This Week’s Backstage Country Co-Host: Justin Moore

Elaina Smith’s co-host in Backstage Country is the artist behind the hits “Small Town USA” and “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away.” Justin Moore will bring the same real and relatable energy from his tracks to the airwaves for a whole week.  

Moore released his self-titled debut album in 2009. Now, more than a decade later, he realized the secret to his longevity. “I feel like we have done a really good job of cutting and recording songs that let people know who I am,” he said.  

He explained, “You want to know what people sound like, what they look like, and what their music’s like. But I think it’s more important that people, whether they like it or whether they don’t, they know who you are before they invest their money and energy and so.”  

He chuckled, “[Before] to, you know, spend money on concert tickets or, you know, whatever the case, my t-shirt or whatever.”  

Moore considered “The Ones That Didn’t Make It Back Home,” the first single from his fifth album, Late Nights and Longnecks, to be an opportune song. “It was really neat because it allowed us to go play a bunch of bases and different military laden events and meet some really just fine people and heroes,” Moore explained.  

He shared that because of the song, people have been comfortable sharing their stories with him. “To be in the grocery store, or a meet and greet or whatever, and a husband tells you about losing a son, or a mom about losing their husband. To me, [it] speaks to the power of country music and music in general.”  

The Arkansas native emphasized, “But specifically, I think country music lyrically really touches people, and it can make you laugh or cry or whatever emotion you need to evoke at that point for yourself. There’s something out there for it, song-wise.”  

Listen to “The Ones That Didn’t Make It Back Home” below.