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'! Our review of it can be found at the link here.
We were thrilled to catch up with Randall at this year's Long Road festival deep in the heart of rural England!
Thanks for giving us your time, today, Randall – we know what a busy guy you are. How's the trip so far?
Great, man. I flew in August 16th to Oslo. I had to get three flights! Nashville to Atlanta, Atlanta to Amsterdam then Amsterdam to Oslo! We played a set last night back in Amsterdam, got off the stage when we were done, packed our bags around 3.30am in the hotel and caught a flight over to the UK this morning so I've had about two hours sleep! The coffee is doing everything it needs to do today! (laughing)
Thank you for coming back! You know that you have a solid fan base over here because you have put the time in to build it from the ground up.
Absolutely! That's what you have to do. There are some of the best fans in the world over here, they show up, they bring the energy and we love them.
Do you change your approach or set when you are playing a festival compared to playing your own headline shows at all?
Yeah, it depends. Some festivals are different depending on where you are. Over here, there's a big listening culture happening. People here like to party and have fun but they also like to listen and dig into the lyrics too. Back in the USA you might need to be a little different and keep the energy higher whereas over here we might play a couple of acoustic songs, maybe dig into some deeper cuts too.
When we last talked around the release of ‘Into the Neon' I kept telling you that ‘Right Things Right' was the radio single single but you were insistent it was ‘I Could Be That Rain.' Congratulations because I guess you were right! (laughing)
It could still be ‘Right Things Right' too! Who says we won't send both to radio? Since we sent ‘I Could be That Rain' to radio it was the most added song in release week. We closed Texas on the very first day, which is unheard of. We've been working Texas for a long time but they have shown the full love for us with that song on the radio.
In your dreams – Is it a top 10, top 20, top 30? What's your expectations for it?
Right now? Getting it into the top 20 is the goal. If we can get it into the top 10 that would be awesome. In every artist's mind, every song they release should be a number one, right? At this point in the game right now, we just want to be part of the conversation, especially when it comes to radio. ‘I Could be That Rain' is a powerful, beautiful song with a different vibe that suits radio completely.
You've been relentlessly playing shows since ‘Into the Neon' came out. Is there one show or venue you've played that stands out above all the others at all?
That's a tough question! Dude, to be honest with you, last night in Amsterdam was one of my top 5 shows, ever! It was unreal man. We got two encores and the fans just wouldn't quit. We had such a blast with them and it was one of those moments where you felt like everything was there, it was natural, a dream show. It was sold out and it was an absolute blast.
Tell me about the Kingfests you've got organised in Texas and Nashville.
Man, we've built Kingfest in Texas. We held it in Luckenback in Texas for three years and this year we moved it to Floores in San Antonio which is a legendary venue with about a 6,500 cap. With Luckenback we'd reached capacity so we decided to move it to a bigger spot. Last year we moved it to Nashville for the first time too. Eventually we'll branch it out and it will become a bigger business, for sure.
If you could hold a Kingfest here in the UK, which would go down a storm, I can tell you, who would you bring over to play it with you?
That's hard, man. There's some good dudes out there. If we are just bringing Texan artists over, I'd bring my boy Braxton Keith, I'd love to bring Jake Worthington over with us too, he's one of my favourite people. Maybe my buddy Josh Ward too. At that point we could go off the rails a little bit and bring somebody legendary over with us like Wade Bowen, that would be cool.
Wade is going to be over here supporting Carly Pearce in February which is awesome. An odd pairing but awesome.
I think he's just signed a new record deal with Miranda Lambert and the Big Loud Texas imprint, I think. I might be wrong? Which is brilliant on her part because you have a goldmine with Wade Bowen just sitting there. My favourite record of his will always be ‘The Given' from 2012. Him on the cover standing on that old '86? Dude, that record was unbelievable. ‘Before These Walls Were Blue' is still one of my favourite songs.
Randy Rogers has just released the 20th anniversary of ‘Rollercoaster.' He'd be a good guy to bring over too.
That's wild, man. They are both great friends of mine. Wade started playing in the same place that me and another band at this festival, Flatland Cavalry, started playing at. We all started at the Blue Light Live in Lubbock, Texas. Wade was the first one to break out of the Blue Light.
You've been teasing new music on your Instagram recently, playing a new song. Is there something coming before the end of the year maybe?
As far as radio goes, we'll be working ‘I Could Be That Rain' for the foreseeable future but over here? That might be a little bit different. I wrote a song with a band called Seafret and my buddy Steve Robson, who is a massive songwriter over here and in the states too.
When we came over here for the C2C festival I took a week and stayed with Steve and we got some great songs out of it. Really cool, laid back 70s meets traditional country type of vibe. The song we are looking at releasing is called ‘Live it Young.' We sat there vibing together, playing instruments and spitting lyrics and that song came out of it. I'm going to try and get the band to come out on stage with me at the festival in Blackpool at the weekend and we might play it. Then we'll build up some momentum behind it and then we'll put it out.
Randall King is out on tour in the UK right now and also headlining the British Country Music festival in Blackpool this weekend. Tickets here.
