Calling from his home in the Malvern, Arkansas area, Justin Moore is prompt and just as expected, polite. Moore, at 34, mentions several times in the conversation, that he’s been blessed and lucky to be doing what he does the past 12 years. It’s not hard to believe, while talking to Moore, that well, he’s got more, and it just feels like he’s not even close to the seventh-inning stretch. After all, he has his priorities straight. 

To get to know Moore, one simply has to listen to the down-to-Earth lyrics from any of his four albums – 2009’s Justin Moore, Outlaws Like Me (2011), Off The Beaten Path (2013) and 2016’s Kinda Don’t Care. His fanbase grew out of the top hits “Small Town USA,” “How I Got to Be This Way,” “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away,” “Til My Last Day,” “You Look Like I Need a Drink,” “Somebody Else Will,” and his most recent release, “The Ones That Didn’t Make It Back Home.” 

The man he is today, Moore said, can be traced to his Poyen, Arkansas roots.  

“I’m from a town of about 300 people, it’s a town where really the things that matter are the church on Sunday and the relationships with people and whatever sports are in season at the time,” Moore said. “Basketball, football, baseball or whatever. It’s a town where everyone’s down home and just help each other – old school southern town.”

When the crossroads between sports and music confronted Moore, he took the road more travelled, armed with a guitar and stories to share, he became a musician. Some of his first gigs were spent with his uncle (who still performs in Southern rock bands) in moose lodges, VFW’s, bars and community spots. 

Sports still continue to be a part of this life, though, as he’s now father of four (three girls and one son) and finds time to coach their youth basketball and softball teams when he’s not on the road. 

“I played all through high school, I played basketball and baseball and started on those teams and contributed to us winning,” Moore said. “I had opportunities to play college baseball at smaller schools but started playing music and determined that I was a senior in high school at 5’6” and 140-pounds that I was probably not going to make money playing baseball and could potentially play music.

“Regardless if I was 6’5” or 5’ 6”, when you walk on stage you feel different for sure. It’s an awesome feeling to walk up there [on stage] and have the opportunity to play for fans and the connection you have with them is pretty special.”

With four studio albums under his belt, and his fifth, Late Nights and Longnecks due April 26 of this year, bringing that energy and magic from the stage into the studio is not his favorite part of the job. He tips his hats to his producers and engineers for enjoying the “fiddling parts and pulling lines up, poking and prodding.” Moore said he’d always rather enjoy playing in front an audience. 

“Being in the studio is better than digging ditches for a living, but it’s not the funnest part of the job to me,” he said. “It’s something that you get better over time and quite a ways into my career and finding the right energy whatever song we’re recording than maybe I was earlier on in my career.”

Late Nights and Longnecks’ lead single, “The Ones That Didn’t Make It Back Home,” has a stirring message and in a way, a follow-up to the 2011 hit “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away” written by Dallas Davidson, Rob Hatch and Brett Jones. Moore said his own writing inspirations aren’t at set times – he’s not one to set aside a weekly writing session. “To me, it’s just whenever it hits me,” he said. 

The idea to write “The Ones That Didn’t Make It Back Home” happened during a concert. The words feel timeless and its chorus is like a soothing prayer: Here’s to the ones that didn’t make it back home / The ones we haven’t seen in so long / The hold up a beer ones, the wish they were here ones / The not forgotten but gone / They’re in a better place up there / But they still left a hole down here / We’ll just go on livin’ and go on missin’ the ones / The ones that didn’t make it back home.

The song is co-written by Moore, Paul DiGiovanni, Chase McGill and Jeremy Stover. Scott Borchetta, Big Machine’s Label Group President, co-produced with Stover. 

“That song more than any other of my career at the time helped people get through difficult times and really had a positive impact on people from them tell me that,” Moore said. “For that long and until now, we played that song and we always talk about our military, police officers, firefighters, and teachers and nurses – all of the people who serve our country. I always say, ‘here’s to the one’s that didn’t make it back home.’ You know they went to work one day and didn’t make it back home. For whatever reason, I said it one night….it was like a light bulb went off ‘why don’t I write that.’ I don’t know why it took me eight or nine years to realize that, but better late than never.”

The song’s video is garnering much attention for its moving images that include a fallen military hero and a school shooting scenario. In what can be traced back to Moore’s earlier statements on his own small town community support, the video showcases a community coming together to mourn the loss of life and build up survivors. 

Moore’s own social media director, Cody Villalobos, directed the video. Moore said he, himself, had “zero” input on the direction or concept of the video.

“I’m very proud of him for doing such an incredible job,” Moore said. “He’s a part of our team for sure.”

As in years past, Moore’s time away from home and family will be significant. The troubadour will canvas much of the United States in Canada through August, with more gigs expected to be added. The 2014 Academy of Country Music Awards’ New Artist of the Year winner, and 2012 ACM Artist of the Year: Breakthrough Artist nominee seems to go about living his life, and prioritizing his family when he’s not on stage or in the studio. 

 “With four little ones most of my time is hanging out with them which is my favorite thing to do,” he said.