John Gurney's musical roots run deep; a composer/performer mother with a gift for lyricism and an acoustic engineer father with a pitch-perfect ear. Raised in metro Chicago, with bedrock Midwestern roots, John packed up his degree from the University of Missouri and headed for Nashville. John began to find his voice, as performer and songwriter and within a few short years, he wrote the song that won the prestigious 2018 NSAI Song Contest, presented by CMT. See this Rising Star for yourself in the cast of E! network's new show, "Very Cavallari."