Scott Stevens had been thinking for a long time about getting a tattoo. Heck, the "Country Soul Survivor" singer knew exactly what tattoo he wanted to get on his upper arm and just what he wanted the tattoo to symbolize. The only problem was that he had a video shoot to do.

But then, he had an idea.

“It was so exhilarating and such a rush shooting a video while getting a tattoo,” Stevens says of his new music video for his current single “New Boots (Parts 1 & 2),” exclusively premiering Friday (Sept. 4) on Taste of Country.  “And yes, I really got the tattoo. It was wild.”

But how did he keep a straight face?

“It was a mix of adrenaline and whiskey, I guess,” Stevens says with a laugh.

As his band performed around him, the singer-songwriter with the movie star eyes got a tattoo from a tattoo artist he had previously met backstage before a Morgan Wallen concert.

“A year ago, I opened for Morgan and ran into this guy backstage doing tattoos,” remembers Stevens with another laugh. “I thought it would be cool to get it done during the actual video, so I was like, 'What the heck?'”

Of course, this is 2020, so something was bound to go wrong.

And it did.

“The tattoo artist got COVID-19, so that delayed the video shoot a bit,” Stevens explains. “We just wanted to be extra cautious.”

Finally filmed in July during a day-long shoot, the video for “New Boots” shows off the new tattoo, which is a gorilla wearing a cowboy hat. The gorilla has become rather symbolic of the story of resilience and perseverance in the budding career of the east Tennessee native.

“I once looked at the band and I was like, ‘We are four King Kongs,'” he remembers. “We are larger than life. That’s what we are. And from that time on, the gorilla thing just took over. It's symbolic about being who you are and being okay with that.”

A life-size gorilla makes an appearance in the video (actually, an actor in a gorilla suit), which was filmed at a ranch owned by Justin Moore's drummer, Tucker Wilson.

“He lives on this farm that we partied at once, and his garage there is just insane," remembers Stevens. "I mean, there are cars and flags and memorabilia on the wall. I tend to pride myself on lack of plan becoming my plan, so we got out there that day and just went for it."

Released last month and written by Stevens alongside Mikey Reaves and Aby Gutierrez, "New Boots" is yet another example of a brand of tried and true music from the country musician that oozes an authenticity that's hard to come by these days. Despite the title, Stevens admits he hasn't bought a pair of new boots in the ten years he's been in Nashville clawing his way toward country music stardom.

"Being okay with who you are is more than okay," Stevens says quietly. "And none of us are promised tomorrow. It’s a privilege to live this life and we should appreciate it. Love who we love and be who you are and make the kind of music you want to make."

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