Mo Pitney has had a big 2015, including his first Opry performance, headlining shows across the country, a top 40 single, getting engaged and being hand picked to open for Rascal Flatts on the fall leg of the Riot tour. With New England Country Music given the opportunity to catch his first night opening for the major arena tour, we jumped at another chance to interview the young star, for the second time this year.
In the spring, Rolling Stone magazine listed Pitney as one of ‘2015 New Country Artists You Need To Know,’ a huge honor for such a fresh face in the industry, to which Pitney was very humble for the achievement, but also took it with a grain of salt. “It was amazing to see it, I tell people that I don’t live for that, those moments, but when they happen it’s just one of those wow moments that it’s kind of strange that somebody would acknowledge me for my music, but my main goal is to play music that I like and if the other stuff follows then you feel proud.”
When I had sat down last with Pitney, the single ‘Country’ was just making it’s debut, and he was travelling around on a radio tour, but since then he’s translated all of that hard work into a top 40 song, peaking at number 33, which Mo calls amazing. “For it to go that high is just amazing. A lot of people came to me after it peaked, because we were releasing the next single ‘Boy and a Girl Thing,’ and said that it didn’t go as high as they had hoped. I don’t know if I had any hopes, so any success for any of my songs is absolutely amazing. It’s crazy that as high as it went I can go to these shows and see people in the front singing these songs, imagine if it got to 20, how many more people would be singing it.” With ‘Country’ and ‘Boy and a Girl Thing’ being released and more to come, Pitney says that an increase in performances has been the major outcome. “We’ve been pretty busy, around three or four shows a week. While there’s definitely people more busy than we are, we’re definitely ramping up. That’s what radio brought, as well as a fan increase, but the only way that I can gauge that is fans singing in the audience, and that definitely increases every time that I play somewhere.”
The last time that Mo performed at the Mohegan Sun Casino, it was at a much different venue, the 300-seat bar-stage with free admission and Mo admitted to it being weird in the very beginning. “The sound check was very strange with the venue in the middle of the main casino room. The people from the casino were just leaning over the edge, which turned into a mini performance of Merle Haggard music that people were requesting while we were up there. It was a really cool night, the sound was really good, and I vividly remember some of the fans there that night.” Making the jump from the small stage to the ACM award winning 10,000 seat arena might come as an intimidating task, but Mo couldn’t have been more excited. “When they told me that we were going back, at first I thought we were playing the same stage. For actually a couple weeks I thought that, until they told me that we were playing the big stage, which was just awesome. This is one of the first few places this size that I’ve played and it’s always been great, so I’m glad that they asked me to come back and do it.”
If you follow Mo on any of his social media accounts, then you’re familiar with ‘Mo Monday,’ a segment on Mondays where Mo will upload a live performance. Pitney has really been thankful for the opportunity to further interact with his fans. “It was actually my label’s idea to record a bunch of videos at random. Sometimes I’ll sit around and record some on my phone. We did a couple in a studio playing a bunch of covers, then we did an Opry performance. All it really is, is live recorded music videos that we post each Monday, totally at random, and it’s been cool! A lot of people have dug it and I get a lot of good comments and shares.”
On the first night opening for such a prestigious band as Rascal Flatts on a major arena tour, Mo told me that it was the highest honor, especially from a band that he had never even met yet! “It was kind of the same as the moment we were told we’d be playing the big stage. I thought we’d be doing a small headlining show, then we were told it was an opening gig for Rascal Flatts and I had never even met those guys. We had played for a couple of other artists but never anything like this. We’re just really excited to see what happens out there, mostly optimistic about the big crowd that they will bring, and us getting a chance to mooch off of it!” With so much under his belt in such a short amount of time, it seems hard to imagine finding a time to release a full length album, but Mo told us that his fans won’t have to wait too much longer. “Hopefully the first part of the year, January or February, is what we’re shooting for. I’ve actually got the whole album recorded, we’ve just got to get all the artwork and everything finished in time for the label.” Less than an hour later Mo took the stage for 10,000 screaming fans. All of the hard work and dedication over the past year were on full display, leaving everybody wanting more from the rising star.