So, How Was Your 2020? is a series in which our favourite entertainers answer our questionnaire about the music, culture and memorable moments that shaped their year. We’ll be rolling these pieces out throughout December.
Kip Moore typically spends a big portion of any year on tour, so in 2020 he had to make adjustments and learn to sit still for long stretches of time. Central to that process was BedRock, Moore’s rock-climbing cabin for outdoor explorers in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge, where he stayed in isolation for several months.
Even so, Moore managed to release his fourth album, Wild World, in May, a project that featured the Top 20 single “She’s Mine” and more of his Springsteen-gone-emo spin on country music. In our 2020 survey, the Georgia native reflects on his new carpentry hobby, the survival tricks of Bear Grylls, and his hope for people to replace online antagonism with actual thoughtful discussion.
The album I listened to the most in 2020 was:
Sam Fender’s Hypersonic Missiles. His phrasing and vocal texture really blew me away.
My favorite TV show to stream during quarantine was:
I watched quite a few nature shows on Netflix. I needed a mindless release that offered a bit of hope and beauty. I also needed to be reminded of how small we are in the grand scheme of things.
The song that will define “2020” for me is:
“All That Heaven Will Allow” by Bruce Springsteen. I renovated my house this year during quarantine and I must have played it a million times.
I’d define my current state of mind as:
A bit dark at times with a forced hopefulness. Not an answer you wanted, I’m sure, but honest. I feel our phones have taken us into this really strange antagonistic approach to everything and I don’t know how that gets better if it’s only going more that way.
The old-favourite album I returned to for comfort this year was:
Bruce Springsteen’s Tunnel Of Love. My favourite Bruce record.
The old-favourite movie I returned to for comfort this year was:
Good Will Hunting… How ‘bout them apples.
A new hobby I picked up in quarantine was:
Carpentry. My friend Dan Couch is amazing and taught me a ton about putting in walls, ceilings, building bed frames. You name it, we did it.
The celebrity I’d most want to quarantine with is:
Probably Bear Grylls so I could learn a few survival tricks.
The most interesting thing I learned to cook during quarantine was:
Blackened salmon.
The best book I read in quarantine was:
The Brothers of Auschwitz.
Something positive that happened to me that nobody noticed was:
I got more creative than ever, put a studio in my house and made a record no one has heard.
The mistake I learned the most from this year was:
Nothing I didn’t already know. I knew to never live beyond my means; that would have been a catastrophic mistake, but simplicity has served me well. I mean, I guess I could say having TP stocked but hell, there’s always the woods!
The biggest hero of 2020 was:
For me personally, my hero of 2020 wasn’t a person but a place: BedRock, the rock-climbing lodge we built in Kentucky. That place was a mental life-saver!
A word or phrase I never want to hear again is:
Social distancing.
The thing I’m least looking forward to in 2021 is:
Staying in this quarantine for more months.
The thing I’m most looking forward to doing when the pandemic is over is:
Shaking hands and seeing expressions.
My biggest hope for 2021 is:
That we stop with our antagonistic approach to every situation. We stop cancelling each other. We stop feeding into the bullshit division. We do our research on what the news, Instagram and other social media outlets feed us before we start spouting off. We learn empathy and realize we are all from different walks of life and that we will never all see eye to eye on every matter and that’s okay.
From Rolling Stone US
