Even as the eastern Kentucky native heard his name announced as winner of American Idol in 2022, it seemed as if no one really knew the young father who left his job in construction in search of stardom. But as Thompson now finds himself releasing his first new music since leaving his record label and becoming an independent artist, the truth finally seems to be coming out.

And the truth hasn’t always been pretty.

“There was a time in my life when I felt like everything was crumbling,” Thompson, 22, tells PEOPLE from his home in Nashville. “I was just drinking all the time.”

Thompson said the incessant drinking came because of several things happening in his life earlier this year. “I just finally sat back and asked myself what the hell was I doing,” he remembers. “I almost needed that song in a way to revive me.”

“That song” is now Thompson’s new single “Upbringing,” which he wrote earlier this year alongside Lalo Guzman and Josh Dorr that touches on much of what he has been through.

“Every line in that song is true,” says Thompson of the raw and vulnerable tune. “It’s completely true to me as to how I grew up, but it was something that I never spoke about before. I’m not really one to talk about my life or my childhood in general, but I’ve learned over time that in order to be an artist and be real and be vulnerable, you have to do these things.”

And his family is more than OK with him now telling his truth.

“My family is very supportive,” explains Thompson. “They know that that’s how we grew up and in the long haul, I think they want me to just be honest and true to me. And if I’m singing these songs on stage every night, I don’t want to get up there and fake it.”

In a way, “Upbringing” also touches on life after American Idol.

“After I won American Idol, I struggled with figuring out who I wanted to be as an artist,” remembers Thompson, who scored a hit with “One Day Tonight” in 2022. “It almost felt like I lost myself during that whole process in a way, and I’m not saying that’s anybody else’s fault other than mine. All of it happened so fast; I was just trying to wrap my brain around it.”

There was a time when his songwriting even took a direct hit.

“The first two years of me being in Nashville, I never had that moment where I went into a room and was just my honest-to-God self,” Thompson says. “But there were things I wanted to say. For me personally, I don’t think you can force creativity. But at the time, I felt like I was doing just that.”

Further complicating these internal conversations was the fact that Thompson had a son to support.

“I was trying to travel back and forth and do everything all at once, and it was a lot for me at the time,” remembers Thompson of his now 3-year-old son named Walker. “Nothing was working. I knew in my heart that I didn’t want to cut this song or cut that song. I just didn’t want to be that kind of artist. I wanted to write true stories about myself.”

And now, he’s doing just that.

“As soon as I made that decision in my mind that I was going to keep writing songs and see where they would go, I just feel like the songs started coming out of me,” says Thompson, who wrote the touching song “Front Door Famous” that appears on Luke Combs’ 2024 album Fathers & Sons. “It just all fell out. And for me, it was like a God thing. There were really no words for it. I’m grateful for how everything worked out.”

And while Thompson and Walker’s mom are no longer together, they are working together to co-parent their little boy and give him the life he deserves.

“I’ve always known in my heart that I wanted to give my son a different life when I potentially had kids,” says Thompson, who will release his next single, “Demons in My Whiskey,” in September. “I’m grateful for everything that I grew up around — all the things I saw growing up really make me who I am.”