INTERVIEW: Kip Moore Opens Up About 'Slowheart' Song Meanings

Kip Moore's third studio album has officially arrived. The new record, titled Slowheart, is the followup to 2015's Wild Ones, and features 13 new songs, including its lead single "More Girls LIke You," and is his first song to include outside songs, meaning, not written by Kip himself ("The Bull" and "Plead The Fifth"). 

There is a story behind every song on Slowheart, covering a number of topics, inspired by real life experiences of Kip's. In fact, the last track on Slowheart, "Guitar Man," Kip describes as an "autobiographical" song where fans can hear more about his journey to where he is today.

During an exclusive interview with iHeartRadio, Kip revealed the meaning behind each song on Slowheart. The country star explained what each song is about, what inspired them, and what they mean to him. Read on below.

Track 1: "Plead the Fifth"

"It's just that declaration of being stuck in your own stubborn thoughts, and unwilling to show the vulnerabilities that truly lie within your heart and soul. I think that all of us have been in that place of having that person that just really is always pulling at you. And, just the unwillingness to accept it, how you really feel about it."

Track 2: "Just Another Girl"

"It's just the song of attitude. That song started with the guitar riff and I think that when I was hearing the guitar riff, it was the first things that came to me and Westin Davis's mind of this rapid fire. It put us in that 70s rock and roll kind of place, and it was more touching on a little bit of how hot shot everybody thinks they are nowadays in social media, for the most part, and just you're not what you think you are, kind of thing. And you haven't had ahold of me like you think you have, and just trying to really grasp that old school rock and roll feel to it."

Kip Moore

Track 3: "I've Been Around"

"'I've Been Around' is pretty much poking fun at myself. The jokes on me. Kind of where my life has gone. You know, coming from South Georgia, such a slow paced life, to the things that I find myself and the people that I find myself in the company of now, and just coming from such a simplistic life that I grew up in. And now it's so fast lane, and fast paced, and I'm kind of just tongue-in-cheek, making fun of that situation."

Track 4: "Fast Women"

"People are gonna take this song very literal, when it was never that way for me when I was writing it. It's not about being promiscuous. For me, I've never been one to jump on the same hamster wheel as everybody else. I feel like from the time we're born, we have all these ideals that are pressed on us. And you're supposed to take these steps in your life, A, B, C, and D, and settle down at this age. And if you're not doing those steps, then you're looked at as a bizarre kind of weirdo. And I've always been comfortable with going through life on my own terms. And when I'm ready for that step, I'll be ready for that step, but until then, I'm gonna keep going along the path I am. The 'Fast Women' thing was a lot of just looking out into the crowd, and seeing everything going on during our shows. That's more of what that was touching on."

Track 5: "Bittersweet Company"

"My favorite song on the whole record. This song resonates with me very deeply. It's that place of being stuck and you've fallen in the quicksand, and there's no way to get out of it, and you feel yourself just slowly sinking, and you can't seem to find the beauty in the relationship that you once had. And you feel like you've exhausted every angle to try to get back to that place, and you just can't seem to get back to it. I think that if we live life at all with our hearts, then we've all been in that place at one point or another with somebody. So, even the title itself I tried to make sure that the music and the lyrics were yin and yangs of each other, where the music has this very positive, powerful melody, where the lyric is so melancholy and heart wrenching."

Kip Moore

Track 6: "Sunburn"

"I was basically just touching on something I felt many, many years ago. I fell super hard. I used to go to Panama City every single summer with a buddy of mine when I was about 16. I ran into a girl from Mississippi, and man, it was my first taste of being so wild about somebody; what I thought was love at that time in my life, because I'd never felt anything like it. When I initially was playing that guitar riff, the first thing I thought of was that particular time in my life. And for some reason, the music made me think of a nostalgic story like that."

Track 7: "More Girls Like You"

"I'm never gonna be one of those artists that's trying to reach back and be relative to pop culture. Like, I'm gonna write as in terms of how I'm growing and hoping my audience grows with me. 'More Girls Like You' is indicative of that. I've always had the door shut on settling down and finding that chapter in my life because I've been so focused on music. And when I was writing that song, that's what I was feeling is with all my travels, is just being that my heart is changing in that regard, and that I now look forward to that chapter. It's an open page for me now is what used to be shut."

Track 8: "The Bull"

"'The Bull' [is a] song on the record that I did not write. 'The Bull' is the perfect song after coming off of the Wild Ones record. It was this massive underground, cult-like record that didn't achieve any commercial success. It was my record that galvanized the fan base, and so 'The Bull' was basically my middle finger to anybody that doubted the way that I was going about doing it."

Kip Moore

Track 9: "Blonde"

"'Blonde' is my dig at the vanity world that we live in now with social media, with people doing whatever it takes to be insta-famous at whatever cost that is with their own soul. I wrote it from just that day. I just had enough at looking at people that I've known, that I didn't know, that are just so consumed with it. I don't think I could take seeing another bathroom or bedroom selfie. I'd had enough, so I had to touch on it in 'Blonde.'"

Track 10: "Good Thing"

"'Good Thing' is what it is. 'Good Thing' was something, at that particular moment in my life when I wrote that song. I woke up just feeling good about my life in a lot of ways. I had certain things in my life that were making me see things and do things differently. That song was written in a very impactful time during the journey of this record."

Track 11: "Last Shot"

"'Last Shot' is that thing of, if I am losing you or some people might take it differently, if I am losing you or if this is my last chance to be with you, how do I want it to be? How do I want this moment to go down? And how do I look at that thing in a metaphorical fashion? And that's where I wrote 'Last Shot' from."

Kip Moore

Track 12: "Try Again"

"'Try Again' is the opposite of 'Plead the Fifth.' 'Plead the Fifth' was written before my travels where I was still stuck in that stubborn place, and 'Try Again' came after the travels where there was more of a willingness to show the vulnerabilities that I was feeling, and I hope that I approach them differently the next time around."

Track 13: "Guitar Man"

"'Guitar Man' is just an autobiographical song of my life before there was any success, and it's touching on my journey to how I got to where I got to."


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