5 Important Thoughts That Didn’t Make Kip Moore’s ‘Slowheart’ Profile
Kip Moore's faith and softer side were the focus of a nearly 2,000-word profile published on Wednesday. The "More Girls Like You" singer is a more complex character than you'll ever know, and one leaves the interview feeling that like a glacier just peeking its head out of water, there's so much more you're not seeing.
Outtakes from an interview with Moore and two songwriters close to Slowheart reveal more of who the 37-year-old really is. An upcoming documentary called A Journey to Slowheart is perhaps the best look at a man who keeps his friends close, and details of his personal life even closer. He's introverted, but not standoffish. The prickly characterizations are accurate, but only to a point. Below you'll find our five favorite quotes and notes that didn't make Kip Moore's Spiritual Journey to Slowheart.
5. Kip Moore's fire becomes a flu in Costa Rica.
We asked Kip Moore to describe a day in Costa Rica, his favorite surf location when he needs to get away from the music. Playa Grande gives him balance, he says. The solitude allows him to sort through what he's learned and arrange priorities: "It just replenishes my soul."
“I wake up usually around six, I’m in the water by 6:30 … and I usually surf till about 10 o’clock. I’ll come back and I’ll cook a gigantic breakfast and I pass out until about 2 o’clock and then I’m back out in the water from 3 until dark. That’s the day every single day for me.”
4. Kip is a historian.
Moore isn't a traditionalist, but he was raised on the classics. That's not obvious when you listen to his three albums. Motown and Bruce Springsteen permeated his ears before country acts from the '60s, 70s and '80s. But don't assume anything with Moore.
“I would like to think that I bring colors of old-school storytelling,” he says. “I’ve been listening to Red Headed Stranger my whole life, so I think that all that stuff naturally bleeds through.”
“I could sing you Webb Pierce songs, I could sing you Hank Sr. songs, I could sing you Merle Haggard’s stuff ... Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kristofferson. I probably know a lot more that most [artists] that you interview.”
3. About that close-knit circle of songwriters?
It's tight, like all-caps TIGHT! Co-writer Steven Lee Olsen knew Moore for six years before he was invited to write three songs on Slowheart. He says only after putting his name to Keith Urban's "Blue Ain't Your Color" was he able to sit down with Moore, a man he admires as a true artist in every sense.
2. Moore's dad died of cancer.
Stanley Moore died after a battle with cancer in 2011. His cause of his death had never really been made public, but in a new documentary filmed to support this album, the singer talks about it, as well as the tragic car accident that left one of his sisters paralyzed from the waist down.
1. Kip is a big fan of ...
There's a long list of country singers that Moore respects and listens to. Miranda Lambert, Eric Church, the Cadillac Three, Cam, Wade Bowen and Randy Rogers are a few. There's also his fall touring partner, Drake White.
"Drake and I have been talking about touring for years," he says. "I think we're cut from the same cloth and we share the same kindred spirits." Expect plenty of collaborating when the Plead the Fifth Tour begins on Oct. 19.
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