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The Creekers Detail How They Deal With Imposter Syndrome
Even though The Creekers are deserving of the success they’re experiencing… they can’t help but struggle with imposter syndrome.
Tanner Horton (lead guitar, vocals) and Ashton Bowling (cajon) recently sat down with us on the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast and talked about their former jobs before they started to take off, how they found out that Luke Combs is a big fan of theirs, and why they like to call themselves “not your papaw’s bluegrass.”
Horton and Bowling also detailed a wild story about how their banjo player, Scott Sutton, had a heart attack before their debut show and still played through it, then later discuss how they handled getting stuck in Nashville during the nasty ice storm that hit earlier this year. All that to say… there’s a lot packed into this hour-long sit down with The Creekers.
And there’s been a lot that’s happened to the bank from Kentucky since they went viral (thanks to “Tennessee”) and their River Rat EP took off. In 2026, they find themselves putting together a sophomore album, opening for some of their musical heroes, and trying to juggle everything that comes with gaining sudden fame.
Bowling says that even with all of the changes and increased opportunities that The Creekers have had in the past year or so, he finds comfort in knowing that his life still looks very similar to how it did prior:
“I think in my life, nothing has really changed. I still live in the same place and do the same things. I just get to go farther and do the thing that I like to do.”
Horton echoed that sentiment, saying that despite life looking incredibly different as an artist, he continues to live a simple life in eastern Kentucky:
“It hasn’t made us rich or nothing, but we ain’t got to worry about nothing anymore. That’s all I cared about. I still in my great grandma and grandpa’s old house on the same piece of property they’ve owned for 100 years. I’ll probably be there from now on I guess, unless someone finds out where I live.”
Bowling and Horton went on to say that the rush that The Creekers have experienced has come with plenty of surreal moments. They’ve had notable bluegrass artists – like the McCourys – come up to them and express that they love what they are doing.
Then there was one very surreal moment where the band went to Florida to Luke Combs’ Bootlegger Bonfire, and found out the country music superstar was a fan of their music – and had been frequently jamming “River Rat.” Bowling won’t ever forget what one of Combs’ bandmates said to them:
“That was crazy to me. His band member said, ‘Are you all the guys that do ‘River Rat?’ Because I’ve heard that 87 times in the past week.'”
@whiskeyriff @The Creekers #whiskeyriff #whiskeyriffraff ♬ River Rat – The Creekers
Even with all of the affirmation from the country and bluegrass communities, The Creekers still deal with Imposter Syndrome. When we asked if that was something they dealt with as artists who burst onto the scene with little time to adjust, Tanner Horton admitted that it’s one of the things he’s struggled with the most:
“All the time. I deal with it pretty bad sometimes. It’s better sometimes than it is other times. I deal with it quite a bit… I’ve learned to live with it the last few months, but when everything first happened, I was bad for a while. I was a nut job for a minute. It just about drove me crazy.”
The Creekers lead guitarist and vocalist believes that the state of feeling fraudulent, even though he’s done more than enough to be where he is, can mostly be attributed to the overnight success the band experienced:
“I felt like if it would have happened any slower than it did… a lot of people want to say something happened overnight. They could mean a year. This happened overnight. Legit overnight.”
Metaphorically speaking, The Creekers were thrown into the river and had to learn how to swim. It was all a very jarring experience for the band, but as time has passed, they’ve learned to stay afloat, and luckily for them… they’re a bunch of river rats.
You can hear more from The Creekers by checking out the interview on YouTube or making sure to download the podcast on Apple Podcasts by searching “Whiskey Riff Raff” or by clicking here.
We’re also available on Spotify and wherever else you can listen to podcasts.
Cheers, y’all.
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