Billy Currington Talks About His New Album ‘King of the World’

This week on Backstage Country with Elaina Smith, Billy Currington isn’t just kicking back and co-hosting; he’s officially claiming his throne with his latest album, King of the World.  

King of the World is Currington’s first album in four years. Smith asked him when he started working on it and he responded that he started working on it four years ago and finished it three years ago. He also shared that he messaged producer Carson Chamberlain after not talking to him for 10 years to invite him to lunch. “So we did, and we just started talking like, ‘Hey, I've got so many country, traditional type songs stacked up from either songs I've written or found through the town or people have sent me that I feel like you and me would be best to record these songs, what do you think?’ He said, ‘If it's country, I'll do it.’”  

He added, “And so we had a lot of good laughs and called up and got right back to it and went in the studio and recorded. ‘Anchor Man’ was our first song. And maybe another one, ‘City Don't,’ that's what it was. It was two songs, and that started the album. And so here we are.”  

Smith got curious as to why Currington only released King of the World this year, and Currington got real, saying, “I think it kind of just got shelved. Maybe who was running the label at the time wasn't interested. I don't know, I eventually stopped calling. You know what I mean? When you [feel] worn out? I just moved on to writing more songs and starting to think what I was going to do, where I'm going, what type of album I'm going to make next. Then out of the blue, we got somebody new running the label, and he calls me up, and he's like, ‘Hey, there's a new chief in town. Let's put this album out.’”  

He added, “I really appreciated it. It was a very thankful moment.” Although he said that he did not hear from him again. “That was just one time!” He chuckled, “He's like, ‘Let's go do your thing!’ And that's what we've been doing. I'm lucky to have such a great management team and just so many people around me that take care of all these things that get things moving. They just had to get the word from the chief. And here we are.”  

Don't miss Billy Currington co-hosting Backstage Country from October 27-31! Listen to his latest album here.