Raised on the plains of West Texas, Randall King honed his craft with countless nights spent strumming his guitar under expansive skies, backlit by the stars’ neon glow. Flash forward to today, and King’s road warrior diet finds him revitalising Country’s neo-traditional sound under a different kind of neon – the radiant glow from the signs of nearly 150 honky tonks he performs in across the country each year. It’s no wonder he called his new album ‘Into the Neon’! It came out two weeks ago and our review of it can be found at the link here.
We were thrilled to catch up with him to talk all about it.
Thank you for your time today Randall, we know how busy you are. Congratulations on the new album. Have you been pleased with the reaction to it?
Absolutely, man. It’s a record we’ve been working on for a long time, the biggest record I’ve ever done at 18 songs! I’m so glad it’s out and I was thrilled to see it hit number one on iTunes and number 7 on the All-Genre chart too.
We last spoke face to face at your show in London last Autumn when you told me the album was going to be called ‘Into the Neon.’ Can you elaborate on what the concept of ‘Into the Neon’ is and why you chose it as the album title?
Yeah. You were the first person I told that to and I wasn’t supposed to say anything. (laughing) Man, in my mind, ‘Into the Neon’ is a depiction of where we are now in Country music, we’re in the ‘Neon’ era right now. If you watch the pendulum of Country music, for the last ten years or so it’s been in a different place with a more Pop and Hip Hop culture but it’s now swung back over into the neon era now with guys like Cody Johnson, Zach Top, Parker McCollum and Jon Pardi doing so well.
The neon era, to me, is urban cowboy personified. It’s that 1980s honky tonk bar sound – neon lights, smoke and beer bottles.
Did you see the ‘Neon Era’ coming down the line or has it taken you by surprise?
Country music always shifts. The younger me wishes that it would have happened a little earlier maybe, but here we are! (laughing) It’s perfect timing right now.
Yeah, I spoke to both Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen last year and they both, separately, said that they wish it had come earlier too!
Yeah. The fans were always there it’s just taken a minute for the industry to catch back up with them.
Do you think ‘Yellowstone’ has something to do with the traditional sound and the neon era being back in fashion?
Absolutely, man. That show is built for the average American. The 9 to 5’ers. Even if they aren’t ranchers or in that world, the average person feels at home watching it. That show has taken over the world because it just appeals to normal people, wherever they live.
You’ve already mentioned ‘Into the Neon’ is your biggest album at 18 songs. Did you have a large pool of songs up your sleeve to choose from?
I have a ton that I’d written that didn’t make it on there this time. I have a few in my back pocket for the next one already! There were so many songs that came our way that we had to work out if they fitted our sound or not and were a good representation of me. There was probably about 150 songs up for consideration for the album in total and we were only supposed to only have 15 but we ended up with extra studio time and were able to squeeze 3 extra ones onto the album!
Which song did you have tucked away for the longest time and what were the songs that made it on by the seat of their pants then?
The three that we cut at the last minute were ‘As Far as We Go,’ ‘But It Ain’t’ and ‘Good Feelin.’ They were sitting there in my back pocket and almost didn’t make it on to the finished album! The one that has been sitting around the longest was probably the title track, ‘Into the Neon,’ I wrote that back in 2021 before we even released ‘Shot Glass.’
‘Shot Glass’ had been cut and recorded and I wrote ‘Into the Neon’ and ‘But It Ain’t’ back then too. They’ve been both around for a minute. ‘Into the Neon’ was always my plan and my choice for the title of the next record after ‘Shot Glass.’ I’ve held onto it for the right time and waited till we got it where we wanted it to be and that time was now.
The mark of any great artist is how they evolve from album to album and I can hear the evolution from ‘Shot Glass’ to ‘Into the Neon.’ How do you feel you’ve grown as a writer and an artist from your last album?
I think the biggest thing for me has been the growth and development of my vocals. They have really come into their own in the last couple of years. Part of that has been giving up whiskey. Once I quit drinking whiskey everything kinda just opened up a little more for me. The growth in sonics has been a thing and the intelligence behind the writing of the songs too – we took a lot of chances on this record that we didn’t take on ‘Shot Glass.’
I cut more outside songs on this project and took more chances in the studio too. I took a page out of Garth Brooks’ book. He once said he did ‘controversial’ things when he recorded albums and it made him scared and I wanted to do the same thing. If you are not nervous about the record you are about to release then you haven’t taken big enough risks or chances and I was a little nervous this time around. It’s edgier, it’s darker than ‘Shot Glass’ but I think people are enjoying that.
You’ve touched on giving up whiskey which you address directly on album closer, ‘I Don’t Whiskey Anymore.’ Were you nervous about including that song in terms of so much of what you do is in the nighttime industry? Bars, honky tonks and alcohol are all intertwined.
That song is bigger than I am. I wrote it for me because it is my story but there are a lot of people that have reached out to me to tell me their stories around the same issue. A lot of folks think I’ve quit drinking full time but I didn’t quit drinking – I just quit drinking whiskey! Being sober is a whole higher level than what I’ve done – people that are sober are a tougher, stronger breed than I am, man.
I really love ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ which was written by Nate Smith and Mitchell Tenpenny. What drew you to that track and have you had feedback from those two boys on it?
Yeah, man. Tenpenny texted me to say how much he loved the song. They had written it for Nate and he was due to cut it but it ended up not making it onto his project and they pitched it to me and I thought we could make it something special, a real Brooks & Dunn style honky tonk song. And that’s exactly what we did! That song is the beer clinking part of the ‘Neon’ concept!
There are a number of great guitar solos on the album. Clean, clear, almost rock-leaning guitars solos. Was that one of those progressions or chances that you took whilst making the album?
Yeah, absolutely. A guy named Saul did most all of ‘Shot Glass’ and my ‘Honky Tonk Bullshit’ EP. We loved his guitar sound, man. When we went into the studio with my producer Jared Conrad this time around we cut four tracks to see how it would sound. He brought in a new guitar player and we left Saul on the bench. Time to take chances and see what comes of it, right? ‘Green Eyes Blue’ was the first track we did with Jared that we put out and it’s got this heavy baritone guitar sound that reminded me of someone like Gary Allan. I loved that.
When we went into cut the rest of record I said to Jared, ‘Let’s go bigger here and open up the budget and get Saul and the new guy in to combine both their sounds together.’ Add in some steel guitar as well and we found our sound for this record!
The biggest problem you are going to have with ‘Into the Neon’ is choosing what songs to take to radio, which is a nice problem to have, right?
It sure is! (laughing) A lot of it will have to do with numbers and streaming so we are going to sit back and watch for a while and see which songs take off with folks off the bat. The focus track on the record is going to be ‘I Could be That Rain,’ that is a big song.
‘Right Things Right’ is a special song, too. That’s the story of me and my daddy. Me from the age of 16 years old and my daddy giving me advice. I was blessed with growing up and having a great father…… don’t get me wrong, he can be a little turd-ass sometimes (laughing) but I love him! I see that song as my future and my growth as an artist.
Is there a hidden gem on the album that might go under the radar the first few listens because there are some big, loud, attention-grabbing songs on ‘Into the Neon’? I was going to say it could be ‘I Could be That Rain’ until you said it was going to be the focus track!
I think the sleeper on the record that is going to surprise people is ‘As Far as We Go.’ That’s the one that almost didn’t make the record. In the final choice it came down to that or ‘Hang of Hangin’ On’ to make it on there and I chose the latter because it sounded like a Keith Whitely dance hall song and I wanted that on there and I love singing it.
It was tough for me to pass up on ‘As Far as We Go,’ it’s an incredible song so I’m so pleased that we managed to get it on there and I really think it is going to do great things.
When do you think we might see you back in the UK – there’s a big buzz about you over here right now.
I think it might be sooner than you guys think! We’re over in Germany and the Netherlands in March but we were just over with you guys last September so I don’t want to force my music down people’s throats too much, we need to step back and let it breathe a little for now.
We are aiming to be back in September again if we can and then hopefully C2C 2025 if we’re lucky but we’ve got some cards up our sleeve, don’t you worry!
