See Kip Moore’s Stripped-Down ‘Running for You’ on ‘The Talk’

Kip Moore’s singles tend to be slow burners, making their way up the chart in their own unhurried manner. The Georgia native’s fans, on the other hand, tend to be pretty intensely devoted.

Moore recalled a recent encounter during a visit to The Talk on CBS, explaining to co-hosts Sharon Osbourne and Julie Chen that he’d been rushed mid-song by a woman at one of his shows. His eyes were closed so he didn’t notice her approaching in hug formation.

“I felt the mic slam into my mouth, and I chipped the bottom of my tooth,” said Moore. “But you know what? It adds character. Now I’ve got stories.”

Moore also played a stripped-down version of his current single “Running for You,” a ballad from his album Wild Ones. Where the album version starts small and swells to cinematic grandeur, this version excels by restraint. Normally animated, Moore perches on a stool while steady piano chords and low-in-the-mix electric guitar build a rhythmic foundation for him. Despite the softer musical surroundings, Moore sings with the same intensity as his louder songs, suggesting he knows just one way to do it: from the heart.

“I was always drawn to powerful voices that made me feel something,” he tells Rolling Stone Country. “People that had grit and tone in their voice. I’ve never been a fan of a really pretty singer. Even pretty female voices. I’ve always been more drawn to people like Stevie Nicks who had grit and heartache in there.” 

Moore will be taking his own grit and heartache international in 2016. Following a few headlining dates in February, he’ll head to Australia in early March for festival dates and then to Europe in late April for another round of shows. In mid-May, he joins Miranda Lambert and Brothers Osborne for a summer tour of amphitheaters and pavilions.