Kent to perform Saturday, July 20, at Golden Nugget in Lake Charles
He has the small-town boyish charm from his birth city, Bixby, Oklahoma, yet possesses the big-city energy of Dallas, Texas, with vocal prowess that rivals Nashville’s best – Corey Kent.
Growing up influenced by various genres and artists, Kent started his journey in music at an early age. Taking the stage at age 11 as the lead singer for a touring Western Swing band, Corey hit early career milestones opening for legendary acts like Roy Clark and The Oak Ridge Boys. A few years later, he would be booking gigs around his hometown of Bixby and by 17 he made his way to Nashville.
With a publishing deal in hand, the pandemic closed the entertainment world, which caused Kent to return to Texas to find a different style of work – manual labor – as in pouring concrete. With light at the end of the tunnel, Kent released his first music in the form of an LP, “From the West,” that garnered more than 3 million streams. He followed that up with songs like “Gold” and “Ain’t My Day,” which amassed 15 million streams combined.
Next came an independent sophomore record in 2021 that included the hit, “There’s Always next Year.” But then starts aligned for Kent.
It was March 4, 2022, when Kent released the song, “Wild as Her,” that caught all the eyes and ears of the industry’s heavy hitters, including Sony Music Nashville, who immediately signed him to their label RCA Nashville.
Kent’s song soared to No. 1 on the country charts and along came opportunities to perform on tour with the likes of Parker McCollum and Cody Johnson.
The 30-year-old Kent granted us an exclusive interview June 21, on his birthday no less, which was also the day his newest single dropped – “Never Again” – that will be on his forthcoming album “Black Bandana” to be released Sept. 6.
Corey Kent
Golden Nugget Lake Charles, Louisiana
Saturday, July 20, 8 p.m.
Tickets: $20-$35 online at goldennugget.com.
Q: First off, happy birthday. Now tell me that the new song drop was planned on your birthday. It’s an incredible song. ‘Never Again’ seems to tell a very personal story.
A: Yeah, it’s real personal and it hits close to home with me. When my wife and I met we were 18. We were in college and started dating. It was kind of one of the things where everybody knew we were dating, but we were in denial. We moved along quick. We got engaged 89 days later and then got married, then about 89 days after that we found out we were having our first baby girl and I’ll never forget it. I was in the Detroit airport when she told me. So, the song came from this idea about getting married and having kids – the idea of having to do ‘XYZ’ before I do that. What I learned in life is that nobody is really ready. You can say you have the dream house, perfect car, you just aren’t ready. At 22 years old we found out we’re having our first, I was nowhere near ready. And I remember emotions so vividly, so I just tried to wrap them into a song. It goes on to talk about real life, real love and what I call ‘real loss,’ which is losing somebody that you really love. My favorite country songs are ones that seem to have a real storyline, but with the storyline that you can put your own story into it. My favorite songs withstand the test of time like ‘The Good Stuff’ by Kenny Chesney and some of those Eric Church songs. They were relevant then and they will be relevant 20 years from now.
Q: What can you tell us about your new record?
A: The record is called ‘Black Bandana’ and if you know me, you know that I’ve always got a black bandana in my back pocket or around my neck. It has become a staple thing that I carry with me and it’s symbolic. I feel like it’s kind of just planting a flag in the sand – this is who I am, and this is what I’m about. This is what the brand Corey Kent will be for the next 25 years. Essentially, my path has been winding up and down, winding valleys with a lot of ‘Nos’ and even working at a pavement company three years ago when the world was shut down. The black bandana has become symbolic for when everybody else gives up because it’s too tough, just stay the course and never give up hope and you never say die. This record has this underlying theme of relentless perseverance. Some songs reflect that and some of them are just a good time, but they all sonically wrapped up in that message.
Q: Did you have any indication that your first song, ‘Wild as Her,’ would become a massive hit?
A: No. You never know what the public is going to love versus what I love. I love what I do, I just hope that it’s received well, and I feel like that’s how you must operate as an artist. But I knew something was special about this song when my whole team – my band, my crew, my manager – along with a camera guy saw us rehearsing the song and their jaws hit the floor. We all began going back and forth in an email thread and they all thought this was magical. They all said, ‘This is it. This is your thing.’ It definitely had a lot of energy and excitement about it.
Q: For those who have never seen Corey Kent perform live, what can they expect?
A: Live music is why I play music. People may play music because they love to write songs or they love the recording studio, but that’s not my story. My story is I grew up playing live, I grew up playing Western Swing, so this is what I live to breath and do. I think there is a different level of passion when we take the stage. This is why we play music – it’s a healthy competition. I told Jason Aldean when we were on his tour, ‘It’s my job to try to be better than you.’ He replied, ‘I wouldn’t have it no other way.’ When we play with Aldean, Parker or Cody Johnson, we know we must step up and put on a great show. It’s our job to make the fans think we should be the headliner.
For more information, view coreykentofficial.com
Complete audio interview with Corey Kent:
Chad Cooper is the Entertainment Editor. Contact at cooper@theexaminer.com.