Josh Turner’s Kids Didn’t Help Him Get Popular on TikTok — They Don’t Even Have Phones!
Count Josh Turner among the country artists who found surprising success on TikTok recently. In May 2021, Turner's 2016 hit "Would You Go With Me" found a whole new batch of fans when it started trending on the social media app.
And while it's tempting to wonder if Turner's four sons — the oldest, Hampton, is 14 years old now — helped him figure out how to navigate the app, the singer tells Taste of Country Nights that his kids had nothing to do with it.
"That was a management thing," Turner explains with a laugh, adding that his kids probably know even less about social media than he does. "They don't have phones! They're too busy ... They'd love to have a phone, but they don't have a phone."
The singer knows that it won't be too long until that changes, as the boys are getting older and approaching their teenage years. "Our oldest is 14, so he's probably not too far off from having one. But yeah, you know how it is: Once you have one, you have one for the rest of your life," he adds. "So it's like, 'Just hold off. Enjoy being a little boy.'"
Though Turner's kids may not get as much access to social media as some children their age, they got a pretty exciting tradeoff: Spending time on the road with their country star dad. In fact, earlier in the kids' childhoods, Turner says he and his wife, Jennifer, routinely took the boys out on tour.
"My wife was a part of my band for over 10 years, so we practically raised our first three children on the road," he explains, adding that he suspects his setup inspired some of his fellow country star parents who were wondering about the logistics of touring with a family.
"We were kind of, honestly, I would say a front-runner in the area, because I remember some of the Little Big Town guys — they'd be on tour with me, and they'd come over and check out our bus, trying to figure out how you bring children on the road," Turner adds. "So we were kinda showing them some things."
Despite all that, Turner says that as his family has continued to grow, the kids have been staying home more and more often. "When we had our fourth, it just got to be too chaotic, loading and unloading the bus, packing for every trip, trying to do the shows every night and all of that," he recalls. "It's worked out better for them to just be at home and me go out on the road. We all get more done that way."
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