Corey Kent Discusses 'Blacktop' and the Success of "Wild As Her"

If you’ve tuned in to any country radio station within the last few months, you’ve most likely heard rising singer Corey Kent’s breakout smash “Wild As Her.” The track was his first single to be sent to radio stations and climbed steadily before becoming the Oklahoma native’s first number-one atop the country airplay charts. Only a few years ago, Kent was still working at a pavement company to provide for his family after the pandemic struck. Now, his label debut record Blacktop is out.

Kent grew up being inspired by Garth Brooks: a fellow Oklahoma boy whose success felt close to home. “That was my rock and roll hero as a kid because he was somebody that was tangible. That guy grew up right down the street from where we did,” he notes. Kent started his own musical journey playing in a Western swing band which gave him hours upon hours learning the craft of stage presence and how to play live. In his time with the band, he opened for country legends like Roy Clark, The Oak Ridge Boys, and more.

As the band started to fizzle out, Kent was the youngest member, he faced a crossroads of restarting as a solo artist or just going back to being a kid. “That’s the night Wille Nelson came through town and I ended up on stage playing a western swing song with Willie,” shares Kent. “That was the night where I was like, ‘Okay, clearly I’m supposed to be doing this.’”

He graduated high school and moved to Tennessee to learn the craft of songwriting while sleeping in his car and couch surfing. He got a deal to write for other people; he thought that was his dream. “I found out that wasn’t what I wanted to do at all," Kent exclaims, "I wanted to write songs for me and travel across the country and play them.” That realization led him and his family to Texas where he played live music as much as he could.

Photo by Matthew Berinato

When the pandemic hit, music was no longer a way for Kent to provide for his wife and three kids. He ended up working at pavement companies and motorcycle shops. "Wild As Her," written by Kelly Archer, Brett Tyler, and country megastar Morgan Wallen, changed everything for him. "When I went into the studio to record this song I was still working at a pavement company and that is part of why the record’s called Blacktop. It is a piece of work that started at one place and transitioned me from working at a pavement company to being on the road full-time," Kent shares. "‘Wild As Her’ really was the cornerstone song that made all that possible.” The tune received over 70 million streams within the first four months of its release and caught the attention of the Nashville music industry. Kent ended up signing his record deal in July 2022 with Sony Music.

What followed was Kent releasing singles in preparation for a full-length LP. One of those songs, "Man of the House," was inspired by Kent's mom and is arguably his most personal song to date. He describes it as, “An unintentional therapeutic song. It was me wrestling with some stuff I’ve never put into words before. I’ve never been able to articulate the way that I felt growing up and I’ve never really thought about it." Initially, he didn’t think he’d release it until people on his team and around him said they could relate to it. He decided to put a teaser out. “The response was novels of people’s real-life stories. That meant a lot to me. It made me feel seen.”

Another focus track is the upbeat, full-of-life track "Something's Gonna Kill Me" which was inspired by one of the singer-songwriter's favorite phrases "Get busy living or get busy dying.” It was one of Kent's most anticipated songs to put out into the world. “It’s like a realization of your time down here on earth is pretty short and everything comes with a risk. You’ve gotta figure out what risks are worth taking to you,” he exclaims excitedly. To him, those things are riding fast motorcycles and smoking cigars with his friends on a porch. “This song is rebellious in nature. It’s being unapologetically yourself and doing the things that bring you enjoyment.”

Blacktop aims to set Kent apart from the large crop of rising country acts on the scene. With fast-paced tempos and undeniable grit, Kent wants to carve his own path and stay genuine. “To me, the goal is to be an individual. I believe that I’ve created something that wouldn’t be authentic if someone else sang it and that’s how I know it’s authentic to me. And that’s really important to me and the Red Dirt and Texas scene that I grew up in.”

"I think a lot of times, country fans like to put a box around an artist and think that they have them all figured out. For me, I feel like I have a lot of different layers," he says with a sense of fervor. “I want people to expand their view of what people can be. That’s everybody right?”

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