Billy Currington Talks Growth, Nostalgia, And His New Album, ‘King Of The World’

Billy Currington’s new album, King of the World, feels like a full-circle moment. It offers a mix of nostalgia, heart, and an easygoing groove that’s always been part of his sound. At the same time, however, the 10 tracks represent the growth that the country hitmaker has experienced throughout the last two decades of his career in country music.

The album’s creation itself was a bit unexpected. Speaking with Country Now, Currington explained that one day in Nashville, he reconnected with producer Carson Chamberlain for the first time in nearly 10 years. They got to catching up about their lives and any future plans and eventually came to the conclusion that they needed to work together again.

Needless to say, it was their reunion that sparked the idea to get back into the studio together. They got started small, first just with a few tracks and slowly, more and more began to pile on, signaling to them that they were on their way to building a full-length project.

“That’s how it really got started and we just love the process of being back together so much and we decided, yeah, let’s finish this thing. So we made the whole album. It took us three years to find time to get together and all that, but here we are three years later putting it out,” Currington explained.

Their approach was to scan through the hundreds of tunes Currington has stacked up over the years, many of which lean into the traditional country sound. And while it wasn’t easy, he was able to narrow down a no-skip collection of 10 tracks that simply felt right.

The title track, “King of The World,” turned out to be one of the songs that stemmed from that bottomless catolog. He revealed it was pitched to him about 10 years ago by the sole writer, Troy Jones. Currington always knew that he would record that song, but that opportunity didn’t come until he joined forces once again with Chamberlain.

“I don’t know, just felt like ‘King of the World’ was perfect for our new project that we were working on…it’s got the groove, it’s got the tempo, it’s got the sentiment of the whole song, the story. I always felt positive every time I would ever listen to it. I’m glad we laid it down. I thought it turned out very well.”

The product of his work with Chamberlain is a project that spans a mix of songs that Currington co-wrote alongside legendary songwriters and handpicked outside cuts that all reflect his mission of staying true to his coastal roots and evoking nostalgia for his listeners. Some of his hitmaking co-writers include Dean Dillon and Scotty Emerick with additional contributions from Corey Crowder, Johnny Clawson, Ben Hayslip, and others.

“That’s the word I think of, nostolgia. When you hear the song ‘Old School,’ it takes me back to those days and ‘Burnin’ The Midnight Gasoline,’ back to the days of heartbreak, just driving around not knowing what to do, where to go and how to fix this. And I don’t know, it was just, one song led to the next,” he admitted.

The first two singles born from the album were “One Thing I Ain’t Been” and the title track “King of the World.” These tunes gave fans just a small preview of the remaining summertime anthems and soon-to-be hits that appear on the project, such as “Run For My Whiskey,” “Burnin’ The Midnight Gasoline,” and “Bourbon Sunset.”

Produced by Carson Chamberlain, this 10-track project serves as Currington’s seventh studio album after dropping Intuition in 2021. These new songs join Billy Currington’s impressive catalog, which already includes 12 No. 1 singles and two Platinum albums.

With so much success already behind him, King of the World finds Currington returning to where it all started.

“I feel like ‘King of the World’ is a way to just, it ended up back to my roots in some way where I kind of first started working with the same producer, same engineer that I did on the first five albums that I ever got to make from Mercury Records,” he said reflecting on his catolog. “I don’t know, it just feels nostalgic in some way, just back in time and loving every minute of it. It feels like we’ve never even got off track in any way.”

After a summer on the road, Billy Currington has officially wrapped up his year of touring and doesn’t plan to return to stages until next spring. When that time comes, he will finally get the chance to showcase some of the new songs into his live shows.

King Of The World Tracklist

1. King Of The World (Troy Jones)
2. Run For My Whiskey (Thomas Archer, Corey Crowder, Ben Hayslip)
3. Old School (Billy Currington, Scotty Emerick, Dean Dillon)
4. Burnin’ The Midnight Gasoline (Dean Dillon, Scotty Emerick, Jeff Hyde)
5. One Thing I Ain’t Been (Johnny Clawson, Chase McDaniel, Steve Moakler)
6. Georgia in Alabama (Paul Overstreet, Shane Stevens)
7. Anchor Man (Scotty Emerick, Paul Overstreet)
8. Bourbon Sunset (Billy Currington, Dean Dillon, Scotty Emerick)
9. Southern Star (Brent Cobb, Adam Hood)
10. Solid Gold (Miles Miller)