Ahead of the Season 4 premiere of Farmer Wants A Wife, C&I chats with the bachelor farmers live from Nashville.
It’s time for a new crop of farmers to sow the seeds of love. Season four of Farmers Wants a Wife, the reality show on which real-life farmers search for true love amongst 27 single women, will premiere April 21 on Fox. Once again hosted by actress and New York Times Best Selling author Kimberly Williams-Paisley, this season introduces viewers to three new eligible men looking for their happily ever after.
Ahead of the premiere, the bachelor farmers headed to Nashville for a celebration at Broadway’s 12/30 Club. Complete with Western wear swag bags, a farmers Q&A with radio host Storme Warren, and performances by some of Music City’s most influential songwriters Triston Marez, Phil “Philbilly” O’Donnell, and Michael Ray, it was a fitting way for fans to meet the men and celebrate the new season.
At the party, Cowboys & Indians had a chance to chat with the season’s rising stars and they were candid about why they joined the show, the good times they had while filming it, and the hardships they didn’t expect.
Braden Pridemore, 26
Braden Pridemore, 26, is a fifth-generation soybean and corn farmer who co-owns and lives on his family’s 3,000-acre operation in Homer, Illinois. He’s also a swoon-worthy singer-songwriter. Pridemore says that the show helped him hone on in what he was looking for in a wife. “You really don’t have time to beat around the bush,” he says of the filming schedule. “A lot of the conversations I had with the ladies on the show would have taken me months of dating to even get close to having. It really forced us to have those tough conversations. It got very real very fast.”
The corn and soybean farmer also shared how proud he is of the legacy he’s continuing for his family and the ability to show that on TV.
“My grandpa always said, and same with my dad, ‘To be a farmer you’ve got to be a businessman, you’ve got to be an accountant, you’ve got to be a mechanic, you’ve got to be an agronomist. You’ve got to be all of thse things to get by, but it’s a good life and I take a lot of pride in it.”
Brett Maverick, 35
For Brett Maverick, 35, a horse and cattle farmer in Savannah, Tennessee, the show was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. The former bull rider is also an entrepreneur who spent time building a successful protein bar company as well as a tequila brand before returning to work at his family’s 1,000-acre farm. He approached reality dating the same way he has his business opportunities.
“I’m a big ‘What if it works?’ person rather than ‘What if it doesn’t?’ If I can see an upside to it, I typically always go for it unless the downside’s a lot worse,” he says. “If I meet somebody [on the show], then great. If not, this could still be a really good thing. I didn’t see a downside here.”
He says the real relationships formed on the show were a big draw for him. “This isn’t just a TV show for entertainment value; this is actual people going into this for the right reason and that reason is to find somebody.”
Sean Cavanaugh, 22
Sean Cavanaugh, 22, is a farm-to-table produce farmer from Solvang, California who works on his family’s 22-acre produce farm, growing everything from tomatoes and peaches to figs, kiwis and avocados, all of which supply their farm-to-table restaurant, The Gathering Table. Though he’s the youngest farmer on the cast, he says he joined the show to find his forever love. “The way I was raised is old school and traditional, so although I’m young on paper, it’s all about mental maturity. I’m definitely ready to settle down.”
Cavanaugh says his family was initially skeptical of reality TV dating, but that they were ultimately not only very supportive, but also very hands-on. “They were involved in helping me make my final pick,” he says.
Season 3 farmer John Sansone offered some helpful advice to the newbies. “This is your one chance to do this in your entire life. Take advantage of it. Go full force. It may be an uphill battle at times, but it’s worth it,” he told them ahead of the experience.
Sansone was one of the few people who had a chance to preview the new season ahead of the event, and he teased some big changes to the format. “I’m going to be dead honest, this season is a lot more raunchy than my season,” he says. When asked what he thought would make a good theme song for season four he didn’t hesitate. “Jesus Take the Wheel.”
PHOTOGRAPHY: Osprey Media Nashville
