Kip Moore Cites Motown, Bruce Springsteen as Musical Influences

Kip Moore may be known for country singles like "Hey Pretty Girl" and "Somethin' 'Bout a Truck," but when he's not playing his country hits, he's kicking back with something a little different: Motown.

“After shows, we have a tent outside, and we all have some drinks and pick up our guitars and put on a playlist of Motown,” Moore tells Ram Country. “I spend a lot of time listening to Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, and I’m a big Smokey [Robinson] fan. I think Stevie Wonder is possibly the all-time greatest musician.”

In addition to laid-back soulfulness, Moore has also been deeply inspired by the Boss, Bruce Springsteen. Moore's dad treated him to a Springsteen concert in the early '90s, and it's safe to say that the country singer has never been the same since.

“That’s what transformed my way of hearing music and seeing music and processing it,” Moore says. “I’ve battled with a lot of my own demons inside, and I’ve been a basket case in a lot of ways in my life. There are a lot of inner struggles that I deal with. And Springsteen showed me in his music that I could feel comfortable with the troubles I was facing because it felt like the characters in his songs were going through the same thing. His music made me feel comfortable with my own insecurity and my own hopelessness.”

In his baseball cap and T-shirts, Moore certainly isn't putting up any facades or masquerading as someone else; he is who he is. And Springsteen, in a sense, gave him permission to break open and outward onstage, showing his true self, instead of playing a part.

“The main thing for Springsteen, and what I’m always trying to do myself, is to be genuine and bring that realness into what I’m doing,” Moore says. “I see a lot of posing on stage. I see a lot of artists thinking, ‘I’m gonna smile because I think I’m supposed to smile at this moment, and I’m going to flip my hair back because that’s what’s expected of me.’ I feel like that stuff fades. It might work for a minute, but when someone’s truly invested in what they’re doing, and they're singing from the depths of their gut, that’s what people connect with, and that’s what people latch onto."

Moore is currently working on songs for his sophomore album, and there's one in particular he thinks is "pretty special." He also recently revealed his new and highly entertaining "I'm to Blame" music video.