke Bryan and now he's up for a CMA award.

 "I went from selling merch to having my own merch, and to see all that change over the past seven years, I'm just thankful. Hopefully one day I'll be able to be where Luke is and be able to help a new guy," Cole told People about his grassroots start.

As for his own musical preferences, the 31-year-old revealed that his favorite concert of all time was Kenny Chesney. "The first time I ever saw Kenny Chesney in Atlanta when I was in college. I bought some tickets on eBay for a lot of money," he recalled.

"I had three tickets and I had a buddy going with me and was trying to find a girl to go with me but didn't so I gave the extra ticket to Luke, cause he was in town playing a show. But seeing Chesney live and seeing him work that stage, it was like, 'This is the best entertainer I've ever seen.' It was a big part of me wanting to move to Nashville and be on that big stage."

When it comes time for Wednesday night's awards, Cole revealed that it will be a dream come true. "Growing up loving country music and then the time in my life where I realized I wanted to be an artist and move to Nashville, I was just wanting to come up here and make music," he told CMT. "You dream of getting nominated for such a big deal, and it's finally here. It's hard for me to believe."

Despite his country roots, the "Get Up" singer admitted that he actually prefers to listen to the musical styling of Adam Levine and Maroon 5 before hitting the stage.

"We've been listening to Maroon 5 lately — that 'Maps' song and the 'Animals' song. I'm digging some Maroon 5. It just fires you up. It's totally different from the music we make but it's just cool to hear. Anything with a good beat gets us pumped up," the country music singer told People.