Alex Miller is scheduled to perform Tuesday, July 29 at 7 p.m. at The Cattaraugus County Fair, in Little Valley. Submitted photo

He’s gone from American Idol to the Grand Ole Opry in just a few years.

And Alex Miller, 22, will tell you he loved every part of the journey.

When writing songs, the country music artist draws on just about everything.

“When it comes to writing music or writing songs, I draw from just about everything I try to, I try to write as much as I can about my own life because I feel like I’ve got some some unique stories to tell, and I try to write a lot of things about that, but also write the like to write things are fun, and I think things that people will enjoy to listen to as well,” Miller said in a phone interview from his home in Nashville. “I draw a lot of ideas from a lot of different places, and just try to try to make a unique song.”

He will first think of a title, what he calls his hook, and then write lyrics based on that title. He then will pick up his guitar to flesh out the chords and melody.

“(If) you have a good hook, (then) you have a good way of writing the rest of song around that. That’s usually how I start with it,” Miller said.

He is scheduled to perform Tuesday, July 29 at 7 p.m. at The Cattaraugus County Fair, in Little Valley, in support of his current single “The Byrd” featuring Tracy Byrd.

His influences are some of country music’s legends – Merle Haggard and Hank Williams. Another influence of his is his grandfather.

“And he was, he was definitely a big influence, and not just in music, but in my life,” Miller said.

Growing up in the small town of Lancaster, Ky., Miller would come home from school and watch the old country music stars on his grandfather’s videocassettes (VHS tapes).

“They would keep me entertained after school. And just really started to enjoy it. And I asked him if he could take me to guitar lessons. And from then on, it was music all the way,” Miller said.

The 6-foot-6-inch entertainer whose American Idol Season 19 run brought him fame and changed his life in 2021, according to a press statement. His debut album for Billy Jam Records, Miller Time, released in 2022, generated three high-impact singles – “Don’t Let The Barn Door Hit Ya,” “Through With You,” “I’m Over You, So Get Over Me”. His second release for the label, Country in 2023, brought more hits including “When God Made The South,” “Girl, I Know A Guy,” and the single, “Puttin’ Up Hay.” Miller is active on the state and county fair circuit and has opened for Brooks & Dunn, Hank, Jr, Josh Turner, Lee Brice, Jamey Johnson, Chris Janson, Ian Munsick, Justin Moore, Alabama, Chapel Hart, Drake Milligan, Noah Thompson, Dillon Carmichael, HunterGirl, Emily Ann Roberts, and Neal McCoy. Miller’s current five-song EP, My Daddy’s Dad, was released in 2024. And recently, Miller was named as the newest ambassador for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s Kentucky Proud program.

His advice for artists trying to break into any genre of the music business is to “be yourself.”

“What the world needs is something new and something different,” Miller said. “And here I am doing kind of a traditional country sound, yes, but I do it my own way. I do it a little different. … don’t limit yourself. You could do anything. I never thought in a million years that I would be traveling, performing and doing the whole thing, but I am, and it’s just because of who I am.”