I’m not sure there are many artists that would willingly turn down performing at the AFC Championship halftime show… but Kip Moore did it.
Kip 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 really doesn’t give a s***. And that’s exactly what resonates with his uber-dedicated fan base.
It’s a quality that certainly comes through in his music, and while, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why he has never been a massive mainstream success in the states, he is a huge deal overseas in places like South Africa and Australia, which is pretty dang cool. They’ve got taste, that’s for sure.
And Kip has told many stories about things he’s turned down over the years due to the fact that it didn’t feel authentic to him. The infamous Pop-Tarts commercial story is a perfect example, declining to be on The B achelor is another, and during appearance on The Stephan Hogan Podcast, he told a story I’ve never heard before. He turned down another well-paying gig, one that’s not quite as embarrassing as Pop Tarts or dating reality TV…. playing the AFC Championship Halftime Show over ten years ago now.
It was 2016 or so, when his career was really hot thanks to the success of Wild Ones and his debut record Up All Night, but it got to be too much when he was working seven days a week, not getting any sleep, and Kip admits he was in a “very dark place” as a result.
So he decided to take some time for himself, and he told his manager not to book him for two months every winter:
“2014, 15-ish, I was in the darkest mental state I’d ever been in. And it’s hard to explain to someone… you know, people just go, ‘Oh, you get to play music every night. There’s just, it’s so much more than that. Number one, the bus is nice, but it’s still a moving trailer going down the road. And I’ve always been a light sleeper, so I’m lucky, I’m getting 4 to 5 hours.
And back then I was going through this extreme insomnia, where 48 would go go by, I wouldn’t even close my eyes. Like, literally wouldn’t close my eyes. It was like I couldn’t settle down. It was seven days a week, never sleeping and I truly felt like I was on the verge of like a psychiatric… I just suppressed all of it, you know, I wouldn’t talk to anybody about it. Come like 2016, I just called manager, I said, ‘Man, this is enough of this. I’m not doing this anymore, like, I’m having some really, really dark thoughts.’
And I just said, ‘You know, I love to surf. I wanna get good at it, and I’m gonna start bouncing every winter. So don’t book me.’ And he’s like, ‘Man, that’s awesome. We’ll talk about it.’ And I said, ‘We’re talking about it now. If you book a show, I won’t be there.’ And I’ll never forget, and I’ve told the store before maybe once or twice, but it’s true.”
To this day, Kip spends most of his winter surfing in Hawaii, Costa Rica, California, and other popular surf spots.
Of course, not long after that, Kip got a call while on vacation in Costa Rica, and it was his manager telling him they had a six-figure deal on the table for him to headline the AFC championship halftime show. But Kip realized in that moment that there would always be some sort of “carrot” dangling in front of him, and if he let money be his god, he would never be fulfilled:
“I remember being in a café, the first time that I was taking time off in Costa Rica since everything is taken off in 2011 or 12. I remember sitting in this café, and I’d been there for two or three days. And I’d already surfed that morning, it was around 10 o’clock and I was having coffee and I got a call. It was my manager saying, ‘I know you said that you’re not coming home for two month, but we’ve got an offer to do the halftime show for the AFC championship.’
And I had that moment, because he also told me what the pay was, and it was the biggest payday that I’ve ever seen. It was a big six figure payday, and I had that moment of, what are you gonna do, Kip? Like, the carrot, it’s gonna always be in front of you. Are you gonna let money be your god, kind of thing. I had already made my mind up… I felt like something like this was gonna happen.
And I spent maybe three seconds pondering, and I said ‘Yeah, the problem is, I’m having coffee right now.’ And you can feel the pause… ‘What do you mean? I said, ‘I’m having coffee, so I won’t be there.’ Hangs up. Two days later, same thing, I get a call, ‘They upped it 50.’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s nice, but the problem is, is I’m in that same coffee shop having coffee again.’ And he hung up, and that was it.”
It was a “pivotal moment” in his career, and he’s run it the same way ever since:
“We were super close, we were good buddies, and he finally understood once we kinda had a talk about it after. I said, ‘Man, there’s always gonna be something, you know. If I don’t take this time for myself, I’m no good for nobody. Mainly myself.
So that was that was a pivotal moment where I made my mind up of, I’m not gonna keep chasing the dragon.”
Not only would it be hard to turn down that kind of money, but to turn down that kind of exposure for such a massive game, aside from the Super Bowl, the AFC and NFC championship games are the biggest NFL games of the year, and get insane ratings, so I have no doubt it would’ve been good for his career even without the massive payday factored in (which surely made it that much harder to turn down).
But he stuck to his guns, so to speak, and it sounds like he’s never regretted it for a second… which only goes to show that he made the right decisions. I don’t think it’s one any other artist, or person for that matter, would make, but it speaks to his character and why he’s one of the most authentic mainstream country artists doing it right now.
Check out the full podcast here:
Kip Moore Tour Dates
August 20 – Cincinnati, OH – The Andrew J Brady Music Center *
August 21 – Chicago, IL – The Salt Shed *
August 22 – Sterling Heights, MI – Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill *
September 10 – Charleston, SC – Firefly Distillery *
September 11 – Charlotte, NC – Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre *
September 12 – Richmond, VA – Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront *
October 17 – Pretoria, ZA – SuperSport Park Stadium
October 23 – Cape Town, ZA – GrandWest Arena
October 24 – Cape Town, ZA – GrandWest Arena
October 30 – Melbourne, AU – The Forum
October 31 – Melbourne, AU – The Forum
November 6 – Brisbane, AU – The Fortitude Music Hall
November 7 – Brisbane, AU – The Fortitude Music Hall
November 13 – Sydney, AU – The Enmore Theatre
November 14 – Sydney, AU – The Enmore Theatre
November 21 – Christchurch, NZ – Christchurch Town Hall
November 22 – Auckland, NZ – Auckland Town Hall
^ – with Cody Johnson
* – Billy Currington & Kip Moore: Live In Concert
** with Jackson Dean
# – Festival
