Brandon Stansell Tangles with Real-Life Boyfriend in Music Video for 'That's What I Feel About You' (Exclusive)

"I could find someone else to play him, but I would probably have to make out," the country artist jokes of casting Stephen Garrett. "That changed his mind"

There once was a time when Brandon Stansell was in love, but the man he loved wasn’t in love with him quite yet.

"We were in two very different places when we first met,” recalls Stansell, 36, in an interview with PEOPLE as his two dogs bark in the background. “He was just coming out of something and not really looking for anything, and I was not. I met him and just went crazy for him.”

From there, the country artist found himself having to learn to be patient, especially when it came to this love story in the making. But six months after meeting the man that rocked his world, Stansell found himself at a crossroads.

“I felt like I was just looking at a wall in front of me,” Stansell remembers. “I felt like an idiot. I was absolutely falling in love with him, and I had no idea where he was. I felt like we either had to make this a thing or just put me out of my misery."

Related: Brandon Stansell Shares His Coming Out Story in New Song 'Hurt People' Featuring Cam

Stansell laughs, but his ultimatum did work in a way, as he ended up getting a song out of it when he walked into the writing room alongside fellow songwriters Sam Creighton and Will Jay.

“I go to them when the emotions are high and when I feel like my pen doesn't always want to write the words that I need them to,” admits Stansell. “I felt like I was a mess in the session, but we sat down at the piano and wrote this thing together. It's always funny to me how feelings seem to come into clear focus when they're put into a song.”

And that song is now "That's What I Feel About You."

And that guy in which the song was about is now Stansell’s boyfriend.

“Tears were shed the first time he heard it,” Stansell says of his love Stephen Garrett, whom he has now been dating for the past year. “I remember that he looked at me and basically said, ‘You said you were writing a song about me, but I really didn't know [the song] was going to be about me.’”

Little does he know.

“Anyone that knows me, and my music know that I write pretty close to the chest,” Stansell says with a laugh. “I write pretty close to personal experience. I always have.”

And now, Stansell’s boyfriend stars in the music video for "That's What I Feel About You," premiering exclusively on PEOPLE.

“He's not an actor and this is not his world at all,” admits Stansell about Garrett. “But he was such a champ, and I was so happy to have him in there." He laughs. "Basically, I told him that I could find someone else to play him, but I would probably have to make out with them. That changed his mind.”

Related: Brandon Stansell Says New Single 'Wild Ride' Is a 'Marker' and a 'Chance to Reflect'

Today, the happy couple lives in Los Angeles , and it was there in which the video for "That's What I Feel About You" was filmed. But there was one thing during the filming of the video that they had a little trouble getting used to.

“We don't fight in real life, so when the director was like, ‘You're going to storm out of here,’ I was like, ‘We don't really do that,’” remembers Stansell, who released his album This Must Be the Place in 2022. “The director had to remind me that the video was basically a heightened version of reality.”

Granted, Stansell’s reality has long included its share of challenges.

“As far as we've come in this country and country music, there are still major hills to climb,” he says. “As long as there is a question of inequality for people like us, there will always be a need for representation. There will always be a need to put stories out there about queer couples and queer love.”

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Read the original article on People.