Jesse DeflorioPhillip Phillips is currently out on a headlining tour in support of his long-awaited third album, Collateral. Now that he has three albums’ worth of material to perform, he can change his set every night, but he says one thing will remain the same: He refuses to save his biggest hit for last.
Phillip’s first hit, “Home,” is definitely his best-known track, but as he tells ABC Radio, he’s not one of those artists who makes the audience wait all night to hear it.
“I don’t put it last [in the set] for sure,” he laughs. “I try to put it maybe in between the middle and the ending — leave like three, four songs after it, y’know what I mean? I try not to end with it — ’cause that’s just lame.”
And Phillip says he enjoys teasing the audience if they start shouting out for the song, too.
“Oh yeah, people yell it out, ‘Home!’ or “Gone [Gone Gone],’ or whatever,” he laughs. “I’ll be like, ‘Settle down, this is my show, you relax and have a good time’…and just mess with people!”
All teasing aside, though, Phillip is glad to hear from his fans…backstage, at his meet-and-greets before the show. He says that’s when he gets to hear just how his music has affected them.
“I mean, they tell me what songs help them through their life,” he explains. “There’s a song called ‘Tell Me a Story’ that people tell me about that, that I wrote, that they love.”
He adds, “Yeah, they tell me all kinda things, that are crazy and nice and ridiculous and nuts and strange and fun and all that good stuff!”
Phillip’s tour is currently scheduled to wrap up April 14 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
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