As we all know, music makes an impact on folks, a lot bigger impact than the artists who create them even realize. When Kip Moore was headlining his CMT Up in Smoke Tour, he was approached by a fan, telling the singer-songwriter his music helped him during a very dark and turbulent time.

“I had a Marine come up to me after one of the shows and tell me my Up All Night record actually was the only thing that gave him peace as he was camped out in some really rough place where they’d been under fire for a while, and he had his headphones in at this little place they were hiding out, and that record was what gave him peace,” says Kip. “It’s a wild thing to know that my thoughts and pen to paper and those dark places that I wrote those songs – not knowing if anyone was going to hear them – can have that kind of impact on somebody’s life.”

Kip’s new single, “I’m to Blame,” is being shipped to radio on Monday (official ADD date is February 2nd).

Kip Moore and his brothers would go on fishing trips with their dad around Christmas before the elder Moore passed away a couple of years ago, and it was always one of his favorite traditions. Another one of his favorite traditions was watching movies with his family on Christmas Eve.

“The night before Christmas, we would rent a bunch of movies,” says Kip. “My dad would take us to the store, the video store and we would rent a bunch of movies and we’d watch them all through the night. That was always a thing that we’d look forward to was all hanging out together and laugh until 3 or 4 or 5 in the morning, then waking up two hours later for the presents.”

The Georgia native will launch 2015 with more headlining dates kicking off January 27th in Missoula, Montana. In the meantime, he’s nominated for Breakthrough Artist of the Year at the inaugural ACC Awards, airing live at 8pm ET on FOX.
 

Kip Moore (Christmas) OC: …fishing trips. [laughs] 1:06
“Growing up, the night before Christmas, we would rent a bunch of movies. My dad would take us to the store, the video store and we would rent a bunch of movies and we’d watch them all through the night. That was always a thing that we’d look forward to was all hanging out together and laugh until 3 or 4 or 5 in the morning, then waking up two hours later for the presents. I hope that I can carry that out when I have a family – I’m still a little ways away from that. [laughs] But, I hope, there comes a time for that when I can, you know, I think all of the video stores will be gone by then, so I guess that’ll be a Netflix night, but hopefully I can do that kind of stuff. I really miss it bad going on the fishing trips. I grew up going on tons of fishing trips with my dad and brothers, and usually the holidays were a time to get to do that again, and I hope I can be half as awesome as my dad was with us, and knowing how much he worked taking the time to take us on those fishing trips. I hope I can get the chance to do that with, I might even include my future wife on the fishing trips.” [laughs heartily]

Kip Moore and Scotty McCreery are among the artists announced as presenters for the American Country Countdown Awards. They’re joined by Kix Brooks, Sara Evans, Hunter Hayes, Chris Young, Thomas Rhett, Chase Rice, Cole Swindell and Maddie & Tae, along with Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Terry Crews, The Walking Dead’s Emily Kinney, NASCAR’s Jimmie Johnson, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw and Miss America 2015 Kira Kazantsev. The show will air live from Nashville’s Music City Center December 15th at 8pm ET on FOX.

Darius Rucker will perform during this year’s Christmas in Washington special, airing December 19th at 8pm ET on TNT. Hunter Hayes, Rita Ora, Christina Perri and Aloe Blacc also are set to perform. Dwayne “The Rock“ Johnson will host the show.

Sam Hunt is headed to the Super Bowl to perform during the DIRECTV Super Fan Festival. The three-day event will take place in Phoenix, Arizona and also include performances by Zac Brown Band, Thomas Rhett, The Cadillac Three, Imagine Dragons, Snoop Dogg and more.

This year’s CMA Country Christmas, featuring performances by Little Big Town, Brett Eldredge, Hunter Hayes, Carrie Underwood, Michael W. Smith, Brad Paisley with Stephen Tyler, Dan + Shay, as well as the show’s host Jennifer Nettles and Idina Menzel, will re-air Saturday, December 20th at 9pm ET on ABC.