Justin Moore Promises Surprises During First Ryman Headlining Show
Justin Moore has plenty of tricks up his sleeve as he prepares to play his first-ever headlining show at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.
For the past 11 years, Justin Moore has been sharing his traditional flair and country hits with audiences and this week marks a milestone for the singer. On Wednesday (May 2), Moore will headline Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium for the first time and promises a fun show with many surprises. The “Kinda Don’t Care” singer spoke with Sounds Like Nashville ahead of his concert, which is also the first time he’s brought a tour through Music City.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” he says of the show, which includes openers Tyler Rich and Travis Denning. “I certainly have so much respect for the history of country music and every time I walk out there on that stage it’s awesome. To get to go there and do your own show is really neat. We’ve had a lot of really great experiences over our decade long career but this is another one of the really cool ones.”
Moore explains that while his Ryman set list won’t be a huge departure from what fans have witnessed throughout his Hell On a Highway Tour, the audience can expect some surprise guests.
Livin’ on Tulsa time #HellonaHighwayTour
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“We are going to have a few friends pop up and play a song or two or three with us and so from that perspective it’s a little different,” he shares. “As far as the rest of the show, the mentality that we take to each and every show won’t change. It will be cool for us I know, and then hopefully for the fans, to get to see some of our buddies that they’re familiar with pop up and do some stuff with us.”
One of the songs Moore will be playing during the show is his current single and the title track to his most recent album, “Kinda Don’t Care.” Penned by Rhett Akins, Ross Copperman and Ben Hayslip, Moore admits that it was the song’s title that first piqued his interest.
Moore says when he’s listening to new material for an album, he always looks at the titles before he begins playing the songs to see if anything jumps out at him. When he read “Kinda Don’t Care” the title intrigued him, and once he heard the song he thought it had a cool idea and was well written.
“It was a really traditional, honky tonk type sounding song,” he says of his single. “When we did a few things on this most recent album that were a little outside of my comfort zone, [it was] fun for me to go back and do something really country sounding and get that out on the radio. I’ve been excited that people have liked it so far and it seems to be doing pretty well for us.”
So, what’s one thing Moore kinda doesn’t care about at the moment? Pop culture.
“I stick to what I know and I don’t watch a lot of the reality stuff and keep up with that,” he admits. “All the stuff that’s on Twitter that everybody else cares about, I really don’t.”
One thing he does care about, though, is his next album. The singer has already penned about 50 songs for the project and has plans to meet with his label ahead of his Ryman show to narrow down the list of songs. He’ll be working with producer Jeremy Stover, who has been at the helm of his previous four albums, and promises the “countriest” album of his career.
Moore says that if he could record any album he wanted to, sonically the project would sound like it was released in 1992. This is the style of music he’s hoping to embrace for his fifth studio album.
“That’s my favorite era and sound of country music,” he confesses. “I’m really excited about it. We’re going to do some really cool things on this album and I love a lot of the stuff we’ve written for it. As long as we don’t screw it up in the studio, I think we have the songs. It’s going to be our goal to go get some of those musicians that played on a lot of those big records back then and have them play on the album. We have some really neat ideas so I can’t wait to go do it and I can’t wait for people to hear it.”
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Moore has been talking to some of his idols from that era of music too and hints that there may be some collaborations already in the works. While he didn’t give too much away, he affirms that there have been several conversations and fans will just have to wait to hear the final product.
It has been 11 years since Moore signed his record deal with Valory Music Co. in 2007, and the singer attributes his longevity to the “incredible team” he has around him as well as learning the importance of patience.
“Nothing’s ever going to happen as quickly, as rapidly, in this business as you want it to. Whether you’re an artist or a manager, it doesn’t matter which position you have,” he reflects. “I think a lot of sleepless nights back in the day could’ve been avoided had I told myself to be a little more patient and also not to sweat the small stuff. Something that I do now that I didn’t back then, is worry about what I can control and outside of that let the chips fall where they may. Fortunately, we are talking 11 years later and we still have hit songs on the radio and we still get to go out and play shows. We’ve been very blessed. We’re super thankful to still be around.”
