We had the chance to chat to the amazing Randall King at The Long Road a couple of weeks back. Check out our conversation below!
How’s the tour going?
It’s good man, it’s good! Sold out everything so far, now we’re over here doing festivals.
This is the first stop in the UK, right?
The very first stop, yeah. Flew in from Amsterdam last night. I slept for about two hours last night. Took a two hour nap about two hours ago, and I plan on taking another hours nap, it’s all good!
And is this your first time over here?
This is my first time in Lutterworth, we’ve never done here. I’ve done Glasgow, Manchester and London.
Are there any differences between the scene here compared to back home?
Coming out here, it’s definitely more of a listening crowd; they’re more engaged and paying attention to everything you’re doing, everything that’s happening. I would say that’s the biggest difference. They’re still rowdy, still wild, still drinking a hell of a lot of beers!
I’ve had a few people say a similar thing actually!
They’re more focused. In America we’ve got that ADD going on; we’ll be looking off and talking to you at the same time. I think I’ve done it to you like five times already!
The album came out a bit ago now, then?
It came out back in January so this is about eight months. It’s been great building. We’re watching the impact of it right now, even out here.
What’s the writing process like for you? Do you sit down on your own or more of a group effort?
I never stop writing. Wherever we set up, wherever I’m designated, I’ll sit down with another songwriter or two and we can do three songs in that week. I’ll build the ideas up the whole time.
But for me, the writing process is… I try to take as much experience as I can just watching the world, soaking it in. Getting ideas from other people’s perspective; things they’ve lived out, stories they’ve told. And stories I’ve lived too!
Are you still writing now then?
Absolutely man! I’ve got probably 130 songs sat in a Dropbox folder. Probably about 40 of those I’m looking at to cycle through. The other thing you’ve got are outside songs people are pitching to you, and they just beat the hell out of yours! Songs that I think are great and are personal to me might sit on the back shelf, even like I did on this record. The songs that made this record I absolutely love, man, but it was hard to sit my songs on the bench. But at the same time, when that song’s there and you got it and got a chance to cut it, you do that, because someone’s gonna cut it.
I imagine it’s quite a hard choice, deciding on them?
I mean you never know, man. Like Jade Eagleson and that song ‘Do it Anyway’, that was pitched to me. I love the song, but that one wasn’t for me. Sometimes they’re just not. It fits his bill dude and he’s blowing up with it and I love it! Same thing with Lainey Wilson. The new one that she played at the ACMs, ‘Hang Tight, Honey’, that was based off a story I told when we were in a pitch meeting. I brought a bus before I ever brought a house. I sat there and told the whole story of how I started my career and who I was. They ended up writing the song and pitching it to me and I turned it turned it down fast. And now it’s out there in the world and she’s chained it up… it’s a great song!
Have you got much planned for the rest of the year?
Man, we never stop! I have to block off time otherwise I don’t get it. I’m working man, my whole life. We play 135 shows a year, selling out East coast to West coast, just been to Canada for the first time, knocking out a bunch out here for the first time, it’s been great!
And with the dates over here being well received, I imagine you’d hope to come back?
Absolutely, man! That’s the whole purpose of doing all this, build up the market so we can do our own headline shows, just like we did last night. We had a thousand people sold out in Amsterdam. It was unreal! But that’s the whole idea: come out here, play the festival, then come back and sell out somewhere close by!