Five years ago, there was nobody hotter in country music than Kip Moore.
Nominated as the CMA’s New Artist in 2013 and 2014, his first album was on its way to platinum and he was already on the top of the charts with “Something About a Truck.”
“I’m playing all over the country living out of a van,” Moore says of those days before stardom struck. “And all of a sudden, a song pops, then its just a whirlwind.”
Moore says it was a special time, especially being recognized for his art. But it didn’t last long. His second album was critically acclaimed, but it wasn’t selling and radio stations weren’t playing it.
First, Moore disappeared from the charts, and then he just disappeared. Literally.
“My soul was fried,”he said.
He recalls before a sold out show at the Fillmore in downtown Detroit. “It wasn't that I was so much physically fried which I was—it was more about my soul was completely empty and I was in a dark place. I called up my manager and said ‘hey im gonna disappear for a while’”.
So, Kip Moore returned to the life he’d been living before heading to Nashville a dozen years earlier. He went surfing in Hawaii, Costa Rica and Iceland, rock climbing in Utah. And he wrote music.
Before he left to find himself he’d written about a half dozen new songs. He wrote another half dozen while he was gone. And along the way he realized they all added up to an album…Slowheart.
“There’s two different people on this Slowheart record,” Moore explains. “There’s the guy before I left, and then there’s a recognition of my own vulnerabilities and hope in those vulnerabilities in the second half of the record.”
The first single from Slowheart, More Girls Like You, has already cracked the Billboard Top 5, and Moore was back at the CMA’s…as a guest. So, is there another nomination in his future?
“I don't let my mind go there—if that makes sense,” he says. “I think anyone would love to be up for an award at the CMAs as entertainer of the year. But I can't let my mind focus on things I have no control over. I just keep trying to make good music and put on the best live show out there. That's always my focus I want to be the best live entertainer out there.”
