Like every other touring artist, Chris Janson had his world rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I will never forget getting a phone call from my agent, and every one of our tour dates getting the rug pulled out,” the singer tells Billboard. “Scary as hell, one of the scariest moments of my life.”
It was March 2020, and artists across the country genre were preparing to ramp up for their summer tours. But in the span of just a few days, those plans all folded, and Chris wasn’t sure when he’d see the stage again.
“People look at me as a man of faith, and I am, but I lost faith for a minute,” he admits. “I was scared.”
Chris shared his fears with fans in real time. That April, he shared an unreleased song he’d written called “Put Me Back to Work,” detailing the plight of working men and women who found themselves suddenly, indefinitely out of a job during the pandemic — and had nothing to do but wait it out and watch their bank accounts dwindle.
But now, as he looks toward the Friday release of his new album, All In, Chris says that some aspects of his work really thrived during the pandemic. He tells Billboard that about half of the album was written over Zoom and FaceTime, describing it as “the best album-making process I’ve had” and explaining that “It was efficient and I was able to write with so many people.”
Ahead of the album, Chris has shared songs like “Bye Mom,” “Things You Can’t Live Without” and the title track.
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