What a story.
Kip Moore has built an entire career on being authentically himself and apologizing to no one for it. While it can be a polarizing character trait, a true “love it or hate it” situation, he doesn’t give a s*** and that’s exactly what resonates with his uber-dedicated fan base.
And the story he told the guys on the In The Trenches Podcast this week is the perfect example of how he has been that way since the beginning of his career. It all started with an opportunity in 2014, when he was asked to do a little studio session with Wyclef Jean and Nick Jonas. Kip knew it was sponsored by Kellogg’s, but he was told they wouldn’t show up anywhere in the video, aside from at the very end with a statement simply saying that they had sponsored it all.
Kip Agrees To Work With Wyclef Jean and Nick Jonas
He remembers walking into the warehouse where they were filming, and he was set to receive a “massive” check… six figures, but he says it was pushing seven, and to this day, it’s still the biggest check he’s ever seen for anything he’s done in his career. They wanted to use his fan-favorite song “Wild Ones,” and he agreed to it so that’s where we start:
“2014. I walk into a building similar to this, but there’s nothing in the building. But it’s probably three times a size of this, like a warehouse. I’m at the beginning of my career, ‘Wild Ones’ is just coming out, and I get offered to be in the studio with Wyclef Jean and Nick Jonas, and it’s like this whole thing, they’re doing… big pop stars, and they want to use ‘Wild Ones.’ And ‘Wild Ones’ was this thing that we would open the show with, and it would just be insanity in the room. And it’s got this edge to it.
I remember, I got pitched, it’s in the studio, its’ for Kellogg’s, but there’s never any Kellogg’s. It’s just at the very end of them showing you guys in the studio, you’ll see, ‘Sponsored by Kellogg’s’ kind of thing. It was a massive, massive six figure check. Now, we’ve already talked about the struggle, all the years living in dumps and this and that. I have never seen a check this size to this day being offered to me. This was the biggest check, to this day, of my career. I mean, we’re pushing seven.
I show up, and I get into the warehouse. And all the other people have already done their stuff, so now it’s my turn to do my thing. And they got the cameras all in front of me, they’re like, ‘Okay, Kip, just stand right here.’ Behind is as a gigantic LED screen, but I don’t know it’s even a LED screen the time. I just think there’s a big wall behind me.”
He hears the beat drop on the song, and all of a sudden, there’s a glow of yellow behind him, and he can tell that it’s coming from a massive screen, and he starts to get very nervous. When he turned around, he sees “thousands of Pop-Tart boxes,” and he admits he started having a full-blown “internal meltdown” because he knows what’s at stake:
“The room is dark, and they kick on ”Wild Ones,’ just sing to the camera. I’m like ‘Okay.’ And I’m already feeling uncomfortable in my skin a little bit. I’m like, I don’t know, man, I don’t know about this, and it’s all going through my head in real time.
The worldwide marketing guy for Universal records is in there, Sean’s in there, my management, agents, everybody’s in there. There’s 25 people on set, it’s a massive production. Flown out to LA, I think about this now, and I’m like, I can’t believe I did it, I can’t believe nothing happened to me. I can’t believe I didn’t get dropped the next day.
About 15 seconds, immediately once the beat kicks on, all of the sudden, there’s just this glow of yellow behind me. and I can see that it’s just all encompassing around me, and I’m like, ‘What is behind me right now?’ And I’m thinking this, and I said, ‘We’ve been waiting all week, been waiting on…’ and I stop, and I turned around, and it was just thousands of Pop-Tart boxes. And I’m having a full-blown meltdown internally.”
You can probably imagine what happened next…
Kip Walks Out
He knew he couldn’t go through with this thing, and on top of felling “bamboozled,” he was simply offended at the “hokey” joke they had turned his music into. After stepping out to smoke a cigarette, his team came out and tried to convince him to come back and finish it. He told them he didn’t “need to do s***,” and he would quit it all right now before he went back in there and finished the video:
“In that moment, I’m like, can’t do it. Can’t do it. Can’t do it, can’t do it, can’t do it. ‘Stop.’ I said stop, and my manager knows me, we’re super close. I still love him, love him, love him. But he knows me, and I could see him going, oh boy, this is not gonna be good right here. And I turned around, and now I’m just staring at this screen.
And I’m like, ‘What the f*** did I get into?’ And I said, ‘I need a second.’ And I walk outside by myself. There’s a guy outside the thing, and he smoking cigarette. I said ‘You got another one of those?’ He says, ‘Yeah buddy.’ So I’m sitting there having a cigarette, about that time, all my team comes outside. They got their arms crossed. ‘What’s the problem?’ I said, ‘Well, the problem is, I ain’t going back in there.’ ‘Well, you gotta go back in there. We’ve already agreed to this.’
I said, ‘I ain’t gotta do s***.’ At this time, I was furious. ‘Kip, you’ve gotta go back in there right. This is a whole…’ ‘Let me tell y’all something, I will quit right now. I ain’t going back in there and doing that hokey s***.’ And now, it gets heated with me and somebody, we’re face-to-face. And I said some things I still regret kind of, but it got really testy there for a minute.”
Considering the point he was at in his career when this all happened makes it all the more impressive, and it definitely makes for a heck of a story now.
Back To Nashville With His Dignity Intact
Kip explained that he did feel bad for everyone who was working that day, and he wanted to go back in and apologize to everyone and explain why he was leaving:
And said, ‘Here’s what’s about to happen. I’m walking in there. I’m gonna let everyone know I’m sorry they’re here, and this is a massive misunderstanding.’ But I’m gonna buy me a ticket home for this evening, I’ll be on the next flight. And I walked inside, and I said, Hey guys.’ They’re all standing around, like, what’s going on.
I said, ‘I’m really sorry, I don’t want y’all to think that I’m just some kind of jerk, I’m not, but I didn’t sign up for this. I’ve been a little bamboozled, and this ain’t gonna happen with me. I apologize.’ And I walked out. And that was that. I flew back to Nashville.”
He says that his marketing guy took care of it, and they found another artist to do the gig, so it all ended up working out in the end:
“They took care of it, luckily, the guy running the marketing still, I love him, he’s great. He kinda had my back in that moment. He said ‘We’ll get somebody else on it. and they did. They got somebody who would play the game fast, and somebody successful, and they got out there and they did that thing.”
It’s pretty shocking that he didn’t get immediately dropped by his label for something like that, honestly, because he obviously was not as accomplished as he is now… this was very early into his career.
But it’s decisions like that which has given him the reputation as an artist who doesn’t kowtow to the powers that be and makes the music he truly believe in.
To walk away from a nearly seven-figure check when you get your first big break like this… you’d be hard-pressed to find another artist in the entire music industry whose done something like that.
@inthetrencheswithspidey SOUL WAS NOT FOR SALE — One of our favorite stories to date about how Kip Moore turned down money for the sake of his own dignity 💯 #podcast #music #musicindustry #kipmoore ♬ original sound – In The Trenches Podcast
The full podcast is available below.
