Justin Moore Tour 'Exciting But Scary'

Posted Feb 27th 2013 9:30AM by Gayle Thompson
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Justin Moore is only a few weeks away from launching his first headlining tour, dubbed the Outlaws Like Me Tour. The Arkansas native, who honed his performance skills by opening for Brad Paisley, Eric Church, Rascal Flatts, Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert, says it feels strange to finally be the one in charge.

"It's exciting but scary," he tells The Boot. "We've been lucky to go out with just about every major tour that's been in the last few years, with the exception of a few, but we've learned a lot from everybody. We've had a lot of great opportunities out there, playing for a lot of fans. For whatever reason, we've continued to have a lot of success at radio. We've had six pretty big hit records in a row now, and sold two gold albums. We thought this would be the time to jump out there and try it."

The 28-year-old has already discovered one downside of launching his own tour, however.

"It's expensive!" he says. "When I went out with other people, if we didn't sell enough tickets, I could blame it on them. Now it's all my fault. Thankfully, our pre-sales have gone really well, so we don't have to worry about that too much. It's got my name on it. It's been a lot of fun to go through all the big details and little details and put it all together. This is what we all really dream of doing, is going out and having your name on the marquee."

Justin hand-picked his two opening acts, Dustin Lynch and Jon Pardi, for the first leg of his tour. "[Dustin's] having great success right now," he explains. "We're actually managed by the same manger, so we know each other pretty well. He's opened quite a few shows for us over the years, so we're excited to have him. Jon Pardi I don't know personally, but I'm a fan of his music. We're looking forward to having him out there and knowing him better."

Even though Justin is excited to kick off his Outlaws Like Me tour next month, he admits he is dreading being away from his wife, Kate and two daughters, 3-year-old Ella Kole and 1-year-old Kennedy Faye.

"That's the only part of this job that is tough is being away from home and the family. I'm fortunate that we can bring the wife and the kids out on the road. I have my own bus, so they come out every couple weeks or so, which makes it much easier to be away from home. When I am home, I don't do anything but hang with them. You make the most of the time you have."

The Outlaws Like Me trek kicks off March 14. See a list of Justin's upcoming shows here.

Watch Justin's ''Til My Last Day' (Live) Video