Later this summer, when it's time for fresh purple hull peas in Arkansas, Justin Moore just may be the man to call if you need a bushel or two. The revelation — that the country music singer from Poyen who usually spends weeks and months on the road on concert tours has planted a garden for the first time — was one of the highlights of the first episode of Moore's new project, The Justin Moore Podcast, released May 19.
"I got enough to feed the state of Arkansas," says Moore, who recently turned 36, when asked about how large a crop of the always popular and often hard to find peas he planted. Moore says his grandfather, "Papaw," who grew up on and still lives on the land that Moore now owns, used to plant "big, huge gardens" that he'd help take care of as a child.
"We've always loved purple hull peas," Moore says, adding that along with peas, his new garden has okra, bell and jalapeno peppers, tomatoes and cabbage. He says he has no idea how it all will turn out but is thankful he has his cousin's six sons nearby to help him, although he has nothing but time on his hands right now with his tours sidelined by the covid-19 pandemic.
Moore has done projects around the house like most other folks in "quarantine," bought his wife for Mother's Day a chicken coop that she's been wanting but that he has yet to put together or buy chickens for, and has been keeping up with fans via social media and helping his girls practice their softball.
The avid bass fisherman still hasn't stocked the pond in the middle of his property. But, hey, he has learned how to make a podcast and launched it in a matter of weeks.
With that, he discovered a use for his previously underused office and also brushed up on his computer skills. Thus the title of the podcast's first episode, "High-Tech Rednecks," which is plural because Moore's tour manager and sidekick JR, aka The Handler, is also his podcast partner.
"We've worked together for a number of years in different capacities, and he and I and our families have become great friends. He's one of my best friends in the world. He is the godparent to three of my children, and we're just super close, we're like brothers. And he's one of the funniest human beings on the planet. He and I are just hillbillies from Arkansas and Alabama and have a lot of the same views on life and other things. But we also differ, you know, a little bit, so I think that'll be a fun dynamic to kind of navigate moving forward," Moore says of his one-named friend.
With No. 1 country hits, awards and fan-packed tours under his belt, Moore has mastered music. (He was on the road with one of his idols, Tracy Lawrence, when the virus outbreak began shutting things down.) But with the tour bus parked and no stage to climb onto, Moore found time for chores and to reconnect with his computer, which he admits is not his favorite toy, but is essential to stay connected with fans.
"You know it's funny because when we built our house four years ago, I built myself an office. It's not in the house because I've had those before. I seemed to get, 'Hey, Dad, can you do this? Can you do this? Can I do that?' if I'm in the house, but that being said, I've yet to use my office for four years until, you know the last three, four months, and so now I'm like, 'Oh, so this is what this place looks like? Cool.'"
Moore has done virtual concerts, even performed a YouTube concert in Simmons Bank Arena with only about 10 people in the building, but has now turned to podcasting to engage his fans in another medium. He's recording the podcast on Apple's Garage Band application and is looking forward to getting back on the road, where he can take the portable podcasting equipment and podcast from anywhere.
"Nowadays, with technology being the way that it is, everything can be done with a computer. So I've got a computer interface that plugs into my computer and, you know, I bought a couple of really good microphones, good cameras and that kind of stuff, and I can just kind of take it wherever I go, man, I can pack it up in my backpack and it all fits. As a matter of fact, we were at the lake over Memorial Day weekend, and I just started the podcast from my truck's Wi-Fi," says Moore, referring to his family's trip to DeGray Lake where he has a boat in a slip at the ready.
Moore says the plan for the podcast is to do about 15 episodes per season, with musical guests and performances from the road when it's safe to go back out there. New episodes are published each Tuesday, and the fourth episode is available now. Hog Pod host Bo Mattingly's company, Sport & Story, is producing The Justin Moore Podcast.
"Bo has been an influential voice in sports across the state for decades now, and he left his radio show a couple years ago and is doing a podcast called Hog Pod that I would encourage any Razorback fan to go listen to, it's pretty awesome. I knew nothing about podcasts, I'll be honest with you. I had listened to some but beyond that, I had no clue about the process of recording and getting them out to the world, etc., so I knew that I wanted to team up with somebody or a collection of folks. Bo and I have been friendly for a number of years now — I was a guest on his radio show and stuff like that. I respect him and his team and so it's been fun so far," Moore says.
Episode two, which dropped May 26, featured country music's Brantley Gilbert (by phone, of course), who Moore says is "cut from the same cloth" as he is in many ways. The two have performed together, even recorded a song together, along with Thomas Rhett, titled "Small Town Throwdown," in which Moore pulled off an epic prank that took Brantley a long time to discover.
As the song is coming to a close, Moore, a big University of Arkansas fan, let out a subtle "sooey." "BG's a Dog fan because he's from Georgia, he's got to be," Moore explains on the podcast. Brantley didn't discover it until the song was mixed and ready for release.
"When we record a song like that together, you know, you kind of ad-lib in the intro and the outro, and even when we were mixing the thing together I did not put two and two together ... then when it clicked, it was too late. I know all my Bulldog brothers and sisters were thinking I just straight up sold out," Brantley says in the episode. (Watch the video for "Small Town Throwdown" at arkansasonline.com/62pod.)
The two also commiserated about missing the road and their fans.
"The thing that I miss most about being on the road, I obviously miss being on the stage for an hour and a half or two hours or whatever it is, that connection with the fans ... At least for me, I've never been able to duplicate that feeling. I've never been able to replace it with anything else, that connection you have on stage. You can't really even explain if you haven't been able to experience it," Moore tells Brantley in the episode.
Brantley says he is just as eager to restart his tour and that his wife is really ready to see him go.
Moore's wife, Kate, who is from Houma, La., is "a city girl" who might not be ready for her husband to leave home but who has enjoyed having him home to do the chores he never has time to do. Such as planting a garden and adding more animals to the mix.
"It's funny because I grew up here. We always had cows and different things and I fooled with them, you know, helping my Papaw, and I know how much work these things can be. They are rewarding at times, but certainly a lot of work, and she grew up in a completely different way and place and she loves the idea of having like a working farm and so she's trying to move us toward that, I think. And I told her, I said, 'Look, I'm all in for this stuff, but just know that all this time I'm at home right now, that's gonna stop at some point and you're going to be responsible for four kids and chickens and bunny rabbits and pigs and goats and all the other crap you want,'" Moore says, agreeing that perhaps his wife needs a "Handler" as well.
Moore is itching to perform again, eager to hit the road with his podcasting equipment, leaving all those critters, the kids and the wife safely back at home in Poyen.
"I'd play a birthday party" just to be back on stage, Moore says.
To download The Justin Moore Podcast, visit thejustinmoorepodcast.libsyn.com or subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify, Stitcher or YouTube.
Style on 06/02/2020