Justin Moore photo by Kristin Barlowe, courtesy of The Valory Music Co.
(Justin Moore, Jamie Paulin, Jeremy Stover)
"‘Grandpa’ is my favorite song that I’ve ever written. Jeremy, Jamie Paulin and I got together and Jamie grew up in Washington and Jeremy in Georgia. We all grew up on a farm and grew up in places where obviously our dads were our heroes. Both of my grandpas were Superman. I couldn’t imagine them ever not being around. I’m very proud of that song.
"I sent a CD to both of them because they have no idea how to download a MP3. It was really the only time I’ve ever heard or seen my grandpas cry besides my grandma’s funeral.
"I could have a 30-year career or be gone tomorrow, but nobody will ever be able to take that away from me, to be able to do that. I lost my grandma and an uncle a couple of years ago and I was at home playing this song acoustic after I’d written it. My wife walked in and I was bawling and I said, ‘I think I wrote this about my grandpas, but I think I also wrote it about my grandma and uncle.’
"The first line is, ‘You stood on that bank where I got baptized/Gave me a 30-30 when I turned nine.’ Actually it was eight, but nine rhymed. I’ve sat up in a deer stand with my grandpa since I was three years old."
"Hank It"
(Brian Dean Maher, Justin Moore, Jeremy Stover)
"We got off the road with Hank and Lynyrd Skynyrd and my producer, Jeremy, had just bought a house. I went over to see his house and Brian, our other co-writer, just happened to be there. I said, ‘We’ve got to write a song at some point about me going out with Hank Jr. It probably won’t ever make a record because it would be so personal and nobody really probably cares, but we have to write a song about that.’ It was such a cool experience.
"Our first show that we played on that tour was in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and that is in the song. ‘A lot of things a country boy learns in life/how to shoot a gun and how to use a knife/But when I pulled into Hershey P-A, and I took my guitar up on the big stage/That night I did the best I could/ Me and my band played pretty dern good/ And I took myself out and sat in the crowd and learned how Bocephus shakes ‘em down/You’ve got to Hank it.’"
