Michael Ray, whose debut single, “Kiss You in the Morning,” reached the top of the charts in 2015, is gearing up for what could be his second No. 1 single, “Think a Little Less,” which is currently No. 2 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart. The Florida native knew he had something special from the very beginning.

“I’ve loved this song since I heard it, and I always believed it was a hit,” Michael tells Nash Country Daily. “When it came time to pick the third single, we [were looking at the] song streams. At the time, I wasn’t even playing it out live, so this was all just fans finding this song on whatever avenue they find their music. It was one of our biggest streamed songs. As a team, we were like, ‘There’s something here.’ It was also a song that we wanted to get out at some point, we knew it was going to be single at some point in the process.”

Singing about kissing a little more and thinking a little less hit the right note with fans. The song’s popularity was evident when Michael started playing the tune during concerts and festivals.

“I was like, ‘Man, why haven’t we been playing this out the whole time?’ It was awesome and the song means so much to me. Putting out a mid-tempo [song] during the summer last year isn’t the strongest thing to do, but country radio got behind us and my team hunkered down and we just pushed it, and worked our way hard through the 30s and into the 20s, and it started really connecting. It all goes back to my team, and country radio for believing in it, and giving us a platform.”

Michael is currently in the studio working on his second album. He will be hitting the road this summer playing the festival circuit across the country. The Florida native is about to embark on his first trip to Australia (March 24-26) as part of the 10-year anniversary celebration of CMC Rocks—Australia’s biggest international country & roots festival—and then it’s off to Las Vegas for the ACM Party for a Cause on March 30.