Country singer Mark Wills is coming to Colorado Springs, and he promises to play the hits.

It’s been a while since Wills has been out West, and he’s “excited to see some folks” at Boot Barn Hall on Saturday.

Wills has “always loved to sing.” It’s been his “thing” since he was 2 or 3, he says, “I was sing(ing) to the ladies at day care.”

Wills heard his first song play on the radio when he was 22 “Jacob’s Ladder” went on to become a top 10 hit — one of eight for him. He started touring in 1996 and hasn’t stopped since.

“I built my family on the road,” says Wills, “raised two daughters.”

He’s also managed to release three top-5 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, as well as two Number 1 singles – RIAA gold-certified “19 Somethin” spent a healthy six weeks at the top of the chart in 1998. But Wills doesn’t mention these

successes or either of his gold and platinum recorded albums, ;instead he insists on how lucky he is to be living the dream.

“So many guys work their 9 to 5,” Wills explains, “they just get to play on Friday night in their buddies’ garage.”

Now breathing down 50’s back, Wills reflects upon his nomadic lifestyle. “It makes you old quickly,” he laughs, “but at the exact same time I get to make a living doing what 99% of people do as a hobby.”

He reckons that’s probably “the coolest thing in the world.” He’s been on stage now for just short of three decades.

Though Wills loves all types of music, even dabbling in rock growing up, he cites country music as “his first true passion.”

At the beginning of his career, he chose to stick with it. Partly because his voice is beautifully suited to it (Wills is known in the industry for his soulful baritone), and partly because country music is, by his estimation, “The voice of the common man. It’s not trying to be anything it’s not.”

That honesty, he says, “is what drives people to it.”