Tanner Usrey Would Rather Be Behind a Guitar Than in Front of a Camera: 'I Did Not Like That Part' (Exclusive)

The rising alt-country star jokes filming the music video for "Give It Some Time" really took him out of his comfort zone

It's been over 500 days since alt-country rising star Tanner Usrey came up with some of the words that would make up his new single "Give It Some Time."

"I had the chorus and the first verse and the hook for the longest time," Usrey, 29, tells PEOPLE in a recent interview. "I mean, I had been working on it for a year and a half, and then I went to write with Beau Bedford. We sat down and, in an hour, Beau helped me finish it."

The rugged-looking Texan lets out a laugh.

"And that just kind of pissed me off," he admits with a laugh. "I guess it just took that little extra push."

It's a push that Usrey has felt several times throughout his life, the ever-present push to finish the song, take the next step, follow the dreams he has been dreaming since he was just a little kid. "I was the annoying one that would always sing in class," remembers Usrey. "I was always just humming and singing. My dad would always tell me to shut up sometimes."

Of course, that didn't stop him. As a teen, Usrey continued singing the classics of artists such as Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson and Joe Nichols. But as he got older, his music choices shifted to include those artists making an impact on the Red Dirt scene at the time such as Jason Boland and Cross Canadian Ragweed.

"My senior year of high school, I was seeing Wade Bowen and Brandon Rhyder with my best friend, and I looked at him and I was like, 'Yeah, this is what I want to do,'" explains Usrey, who has also been a longtime Whiskey Myers fan. "I picked up the guitar and nine months later, I was playing gigs and 11 years later, here I am."

Now filling his ears with the vintage sounds of groups such as the British rock band The Faces, Usrey says there is no doubt that he has had a lifelong affair with music.

But what he could do without are music videos.

In fact, when it came time to film the official music video for "Give It Some Time," Usery not only needed to get talked into doing the video, but also being in the video.

"I let [director/producer Trenton Johnson] run free with it and take creative control of the music video," remembers Usrey, who recently signed with Atlantic Records, partly due to the quick success of his single "Take Me Home." "I don't like people telling me how to write songs and stuff. So, you know, it's the same thing when it came to the music video. I really didn't like being in the video."

Granted, Usrey plays a rather small part in the actual music video, serving as the prison guard accompanying the lead actor Luke Scornavacco and lead actress Taylor Rousseau.

"I don't like acting," reiterates Usrey, whose song "The Light" found its way onto the Season 4 finale of Yellowstone. "I did not like that part. They tried to get me in there more. I just wasn't having it!"

Nevertheless, Usrey says he knows firsthand the impression a music video can play, as he always finds himself thinking about Chris Stapleton and his fleet of memorable music videos, most notably the riveting "Fire Away."

"Stapleton is a God," raves Usrey, who has gone and shared the stage with artists such as Elle King, Charles Wesley Godwin, and The Steel Woods thus far. "He really is a God."

Usrey looks up to Stapleton — and he has for a long time.

"Just like him, I just want to stay me," he concludes. "It's very important to love what you're doing and love what you're writing and love what you're putting out there. That's super important to me, and I think it always will be."

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