Jason Byrd was just 19 years old when he followed in his family’s footsteps and became a fireman. But there was another fire that burned within him, and that was music. In the early nineties, Byrd found himself balancing a career in the fire department with a career in Music City, traveling the 490 miles each way with the determination to make both of his dreams come true. Yet, in many ways, it wasn’t until the day that Byrd met the legendary George Jones that the trajectory of his entire career forever changed. Soon, small gigs at local bars and honkytonks turned into major opportunities on stages across the country, opening for powerhouse artists such as Tracy Lawrence, Loretta Lynn, and Dierks Bentley. 

In the summer of 2019, Byrd made the decision to retire from his position as the Battalion Chief of the Tallahassee Fire Department. But his musical story was far from over. Byrd recently made the decision to finally resurrect an unreleased song he and Jones had worked on together many years ago, a song that is now his soon-to-be-released single “Better Life.”

“Giving the world the chance to hear something that George Jones recorded that nobody’s ever heard before has never been more important to me as it is right now. The fact is that true country music fans are starving for this kind of traditional country music….my kind of country music.”