Corey Kent’s ‘Empty Words’ Got His Full Attention, Becoming His Second Current Single: ‘It Was Like a Twist of the Knife’
Categoria: Musica
Billboard's Makin' Tracks column looks at the writing and recording behind Corey Kent's "Empty Words."
Por Billboard | 16/07/2026
When the Country Radio Seminar encouraged stations to step outside accepted norms during a March 19 panel — “The Disruptors: What if YOU Took a Risk?” — Bonneville/Denver director of operations Brian Michel challenged attendees to play Corey Kent ’s “Empty Words.” Kent’s collaboration with Koe Wetzel, “Rocky Mountain Low,” was still new to the top 20 on Billboard ’s Country Airplay, and RCA wasn’t working “Empty Words” as a single. That didn’t matter; Michel heard a hit, and the song defied Kent’s own expectations, giving him two concurrent releases. “We had Denver, Nashville, Dallas — like, big, big markets — adding it before we asked them to add it,” Kent remembers. “We didn’t anticipate it being a radio single, and some of the biggest markets in country music were playing it.” Programmers weren’t the only ones who responded. Concert-goers reacted with intensity. “It just became an accidental sing-along,” Kent says. “I mean, people are screaming this song. I never, in my wildest dreams, imagined people would want to hear this much soul in a country record, you know. But the people love it.” “Empty Words” provided the final word when he co-wrote it on Jan. 21, 2025. It was the last day of a four-day songwriting retreat in which Kent had hosted six writers at La Rosa Ranch, a family property that allowed him to work close enough to home that he could spend time with his kids every night. For most of the trip, the writers split into groups of three, and Kent would drift between the two trios as they wrote different songs. But when two of his guests had to leave a day early, Kent spent the last day writing in one room with all four remaining composers: Joybeth Taylor (“Choosin’ Texas,” “Weren’t for the Wind”), Matt Roy (“Done,” “Wait Til You Have Kids”), Lydia Vaughan (“Don’t Tell on Me,” “Bar None”) and writer-producer Austin Goodloe (“I Can’t Love You Anymore,” “Rocky Mountain Low”). They wrote “Motorbike” in the morning, then tried to generate one more song before dinner. There’s some disagreement about where the “Empty Words” title came from — four of the five were mentioned as the potential source. Goodloe then brought up a track on a lark. He’d created it with a handful of instruments prior to the retreat with a verse in a minor key, shifting into a brighter, major-key chorus. “I basically had a session by myself for a song that didn’t exist,” he says, “but I knew that the vibe felt great.” Kent had previously written a song with “empty bed” imagery that never quite jelled, but that paired well with “Empty Words.” Once they fit them together to form the hook — “I’m in this empty bed/ ‘Cause she’s over empty words” — they started building the verses. “Anytime you have a great hook, we know what to do with the song,” Taylor says. “Sometimes when you’re searching, it just takes a minute, and you land on something, but with that one, I kind of feel like we all knew where to go with it.” Kent introduced a first line that emphasizes the guy’s isola