For today’s Pre-Boom, we highlight Justin Moore, who comes from Poyen, Arkansas. Most people will recognize Justin from his hit song last year, “Back That Thing Up,” or from his current hit “Small Town USA,” which is from his upcoming self-titled album that releases this August. Hit the jump below to check out part of an interview that Today’s Country Magazine had with Justin.

Below is an interview that Today’s Country Magazine had with Justin Moore recently. To check out the rest of the interview, click here to visit their site.

You recently released “Small Town USA” as your single, what can you tell people about it that have never heard the song yet?

I wrote that song 7 years ago when I was missing my mama’s home cookin’ when I first moved to Nashville. I grew up in the south and I think when you grow up in the south you have this perception that there are only rednecks in the south, but this past year we had the opportunity to go on the road with some big acts and we went to the north and west and I quickly realized that there are small towns everywhere. I think the song talks about that small town life, but it has evolved into more of a frame of mind of being proud of where you are at what you have.

Why do you feel that this was the perfect follow-up to “Back That Thing Up?”

The struggles with a new artist are to put an identity with your music. A lot of times a new artist will have a song out on the radio and people will say “hey I like that song, who is that?” With “Back That Thing Up” I think people got an idea that we were not serious and all we liked to do was have fun. With “Small Town USA,” when we were out on our radio tour I was telling people about how I came up and where I came from and we started thinking that was the exact same story that I wrote in “Small Town USA.” We did this thing on the website where fans got to vote on the songs that made the record and that one got the most votes out of all of them. It is also the perfect song for where the economy and our nation is at right now because it speaks to the working class.

Besides the singles, which song of yours is your personal favorite and why?

My favorite song that I have ever written, and I have been writing for seven years, is a song called “Grandpa.” I was always a real big fan of the Randy Travis song “He Walked On Water” that he wrote about his grandpa and I always wanted to write a song like that one. Where I grew up the important things were hunting, fishing, Friday night sports, church, and family, and with the family stuff I had always been really close to both of my grandpa’s. One of them taught me how to hunt, the other taught me how to fish, and I recently found out that one of them has been diagnosed with cancer so the song means that much more to me now. I got to play that song on the Grand Ole Opry recently with both of my grandpa’s there.

You also found a really unique way to create your album by doing a contest of sorts called “So You Want To Be A Record Executive,” back in October. Can you tell people about the contest and were you surprised by any of the outcomes?

Well I kept bringing songs into my record label and saying this one needs to be on the album, this one needs to be on the album. Scott Borchetta, the head of the label said to me, “Justin, we aren’t going to put out a box set for your first album.” So what we did was posted two songs on the website each week for fans to hear and vote on.

Yes, there were a few surprises. “White Nights and Long Necks,” was a song I wrote that I really liked that didn’t make the cut, but “Grandpa” was the most surprising for me as far as the votes went. I knew that the song was really personal to me and I had never wrote one that personal before so to see people like that so much was surprising.

Why did you decide to take part in this year’s CRS?

It was really cool for me this year. Last year I was at CRS, but it was my first time there and I was really overwhelmed with everything, but this year was fun. I had been on a radio tour for the past 7 or 8 months and it was a chance for me to see all of my buddies and catch up with them. CRS is a great event for us and for the radio people and we can let them know what we are up to. It is really laid back and is a good hang. We also were able to play a full band show at Fuel this year with Kate & Kacey and I saw some radio people there, which was cool. All of that plus you get to see artists that you friends with that you haven’t seen in a while.

Now that the event has come to an end, how do you think being there is going to benefit you the most going forward?

I think there are a lot of folks that are doing what I’m doing and a lot of great new artists. Country music is very cool because you can become friends with people in the industry and at the radio and I have. I call up radio people to talk with them about stuff and when you are friends with people I believe they want to help you out.

Stay tuned for tomorrow, when we will post up a feature on Keith Anderson, another artist performing at Red, White & Boom! this Saturday, July 4th. Keith will be on from 6:45pm to 8:00pm right before Hank Williams Jr.