{"id":1318124,"date":"2020-02-07T08:46:45","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T15:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1817586"},"modified":"2020-02-07T08:46:45","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T15:46:45","slug":"ryan-hurd-the-backstage-qa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/music-news\/ryan-hurd-the-backstage-qa\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Hurd: The Backstage Q&A"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by Alison Bonaguro<\/a><\/span>
\n56m ago<\/span>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

There\u2019s usually a little bit of down time between an artist\u2019s sound check and the actual show, and on Thursday afternoon (Feb. 6), I had the chance to use that time wisely by talking with Ryan Hurd about everything going on in his music, his new goals, and his life with his wife Maren Morris. <\/p>\n

We sat down at Nashville\u2019s Cannery Ballroom, before the sold-out crowd arrived and packed the place. The show was, in some ways, just another stop on his Platonic tour. But then again, Hurd considers Nashville his hometown now, and hometown crowds just hit different. <\/p>\n

Our conversation went something like this.<\/p>\n

CMT.com: I know you\u2019ve come to think of Nashville as your new home, so it probably feels different to play for so many people you know so well. Does it feel different in a good way, or not so good?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hurd: Well, your whole record company is here, and all the people you work with, so that just makes it feel like it\u2019s less of a party. But you definitely kind of measure yourself against these shows. Like last year we did the Exit\/In and sold that out. And tonight we\u2019re doing the Cannery \u2014 which is at least two times as big \u2014 and we sold this out. When your record company gets to see you do that, you can kind of mark your progress with Nashville shows. So this is really gratifying. <\/p>\n

Do you do anything differently with the vibe of the show, considering the audience? <\/strong><\/p>\n

No, but you have to keep in mind that you\u2019re working two things at a show like tonight\u2019s: a crowd that actually just came to see you perform, and then the labels, the publishers and the agents. In fact, there are some artists who don\u2019t even play Nashville because of that. Miranda (Lambert) hadn\u2019t done it in like six years. Maybe eight years. Because it\u2019s a lot of work. And yet this was the first date we booked. We\u2019ve played shows on this tour before this one, so now it feels like the rehearsals are over and let\u2019s go do this. <\/p>\n

And now you\u2019re the one going on last, after Joey Hyde and Niko Moon. After being on some pretty big tours as an opener, it must feel way different when you\u2019re headlining. Tell me about that.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s scarier, for sure. Like even with ticket sales. I still don\u2019t think anyone\u2019s gonna come tonight. They bought tickets, sure, and it\u2019s sold out, but I\u2019m still like, \u201cMan, what if they found something better to do?\u201d But I think our show itself is so cool. When you open for people, you\u2019re doing a very specific job and you can have those moments with crowd with a hit song that connects. But you\u2019re just there to warm the crowd up for someone else. So when it\u2019s your own crowd \u2014 whether it\u2019s 200 or 20,000 people \u2014 there\u2019s nothing like that. You don\u2019t have to win them over. You just have to show up and be yourself and play the songs they already know and love. The people who come tonight will know every single song I\u2019ve put out, not just \u201cTo A T.\u201d So the ones here tonight are fans of my writing, my new songs and my old songs. <\/p>\n

Ah yes. \u201cTo a T.\u201d The sexiest song on the radio right now. Or maybe ever. <\/strong><\/p>\n

It is. And it\u2019s really strange to me that my biggest hit so far isn\u2019t slamming, you know? It\u2019s not like a super uptempo one that hammers the crowd. It\u2019s not super singalongable, if that makes sense. There\u2019s no real place for the crowd to sing with you, and yet as soon as we start playing it, everyone\u2019s phones go up and people get really excited. That is obviously really cool for me.<\/p>\n

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