Justin Moore Celebrates Memorial Day With Two Star-Studded Performances

Justin Moore will celebrate Memorial Day with not one, but two star-studded performances this weekend. The singer will perform for the PBS Memorial Day Concert on Sunday, May 26, joining artists like Patti LaBelle, Gavin DeGraw, Alison Krauss and more. He will then head to Washington, D.C. to perform for the 15th Annual National Memorial Day Parade on Monday, May 27, joining celebrities like Dennis Quaid, Kiefer Sutherland, among others.

At both shows, Moore will perform his current hit, “The Ones That Didn’t Make Me Back Home,” from his upcoming Late Nights and Longnecks album.

“It’s pretty special,” Moore told PopCulture.com. “Especially when you consider the song that we have out right now and the opportunity that we have to showcase it on this particular holiday. This song was written and recorded in honor of the men and women who this holiday represents. So it’s cool and fun, exciting. The fact that there’s such a great list of folks that are also performing just makes it even cooler.”

Moore is especially looking forward to meeting Quaid and Sutherland, but he is mindful that the biggest reason for these shows is to pay tribute to those who serve with his hit song.

“Somebody told me that they were really good guys,” Moore said. “So I look forward to hopefully having the opportunity to meet them. Again, kind of same as the concerts. Just to have the opportunity for this song to be heard in that setting is special. And I feel blessed to get a chance to do it, for sure, and excited about it.”

It’s fitting that Moore is performing “The Ones That Didn’t Make It Back Home” for the patriotic events, since the song was inspired by both of his grandfathers, who served in World War II.

“One in the Navy and one in the Air Force and then I had a ton of cousins and that kind of stuff,” Moore told PopCulture.com. “Really my grandfathers were the ones that influenced me to be cognizant about being very appreciative and respectful of our men and women who serve and have served.”

The Arkansas native decided to write “The Ones That Didn’t Make It Back Home,” after paying tribute to those in the military, as he does during all of his shows, with one of his earlier hits, “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away.”

“I always talk about our military as we set that song up in concert,” Moore said. “I’ve done it for eight years and I always talk about our service men and women and teachers and nurses and police officers and firefighters. And for eight years now, I’ve always ended that whole spiel with, ‘We’ll send it out to the ones that didn’t make it back home.’ I don’t know why it took me seven years, or eight years, to realize that’s the song title, but one night, on stage, I just said it and I go, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s a song.’”

For more information on Moore’s weekend performances, visit PBS.org for the Memorial Day Concert, or AmericanVeteransCenter.org for the Memorial Day Parade.