Decorated Marine Veteran Brings Real Country Music Direct to America’s Heroes

Nashville – With his guitar replacing the rifle he carried on his last trip to the Middle East, rising country star and Marine veteran Stephen Cochran returned to the embattled region, bringing his uniquely American music and message of inspiration to an audience hungry for the real thing. Traveling with his band, the New Country Outlaws, Cochran visited Kuwait, Dubai, and Bahrain, performing show after show and interacting one-on-one with soldiers preparing to cross the “line of departure” into Iraq, offering support and encouragement at every turn.

“There were guys who had never been to Iraq before, and they were coming to me to find out what to expect,” says Cochran. “It was great for me to be back there and to be a part of that process.”

A decorated veteran of two tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, Cochran, who overcame life-threatening injuries to valiantly fight his way back onstage, has been touring non-stop for the past year in support of his acclaimed self-titled debut release. At every stop, the singer has made honoring and assisting his fellow veterans a top priority, playing benefits, visiting veterans hospitals, raising public awareness and taking every opportunity to help. On this overseas trip, as always, Cochran offered the inspiration of his own story, some unforgettable country music, and more often than not, one hell of a party.

“We ended up meeting some of the guys on the USS Hartford and the USS Ramage,” Cochran says. “We were playing our set and I realized there were a lot musicians among them who played drums and guitar, so we just turned our instruments over to them.”

Cochran kept fans and press informed of his overseas activities through online blogs to CMT.com and to his own website. In addition, the singer phoned in live updates to country radio station WYCD 99.5 in Detroit, a town where Cochran enjoys huge fan support.

“Hopefully we made some people understand what’s going on over there and gave them a different point of view,” Cochran says. “The first time I went over – as a Marine – I was changed forever, and it was no different this time.”

For up-to-the-minute information and tour dates for Stephen Cochran, visit www.stephencochran.com.