NEWS
Kip Moore
PJ Brown*What’s old is new again for Kip Moore’s latest radio single, “Crazy One More Time (Revisited),” which comes out today (Jan. 21) and goes to radio on Monday.
“Crazy One More Time” originally appeared on Moore’s 2012 MCA Nashville debut, Up All Night. The country star released four singles from the album, including “Somethin’ ‘Bout A Truck,” which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, and “Hey Pretty Girl,” which reached No. 2.
“To tell the truth, after ‘Pretty Girl,’ we were going to put out ‘Crazy One More Time’ [as a single],” Moore tells Billboard of the track he wrote with Chris Lindsey and Aimee Mayo. “But that would have been our fifth single from the album. I had been touring around that whole record for three years and I already had [second album] Wild Ones written. I wanted to put out something new.
“I look back on that in hindsight and maybe that wasn’t the smartest thing,” Moore continues, “because with the fans, it was an overwhelming — I would say 95% of fans that came through my VIP or meet-and-greet line, they said it was their favorite song.”
In 2020, just months into the initial COVID-19 lockdown and with ample time on his hands, Moore invited session drummer Matt Bubel, who has played on most of Moore’s albums, to tinker around with creating new music. Through those sessions, “Crazy One More Time” made its way into the conversation once again.
“We’d order a bunch of food, make cocktails, and make music,” Moore says. “About three weeks into it, he said, ‘You know, the biggest shame is that “Crazy One More Time” was never released as a single.’ I looked at him and said, ‘You’re about the millionth person who has told me that, from radio programmers to the fans to my band members.’”
Moore had found the original files for “Crazy One More Time,” which he recorded in 2010. “We did it all to analog, and it had that good warmth to it,” Moore recalls. “I played it for him, he loved it, and then we talked about how we could dynamically make it better. With the original version, I felt like it stays linear through the whole thing.”
They re-cut the track, adding a sturdy piano intro, bringing edgier percussion and building the bridge into an anthemic moment.
“I wanted to take the listener through peaks and valleys,” Moore says, adding that he also re-recorded his lead vocal on the song. “I’m a better singer now. There’s no other way to say it, in terms of what I’m capable of doing.”
When Moore revealed the re-recorded track to members of his management team and his label home, they were thrilled. “Frankly, it was sort of the song that got away,” Katie Dean, MCA Nashville senior vp, promotion, tells Billboard. “It sort of lingered in both radio’s mind and most of the MCA staff has been with Kip since the beginning, so we’ve talked about that song for years. When Kip was working on this album, he texted us and told us he was re-cutting ‘Crazy One More Time,’ so immediately we were all so excited. The thought that he was going to re-cut it and that we could potentially work it as a radio single was incredible. He put a new take on it.”
According to Moore and Dean, the early reception from radio programmers has been promising. “I’ve gotten a lot of unsolicited texts from programmers I hadn’t talked to in a long time saying how excited they are that it’s coming out. I’ve been getting texts saying that radio needs a song like this,” Moore says.
Dean adds, “It’s a new song to many people, but for people who have been around and supported Kip throughout his career, people like [KRTY’s] Nate Deaton, and like Gregg Swedberg at K102 Minneapolis, everyone is excited to work it to radio. There has been some early airplay and we have a strong stable of commitments, so we feel really good about this song being as reactive as we anticipate it being with listeners when it gets heard.”
Moore says the newly-recorded version of “Crazy One More Time” will be on an upcoming album, which he expects to release this summer.
“It’s going to flow perfectly with the rest of this new record. I have my next recording session next week,” Moore says. “It’s no secret that there is a lot of rock music in what I do. ‘Crazy One More Time,’ the new version, really displays that, and I’ve always been able to straddle that line of country elements with a lot of rock arrangements… This album feels like a visual piece, like you’re watching a movie from start to finish.”
The upcoming album will also feature Moore’s first recorded vocal collaboration — a duet with Ashley McBryde called “One Heartbeat.”
“It happened organically,” Moore recalls. “I’ve been pushed to do collaborations on records because of the trend of what it’s doing, but I’ve always said it will happen when it happens.”
McBryde and Moore were on tour together in Alaska, and while hanging out backstage, the conversation turned to new music.
“She asked if I had written anything that I really love recently, and I started playing ‘One Heartbeat.’ When I finished the first chorus, she grabbed the headstock of the guitar and stopped me. She said, ‘What is that, and can I sing on it with you?’ I said, ‘Hell, yeah,’ and brought her in to sing on it. She’s the best. She’s one of my favorite people on the planet, and she felt like a sister after we did that tour together.”
NEWS
Harry Styles paid tribute to the late David Hockney and reflected on his time in One Direction last night (June 12), as he kicked off his record-breaking residency at Wembley Stadium.
Hockney – whose painting of Styles was displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in 2023 – died on June 11, aged 88, and the musician honoured him during his set by sharing a quote from the painter on the big screens.
“What an artist is trying to do for people is bring them closer to something, because of course art is about sharing,” the quote read. “You wouldn’t be an artist unless you wanted to share an experience, a thought.”
Styles’ gig last night marked the first of 12 gigs at Wembley, which will see the star break the record for the most shows at the venue in a single tour. Coldplay previously held the record, delivering 10 gigs at the stadium last year as part of their Music Of The Spheres tour.
The London residency follows the Together, Together tour beginning in Amsterdam in May, and will be followed by stops in São Paulo, Mexico City, New York, Melbourne and Sydney. He will be supported by a different artist in each city, joined by Shania Twain in London, who delivered a set of hits and new tracks from her upcoming album, ‘Little Miss Twain’.
As the sounds of Simon And Garfunkel’s ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ played over the stadium PA, Styles made his way to the stage, kicking off his set with ‘Are You Listening Yet?’, from his latest album, ‘Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally’. Between renditions of ‘Golden’ and ‘Adore You’, he addressed the crowd for the first time, saying: “Our job tonight is to entertain you. Your job is to have as much fun as you possibly can.
“If you want to sing, if you want to dance, please feel free. Please feel free to be whoever it is you’ve always wanted to be tonight. We’ve got each other’s backs.”
Throughout the night, Styles subtly reworked some of the songs on the setlist. He dedicated ‘Taste Back’ “to all the ravers in the house”, as a snippet of Underworld’s ‘Born Slippy’ was interpolated into the song, while a brief burst of Talking Heads’ ‘This Must Be The Place’ was introduced to ‘Treat People With Kindness’. During ‘Dance No More’, the pop star’s band played part of the groove from Happy Mondays’ ‘Step On’, while Styles sang a snatch of Gorillaz’s ‘Clint Eastwood’.
There were also nods to Styles’ days in One Direction early in the set. As the musician left the stage after ‘Fine Line’, the string section on stage played a medley featuring clips of the group’s hits ‘Night Changes’ and ‘History’, plus Styles’ own track ‘Falling’. After ‘Keep Driving’, he took the time to reflect on Wembley’s connections to his and the boyband’s journeys.
“Just outside of this building, just next door, is Wembley Arena, and 16 years ago, my sister brought me to London for the very first time for my X Factor audition,” he said. “So driving here today, and any time I come through Wembley, means so much to me, ‘cause right in that building next door, I was put into a band. We were called One Direction.
The Together, Together setlist features a different surprise song each night at the start of the encore. Last night, Styles treated the Wembley audience to ‘Little Freak’, taken from ‘Harry’s House’, for the first time since 2023. After the song, he spoke to the audience for the final time, saying: “I don’t know if you’ve been listening to me for a week, or a month, or a year, or five years, or 10 years, or 16 years, or whatever it is, but you have changed my life over and over again. Thank you so much for being here and allowing us to do these shows. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
“Finally, 16 years ago, my mother signed me up for the X Factor without my knowledge. I wouldn’t be here today if she hadn’t done that. She’s here today – thank you so much. You’ve changed my life, all of you.” Referencing a lyric in ‘Dance No More’, he added: “Remember – respect your mother.”
‘Are You Listening Yet?’
‘Golden’
‘Adore You’
‘Watermelon Sugar’
‘Music From A Sushi Restaurant’
‘Taste Back’
‘Coming Up Roses’
‘Fine Line’
‘Italian Girls’
‘American Girls’
‘Keep Driving’
‘Ready, Steady, Go!’
‘Dance No More’
‘Treat People With Kindness’
‘Pop’
‘Season 2 Weight Loss’
‘Carla’s Song’
‘Aperture’
‘Little Freak’
‘Sign Of The Times’
‘As It Was’
The Together, Together, London residency continues at Wembley Stadium tonight, with further dates on June 17, 19, 20, 23, 26, 27, 29 and July 1, 3, and 4. Visit here for any remaining UK tickets and check out doors and stage times here.
The gigs will see Styles donate £1 from every ticket sold to LIVE’s levy to help protect UK grassroots music venues and support emerging talent, and before Styles’ headline performance, the big screens at the venue encouraged fans to support Music Venues Trust.
The tour is in support of the star’s latest album, ‘Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally’, which was released in March. In a four-star review, NME described it as “an album that you’ll really want to spend a lot of time with, letting all its layers envelope you”. It added: “It’s the most exploratory album of his career so far, trying out new things and steering his ship in new directions.”
Meanwhile, Styles has also curated this year’s Meltdown Festival at the Southbank Centre. The line-up chosen by the star includes Stephen Fretwell, Nilüfer Yanya, Orlando Weeks, Bar Italia, Dev Hynes, Jon Hopkins, Getdown Services, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, Soulwax and more, as well as an intimate gig from Styles himself.
The festival kicked off earlier this week (June 11) with a performance from Los Angeles’ Warpaint, whose show was their first in nearly two years. During the gig, they shared fan favourites like ‘Love Is To Die, ‘Billie Holiday’ and ‘Disco//Very’, plus a cover of Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’.
