Previous America’s Got Talent finalistcountry singer and actor Drake Milligan is used to many things: comparisons with Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison, watching the world whiz by from his tour bus and slowly climbing to the top in what can be a tough and fickle industry.

One thing that has surprised the breakout star? How many country music fans he met in Europe and Australia during his last shows abroad.

“You find country music fans pretty much everywhere in Europe,” says Milligan, who is exclusively releasing her music video for “I Got a Problem” with PEOPLE on Thursday.

“I recently headlined a big country festival in Norway, and there were thousands and thousands of people,” says Milligan, 26. “It was me and Joe Nichols and the rest of the singers were Norwegian, singing in Norwegian but it was real country! And man can tell they love real country music. That one blew me away. I thought, ‘Who would have thought?’

Milliganwho first rose to fame playing Presley on the CMT series Sun Recordslater placed third on America’s Got Talent 2022 for his song “Sounds Like Something I’d Do”.

After his song ‘Honky Tonkin About’ reached number 1 on the Canadian country charts, he and his band made a special appearance at a AGT’s Results night 2023. He recently finished a year-long tour and is looking forward to a little break.

“It’s been kind of a crazy year,” Milligan says of becoming more and more well-known around the world. “I mean, we’ve been all over the world. I feel like we’ve played a million shows this year, and now I’m finally just getting past being tired.”

Another place the Texas native says he ran into “true blue country fans” during his tour?

“Australia,” he notes. “I played a festival last year near Brisbane in Queensland, and I looked at the crowd, and you’d think I was in Texas. It’s like cowboys and cowgirls. I mean, the real deal. I thought this is crazy And they love to have a good time over there, I’ll tell you, but I mean, the way they live and love the country, you’d think they live in Texas!

Milligan is deeply grateful for his growing fan base. “We got a real tour bus this year,” he tells PEOPLE with a laugh. “No more van!”

“I’m starting to look back on this year and just be really just grateful,” he continues. “I’ve been down in Nashville about seven years now, and I think the guy who moved to town would be very, very excited about where he is now.”

He adds, “I just want to keep making a name for myself and be able to do this for as long as possible, and do it at a high level.”

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Milligan also knows he too will be back in Europe sooner rather than later playing for his Scandinavian fan base.

“I can almost sell more tickets there than I do in Texas!” he says. “Especially because they love the more traditional kind of country music, fiddles, stuff, like I do. And they love early rock and roll — Orbison and Elvis. And so they appreciate my style of music in a different way than most people do.”