Corey Kent’s ‘Empty Words’ Got His Full Attention, Becoming His Second Current Single: ‘It Was Like a Twist of the Knife’

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.”

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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.”