Austin John Winkler Joins Shaylen at Whiskey Jam
AUSTIN JOHN WINKLER
— FORMER FRONTMAN OF HINDER —
JOINED RISING COUNTRY STAR
SHAYLEN
FOR A SURPRISE PERFORMANCE OF THE HIT SONG
“LIPS OF AN ANGEL”
AT NASHVILLE’S FAMOUS
WHISKEY JAM
THEIR COUNTRY-INFUSED VERSION OF
“LIPS OF AN ANGEL”
AND OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
DUE WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30
Above: Shaylen and Austin John Winkler performing “Lips Of An Angel” at Nashville’s Whiskey Jam
Credit: Aly Marotte
NASHVILLE, TN (August 25, 2023) — Last night, breakout country artist Shaylen and Austin John Winkler — the former frontman of Hinder — took Nashville’s famous Whiskey Jam stage to perform their forthcoming country-infused rendition of “Lips Of An Angel,” an acclaimed song Austin’s band took to the top of the charts in 2005. Surprising the Whiskey Jam audience, Austin joined Shaylen on stage to close out the night, giving the crowd an exclusive listen to their reimagined version that’s set for release on Friday, August 30.
Pre-Save “Lips Of An Angel” here.
After performing the song for the first time together, Shaylen exclaims, “I can’t believe I got to play Whiskey Jam with such a legend. What a dope moment to go from singing that song in the car as a kid to taking it to the stage and crushing it with Austin himself! A BIG thank you to Ward for having us… definitely an honor and a moment I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
“Playing Whiskey Jam was such a cool experience,” Austin shares about the performance. “I loved the energy, loved the people and I’ll remember it forever. Thanks for allowing me to crash the party!”
Leading up to the release, Shaylen and Austin have given listeners a look into the behind the scenes of the re-recording and the story behind the song with an artist-on-artist style conversation video (released August 16), as well as a teaser of the official music video set to accompany the single. The teaser — shared to Shaylen’s TikTok — quickly garnered over 900k views, a testament to the excitement building over the reimagined iconic song.
The original release of “Lips Of An Angel” has made a lasting impact on the ears of listeners transcending multiple generations. 17 years later, the viral “female perspective” TikTok trend has caused a resurgence in the song’s popularity and now Shaylen and Austin are ready to give the official response. The re-release of this acclaimed track is notable for several reasons. Not only is it re-recorded by Austin himself, but he was back in the studio with the original co-writer and producer of the track, Brian Howes (Hinder, Nickelback, Daughtry, David Cook).
“I got to re-create the song with Brian producing it and I’ve been wanting to work with him again for a while now,” says Austin. “The production of the song has a hint of country and still rocks pretty good. The song is such a classic we didn’t want to change it up too much, but any changes are going to add a whole new flavor to the song.”
The single will arrive accompanied by an explosive, hard-hitting official music video, directed by Sean Hagwell, featuring both Shaylen and Austin. “The chemistry that day was unmatched,” Shaylen explains with Austin echoing, “Shooting the video with Shaylen was a blast. We both brought our own experiences with the song. We just got together and rocked it out and had a lot of fun in the process and it was extremely hot!”
Music video teaser here.
Above: “Lips Of An Angel” Single Artwork
Credit: Casey Howard and Taylor Ballantyne