Justin Moore on Working with Blake Shelton

Few things are stronger than Country music friendships -   Justin Moore and Blake Shelton being a great example. During his appearance on the Superstar Power Hour with Audacy’s Katie Neal this week, Justin Moore opened up about how much Blake Shelton has helped him with his career and regularly puts friendship over stardom. “He’s always been really, really go to me,” Moore said of his longtime friendship with Shelton. “I went on tour with him, man, it was probably back in ’10, ’11, ’12, something like that and he’s always been really kind to me.” Beyond their time on the road together, Justin credits one almost-cancelled appearance on NBC’s The Voice for showing him the level of commitment Blake had to their friendship. “I was on The Voice in — I think it was maybe 2014 or something. Long story short, I was supposed to be on and they had to cancel for — I don’t know if it was another artist — but, what ever happened and he went to them and goes, ‘You’re gonna have Justin on. I called him and asked him to be on — you’re gonna have him on.'” He continued, “I was on the finale, actually, which was huge at the time for us and that was all his doing. I say that to say, he is probably the most unaffected superstar I’ve ever met. He’s really just a super nice guy.” Their friendship is also just as strong out of the spotlight, says Justin who calls Shelton a “nut.” “He’s a nut. Some of our text threads are — we couldn’t put them out — they’re pretty funny,” Justin laughed. While they may not be able to release the texts, what they did release is a brand new song together featured on Justin’s new album, This Is My Dirt, available now. “I sent him a text and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got this song.’ I actually sent him two songs and I said, ‘which one do you want to do?’ He goes, ‘Let’s do the beer one,’” Justin recalled, laughing. “I go, ‘That’s what I figured you’d pick.’ For him to do that, he don’t have to do that.” Blake wasn’t the only Country pal who fans can hear featured on the album — Justin also shared his gratitude for long time friends, Randy Houser and Dierks Bentley who appear on “The Worst” and “Time’s Ticking,” respectively. “Same with Randy [Houser] and Dierks [Bentley],” Justin continued. “For them to lend their talents and time and energy to this project is really cool.” Words by Monica Rivera Interview by Katie Neal