Ernest Keith Smith, known mononymously as Ernest (stylized as ERNEST), is an American country music singer-songwriter. After writing songs for Morgan Wallen, Jake Owen, Florida Georgia Line, Thomas Rhett and Chris Lane, he signed a recording contract with Big Loud in 2019.
In addition, Ernest began writing songs for Chris Lane and Jake Owen. This led to him signing a recording contract with Big Loud, the label to which both Owen and Lane are signed, in 2019. Concurrently, he began touring with Lane and Mason Ramsey later in the year. Ernest had further success as a songwriter in 2020 with Lane's "Big, Big Plans", Morgan Wallen's "More Than My Hometown", and Sam Hunt's "Breaking Up Was Easy in the 90s". He also released his first single for Big Loud, titled "Cheers". This was followed in 2021 by two more singles; the first was "American Rust", issued in June. It was followed in December by "Flower Shops", a duet with Wallen.[6] He also was a co-writer on labelmate Dallas Smith's single "Hide from a Broken Heart".
Ernest also host his own podcast titled Just Being Ernest, in which he talks to other musicians about the music industry. The podcast first started April 19, 2020.
