Everyone has to start somewhere, and for up-and-comer Rachel Wammack, that place was a Courtyard by Marriott hotel.

“I bartended there when I first moved to town and actually got inspiration for my single that's out, ‘Damage,'" Wammack tells Taste of Country Nights host Sam Alex.

Wammack returned to that near-Nashville bar recently for a surprise pop-up show and couldn’t help but notice some familiar sounds from her past. "'Damage' was the last song I played, and as I was playing I could hear the cashier’s credit card going and I was like ... 'oh my gosh,'" Wammack says, the memories hitting her hard. "It was just really crazy."

Crazy indeed, considering the Alabama native's relatively fast track to country radio for her current single, which actually tells the real life story of the encounters she would have with people at that particular Courtyard by Marriott bar.

"I’m really thankful," she says. "I don’t take it lightly what a wonderful and quick experience and journey I’ve had to get here."

Nor will she forget the friends she has met along the way. "I would make friends with a lot of the people over the time I was working, and they would follow me because everyone would be like, ‘Rachel, we really want you to make it’ and a lot of the people now follow me on Instagram,” she explains. “I’m the happiest person in the world."

Listen to Rachel Wammack's Interview With ToC Nights,

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