CountryMusicIsLove Chats with Colt Ford

The new 15-track collection features a slew of special guests including Jason Aldean, Kix Brooks, Laura Bell Bundy, Montgomery Gentry, Corey Smith, Darius Rucker, and Jake Owen.

We recently caught up with the “Back” singer to discuss the album, his fans, and more. Check out our exclusive interview below….

CMIL: In what ways does ‘Declaration of Independence’ differ from your previous albums?

CF: I think I took the best elements out of all three records and made one record, which I couldn’t be more excited about. I’m just so freaking excited about this whole album and what it is. I’ve never been more honest and open in a record than I have with this.

CMIL: Your style of music is very unique. Is that something that you strived to do when you first started your career, to be different?

CF: That wasn’t necessarily my goal. I know I am different. I was just trying to be myself and make the best country songs that I could make. The best way I could make them was to deliver the way I deliver, which has been done many times before. I’m also an artist, so I should have my own style and my own way of going about it, which I do. I’m just thankful that people like it.

CMIL: You’ve collaborated with so many great artists. How do you go about recruiting them to sing on your record? Do you just call up someone like Kix Brooks and pitch the idea?

CF: Well it does kind of work like that. I let the songs kind of dictate who I feel like should be on them. I just listen to the songs and then I try to get in touch with those people, a lot of them are my friends. I’ve been so lucky to have people like Kix [Brooks], Tim McGraw, and Charlie Daniels [sing on my albums]. On this record I’ve got Jason Aldean, Darius Rucker, and other guys that I’m a fan of. I’m just a fan of music in general and so I like anything that’s good. I don’t care where it comes from, as long as it’s cool, I like it. I just kind of let the music take me to where it’s supposed to go and I hope I can get those artists that I’m such a fan of to be a part of it. I’ve been really lucky to have that happen so far.

CMIL:You’ve mentioned that your current single, “Back” (a duet with Jake Owen), is very personal to you. Tell us more about the song…

CF: That song is absolutely one hundred percent true. That is my life. That is my family in the video. When I’m talking about giving that ring to that girl, I did do that. I took the ring out of my mom’s drawer and gave it to this girl when we were in elementary school. Her name was Rebecca Green. I remember. Our kids played little league together. That happened. That’s a true story. When I talk about my friend, David, who passed away and grew up riding in a wheelchair, he did. That’s his picture that we used in the video and that’s his gravesite I was standing over. His middle name is Reynolds, I named my son after him.

CMIL: What was it like to have your family in the music video?

CF: It was different. The director was like, “Well, we’re gonna get some actors” and I was like, “No, this is my life so I think it needs to be my real family.” They were willing to be a part of it and that just made it that much more special. It really did. Everything that was there in my town with my folks, my family, my kids, my wife, my parents.

CMIL: You seem to have a great relationship with your fans and you often communicate with them on Twitter. Is that something you make a point to do?

CF: It’s about the fans at the end of the day. Really, it’s not about me or Jason [Aldean], Carrie [Underwood], Taylor [Swift], or any of us. We’re just lucky to play music. It’s about the fans and the songs. We’re just the lucky ones that are able to get up there and play and people like it, but we’ll go away and new artists will come along. The songs are what lives on. I just believe you’ve got to give back to the fans. Without them I wouldn’t be here, so I’m always going to do that. I just don’t know any other way.

CMIL: Many different artists have been supporting you through social media this week, asking fans to go out and pick up a copy of Declaration of Independence. What does it mean to you to have that kind of support?

CF: I cannot say how much that means to me and how humbling it is when those artists, artists that I have such huge amount of respect for, that I’m a fan of, and I’m friends with support me. They’re all busy and they all have to promote their own thing. For them to take their time- I mean, there’s so many of them- Luke [Bryan], Jerrod [Niemann], Justin Moore, Lee Brice, Craig Campbell – guys that aren’t on this record. A bunch of them sent out messages – along with the guys on the record which is awesome, but when guys that don’t have anything to do with the record do it- it just blows me away. That’s why I’m a country artist. That’s why I love the country genre more than anything in the world because that’s what we do. We help one another. To me it should continue to be more and more about that. In helping one another and when you have some success trying to help somebody else get up there with you and not worrying about them possibly getting in front of you.

CMIL: That’s what we say “Country music is LOVE.”

CF: There’s no doubt about that. I’m really feeling a lot of it today for sure.