Texas native Randall King has been putting his stamp on country music with his latest album, ‘Into the Neon’. The 18-song collection showcases King’s distinct southern drawl, particularly in hits like ‘When My Baby’s In Boots’ and ‘Burns Like Her’, as well as his talent as a songwriter in tracks like the album’s opener, ‘One Night Dance’ and ‘But It Ain’t’.

Performing at The Long Road festival in Leicestershire, UK, King’s latest single off the album, ‘I Could Be That Rain,’ was so very fitting as he took to the stage during one of the many downpours across the British festival weekend. 

As the winds picked up and the rain teased bigger showers, King and I stood amongst the grounds of Stanford Hall – hats tipped against the gusts – to chat about his UK tour, his latest album and the beautiful story behind his earlier track, ‘Another Bullet’.

This is not your first time in the UK is it?
No ma’am, this is our third time.

And how do you find the UK crowds compared to the states?
I love ‘em, man. Here, it’s definitely more of a listening crowd as far as like, they’re paying attention, their eyes never leave you, they’re engaged, they’re watching what you do, listening to what you say. In The States a lot of the time it’s definitely “show me something…what you got for me boy,” you know what I’m saying? It’s a little harder to work The States sometimes, like it’s easier to come out here and play songs because they’re excited to be in engaged. It’s cool!

It’s not just background music for us.
Oh yeah.

So talk to us about your latest music.
So, we dropped an 18-song record called ‘Into The Neon’, but it’s a lot of songs, man, 18 songs. We dropped that out in January and have been touring on it over in The States – actually we’ve been touring on it even in Canada, Mexico and now here in the UK. We just finished five dates from Norway, to Sweden, to Copenhagen, up there in Denmark and Amsterdam and Germany. 

I’ve heard that Denmark is quite big into country, how were the European crowds?
Yeah, they were wild. The first three nights was Norway, Sweden and Denmark, they were smaller crowds but boy were they mighty. 

And next weekend you’re doing the British Country Music Festival
Yes, ma’am, right there in Blackpool, it’s gonna be fun.

And I saw your video with Twinnie with your accents!
Ah I did my best. I was a little off my game on that one. She nailed it. All you gotta do is put the accent up here in your top cheek and just drawl it and slur it and you’ll get it.

I’m not going to try…I’ll practice that later.
(laughs) Can’t wait to hear your version.

OK my two favourite questions to ask – favourite song to play and hardest song to write
(thinks for a little bit) My favourite song to play out right now is probably a song called ‘Somewhere Over Us’ – it’s one of the few that I wrote on this record. I’ve got six songs out of 18 that I actually had a hand in writing. It’s one of my favourites, man, it just grooves, it feels great, and it probably means a little bit more to me just for the fact that I wrote it.

The hardest song to write…there’s a song called ‘Another Bullet’ which is on my first EP ever that I did. It was the first music I ever put out. That song took me six months to write. I was travelling across Texas doing radio tour all the way back in 2015, had my old ’95 GMC that I had in high school, and I was running the roads in Texas on it, putting 300000 miles on that bad boy. But running across the state, man, Texas is inspiring, it’s my home, my roots, there’s lots of love just within the scenery. It inspired a lot. 

There’s a story about an old cowboy by the name Tom Blasingame that worked on The Goodnight Ranch up in Amarillo. He was the last known Cattle Drive cowboy. He saw the end of the era for the old-school cowboy. He saw the fences go up, he saw the ranches die out and die off and the big industry come in, he saw the electricity come in. The guy was born in the back end of an era that he loved. But he lived on The Goodnight Ranch in an old shack, no electricity and his wife lived in town and he’d go see her but he lived the cowboy way of life out there, so I wrote a song about that. It was just inspiring. But it took six months, it was a long time – it was a hard write. 

Did you just have a bit and then couldn’t fill it in or?
Yeah so, my uncle sent me an article based on it – my whole family on my daddy’s side writes poetry – so he goes, “I think I can write a better song than you,” and I said, “you do?” and he goes, “I’m gonna take you on a challenge to see if you can do it.” So, we had to have a common ground to write about so he goes, “I want you to write off this article, I’ll write a song, you write a song, see who’s is better”. I kicked his ass. 

And I hear you’re big into your lego? The boys were just telling me.
Yeah! Is that what’s going around now? Randall King big cowboy nerd! Yeah man I love my legos…but they’re expensive!

Maybe you need your own lego merch.
My merch guy is gonna listen to this and he’ll have ten different inspirations…maybe Randall King little figurines. I’m down, let’s go! (he laughs)

‘On December 27, 1989, after working for the JA for 73 years, Thomas Everett Blasingame climbed off his horse Ruidosa, stretched out on the grass, folded his arms across his chest and died.’ 

http://www.ranches.org/tom_blasingame.htm