Justin Moore + Priscilla Block’s ‘You, Me and Whiskey’ Duet Was Born Out of Mutual Fandom [Listen]
It all started earlier in 2022, when Justin Moore and Priscilla Block were booked to play the same acoustic radio show in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Block was coming into the lineup as a new artist who didn't have any hits yet, which made her standout performance all the more impressive to Moore, a longtime radio stalwart with years under his belt in the country music business.
"Back when I was doing those shows as a new artist, I was intimidated by them," Moore tells Taste of Country, pointing out that it's tough as an up-and-coming act to play on a bill alongside artists with a catalog of No. 1 hits. "And I'm going, 'Man, no one wants to see me here.' But I have to say this: Priscilla stole the show. Quite honestly. No one cared what [I] or whomever else was doing onstage, because Priscilla was so captivating and so great with the audience."
So when he got the demo of "You, Me and Whiskey" a little while afterwards and started thinking about potential duet partners, Block was the first person on his mind.
"I thought, 'Man, I wonder if I could get Priscilla to jump on this with me.' And for whatever reason, she said yes," he continues.
Block had made an impression on Moore at that radio show, and it turned out that he'd made an impression on her, too.
"After the show, Justin came up to me and just kind of made a point of saying hi, and he was like, 'If there's anything I can do for you, let me know,'" she explains. "It was just a really cool moment, because that doesn't always happen."
Plus, she already knew and loved his music. Long before Block started having viral success with songs like "Thick Thighs" and "Just About Over You," the singer was a country fan — and she loved Moore's music.
"And a couple of months later, they called me and asked, 'Hey, do you wanna get on this song?' I was freaking out," she remembers. "No one's ever asked me to do a duet. So that was huge. And when I listened to the song — anything I'm gonna jump on, I really wanna make sure that it feels like me, and feels authentic, and when I listened to it, it was an immediate 'yes.'"
Moore and Block might feel a little bit like an odd couple as duet partners — they had very different entry points into country music, with Moore being a longtime mainstay at country radio and Block coming into stardom via social media and viral songs — but Moore says they actually have a lot of things in common.
"Drinking, for one," he jokes.
"Oh my God," Priscilla replies, with a laugh.
But in all seriousness, "I'm a little more reserved than she is, probably, but I like to pick on people and make people laugh. I feel like Priscilla has that quality about her as well," Moore continues.
As a follow-up to his last No. 1 hit, "With a Woman You Love," "You, Me and Whiskey" serves as the next single off of Moore's upcoming album. That project, which hasn't yet been titled, is due out sometime in 2023.