Kip Moore Shares New Song ‘The Bull,’ Plots Headlining Fall Tour
“The real world is outside of the walls of Nashville,” Kip Moore tells Rolling Stone Country, pulling drags off a cigarette on the patio of a restaurant that overlooks the Cumberland River. “That song is my middle finger to anybody that thought I was done.” Moore is talking about his new track, “The Bull,” written by John Randall and Luke Dick (see the video above). From his forthcoming LP Slowheart, it marks the first time the prolific Moore chose an outside song to cut, for the sheer way it resonated with his experience as an artist eager to play by no one’s rules but his own.
“It was the first outside song ever that just leapt out at me and was one hundred percent me,” says Moore, who also ended up cutting a second track, “Plead the Fifth,” written by Dick and Josh Kear. “[‘The Bull’] is everything for me. It’s all the bumps and bruises I have taken along the way. And I am thankful for every time I got bucked off. It kept me pushing harder and harder and it shaped who I am.”
Indeed, Moore makes “The Bull” his own, opening the track with a uniquely percussive guitar vamp and exploding it into a heartland rock anthem (with a little shout out to Rolling Stone along the way). “Thank you mama for the roll, and thank you daddy for the rock. Most of all, most of all thanks to the bull that bucked me off,” Moore sings, punctuating it all with a fist-in-the-air breed of holler and vocals that let every belt and scruff shine through.
Moore will take the songs from Slowheart on the road this fall with his Plead the Fifth headlining tour, beginning in October in Bowling Green, Ohio, with Drake White and Jordan Davis as opening acts. “I’ve been such a fan of him musically,” Moore says of White. “His fans sense something very authentic, and it’s fun to watch him build a very underground sort of thing.”
“More Girls Like You,” the first single from Slowheart, is currently sitting at number fifteen on the Country Airplay chart – the fastest rise of his career. Moore, who recently unveiled his documentary A Journey To Slowheart at a screening in Nashville, will also be rolling out special content created by videographer PJ Brown leading into the album’s September release.
“I’m constantly getting pushed to appeal to the younger generation, and I’m like, ‘fuck that,'” says Moore. “I’m going to grow as an artist, I’m going to grow as a human being, and I’m going to write to the fans that have been growing with me all along. We have stayed authentic to ourselves, and every night [fans] come to our shows, they see me pour out every ounce. I let them into my soul every night. There is a difference between singing songs, and shouting songs, and they are shouting songs. I see tears everywhere. It’s like a revival, the show. There are still those fans that want to feel and see something real.”
Tickets for the Plead the Fifth tour go on sale August 18th at 10am CT, and dates are below. Slowheart is available September 8th.
Plead the Fifth Tour Dates:
Oct. 19 – Bowling Green, OH
Oct. 20 – Elkhart, IN
Oct. 21 – Niagara Falls, ON
Oct. 26 – Pittsburgh, PA
Oct. 27 – Grand Rapids, MI
Nov. 2 – Madison, WI
Nov. 3 – Indianapolis, IN
Nov. 4 – Detroit, MI
Nov. 15 – Clive, IA
Nov. 16 – Wichita, KS
Nov. 17 – Austin, TX
Nov. 18 – Fort Worth, TX
Nov. 30 – Norfolk, VA
Dec. 1 – Northfield, OH
Dec. 2 – Columbus, OH