Justin Moore Interview: ”Til My Last Day’ Singer Talks Next Album, Next Kid and Autographing Babies
Four short years have been a lifetime for Justin Moore. When he released 'Back That Thing Up' as his first single in 2008, he was a newly-married, free-wheeling 24-year-old willing to take advantage of the rowdy atmosphere that comes with life on the road. Six singles and two kids later, Moore looks forward to sleeping in his own bed and spending time with Ella and Kennedy more than old friends Bud and Jack. He's changed, and he says his new single ''Til My Last Day' reflects the man he's become.
At 28, Moore is hardly a hardened country veteran. He still plays 200 shows a year, and it's hardly a lock-in that each new single will become a hit. His most poignant tracks have become his biggest hits, however. In addition to ''Til My Last Day,' there's 'If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away' -- and, to a lesser extent 'Small Town U.S.A.'
The singer proved his dry sense of humor is as sharp as ever during a recent interview with Taste of Country Nights radio host Jeremy Robinson. Along the way, the singer spoke openly about his romantic blunders, fame, life and death.
ToC Nights: So, when is the next child?
Justin Moore: Oh Lord have mercy! My mom and dad were actually having dinner with me and my wife and my two girls yesterday and we were discussing that. My mom, who helps with the girls for us -- we pay her to help out -- she's going, "Please God wait awhile. Please!"
It's gonna be a little while. We definitely wanna have at least one or two more. But I'm an only child and my wife has a bunch of older and much younger sisters, so she grew up basically an only child so we like the idea of having a big family. Now that there's four of us and I'm involved with the career that I'm involved with, it's pretty difficult.
With two small kids, is it better to be away so you can actually get rest?
[laughs] That's funny, because in particular when they were little, bitty babies and they were not sleeping that good I used to joke, but at the same time, was serious, that the only time I really got to sleep was out on the road. People think, 'Aww, when they're on the road they're partying all night.' No. When I was on the road when my girls were newborns... that was the only time I could get rest.
I try to spend all my time with 'em when I'm at home. I love to fish, I love to hunt and I love to play golf. But when I get home I don't ever take the time to do it because I feel guilty going out and doing that when they're home. Like yesterday my wife was shopping with my mom and I was at home all day with both girls. But I love it.
Do you have Ella trained?
Potty trained?
[laughs] That and does she know how to go fishing?
I just got a new boat and I bought her a new Minnie Mouse or something fishing pole and it's got no hook on it, it's got like a rubber fish on it. But you can actually throw it and reel it in. What we've been doing and she loves it, is we've been out fishing in the pool to practice. So we sit out all day with our feet hanging in the pool and I'm practicing with her throwing. So she loves that.
When is the next album coming?
We are just having the very preliminary discussions about that right now. We've been very fortunate that ['Outlaws Like Me'] has continued to sell well for us. It's been a big success and we've got our third single out.
As an artist you wanna get as many songs off each album as you can. I'd like to see us have another one off of this album, but we'll see. But I definitely am working on new music and I tell you what, it's a pain. It is a pain. I was talking to Eric Church about it the other day and we're both going, 'We don't want to get in a hurry to make another album because it's hard.'
Is it just finding the songs?
Yeah, that and writing. I write a lot of my songs as he does. It's not easy to write good songs. It's easy for us to write songs but it's not easy to write good ones.
You need to have a lot of life lived beforehand.
Yeah, I need to drink a few more beers before. But no, it's a really fun process but at the same time it's a grueling, stressful process.
''Til My Last Day' is great, I love it!
Thank you. It's a little different for us. It's what I consider our first love song and it's our seventh single which is hard to believe that we've put that many out.
We were on tour and I had this couple come up to me about the same age as myself, late-20s, and they said, "I wanna thank you for your music. You know it brought me and my husband back together. We were married. We had children. We'd divorced. Now we're married again." And it was right after we put out ''Til My Last Day' and I'm thinking, "Man, it's already working. The first time we put a love song out and it's already working." She goes, "As soon as I heard 'Bait a Hook' I knew that we had to get back together," and I'm going "If that ain't redneck I don't know what is."