Artist

When Justin Moore tells his fans that he’s “proud to be from small town USA.” it is from the heart. The Poyen, Arkansas native grew up in a town with a population of 272. A sign with that declaration sits in his grandparents’ front yard. He graduated from high school with 37 classmates.

So how does a kid from a town that small work his way up to Music Row, a record deal and eventual stardom as a country music singer touring with the biggest acts in country music today? How does it happen that one of the first songs he writes in Nashville winds up hitting #1 on the Country charts? How does the kid from the small town follow that with two subsequent smashes? The answer lies in the just-released “If Heaven Wasn’t so Far Away,” from his upcoming sophomore album. The song is his fastest-rising single to date and the video for the song has already zoomed to the #1 slot at iTunes.

In an industry often populated by manufactured personas, Justin Moore has always been true to himself, in both the way he lives and in the songs he writes. When he sings about growing up in Poyen in his first #1 hit, “Small Town USA” and how “some people called it prison when [he] was growin’ up, but these are [his] roots and this is what [he] love[s],” he means every word of it.

When he sings about a “rifle in a gun rack hanging in the back glass” from his hit single, “Backwoods,” that’s the way it is in his hometown where he learned to hunt and fish from his grandpa “PaPa,” Tom Moore, and how to tend to the cattle and work the fields from his grandpa “Pa,” Charles Webb.

He had the type of childhood most people would envy, encompassed with loving grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins on both sides of the family tree as well as lifelong friends to share Sunday meals with after church, summers fishing on the lake and ball games on Friday nights.

His parents Tommy Ray and Charlene Moore first noticed he could sing on key and memorize songs in almost an instant when he was just two years old. They had the “scratching-the-head” moments of “is this real or do we think he’s good because he’s our son?” But once he started being asked to sing all the solos in church on Sundays, Tommy Ray and Charlene realized what other people had already started noticing – Justin had a special gift.

As he moved through high school as an outstanding athlete in both basketball and baseball, he was undecided about his career path: music or sports. With a sports scholarship offer, he decided to give college a try. Two weeks into college he knew his true calling was in music – and with his parents’ support and blessing – it was decided he should “change majors.”

He made the move to Nashville at the young age of 18, buoyed by the urging of his now-manager Pete Hartung. They met with up-and-coming producer/songwriter Jeremy Stover and soon Justin and Jeremy realized that they had both found the perfect fit. Once the twosome has written and produced the songs they thought they needed, they went to Scott Borchetta, President & CEO of the Big Machine Label Group, who would help turn Justin’s lifelong dream into a reality. Scott offered Justin a record deal, and in August of 2009, they released his debut album, JUSTIN MOORE, on The Valory Music Co. label.

It was an exciting time for Justin as he spent all of 2009 and 2010 touring with the biggest names in country music, including Trace Adkins, Hank Williams Jr., Lynyrd Skynyrd, Brad Paisley, Brooks and Dunn, Miranda Lambert and Darius Rucker.

Proving to be just as impactful in 2011, he has locked down the opening slot on the Rascal Flatts’ summer tour in support of the new album, OUTLAWS LIKE ME. Justin wrote 11 of the album’s 13 tracks, including the title cut, “Outlaws Like Me.” He will also resume his touring with Miranda Lambert, Darius Rucker and Blake Shelton later in the year.