After the release of his latest album, Betty James Gold Edition, there’s no doubt Jimmie Allen has some superstar friends. With nine incredible duets featuring Jimmie, alongside fellow stand-out musicians, the album is intended to mix things up and represent various genres.
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“I just wanted to reach out and work with some of my favorite artists in different genres and purposely have an album that each song sounded completely different,” Allen told Audacy’s Coop. “I made this album from a fan’s perspective because I’m a fan of music. There’s no music listener that just listens to one genre of music all day. So I figured why should I make an album that’s the same from top to bottom? It was fun making it.”
The track list features collaborations with artists including Keith Urban, Pitbull, Noah Cyrus, Mickey Guyton, Rita Wilson, Brad Paisley and more. Country group, Little Big Town, and R&B artist, Monica also make an appearance on the album as part of one of the most talked-about tracks, “Pray.”
“‘Pray’ is something [I] feel like we all go through in our life,” said Jimmie. “At some point, something happens, or something is about to happen and you reach out to someone bigger than you. Whether that’s God, the Universe, or whatever, you find yourself praying to something or someone… we all go through it, and that’s OK. That’s kinda what this song is letting you know… we all find ourselves down and we all pray at some point.”
While Jimmie is celebrating the release of the new album and all the hard work, he also seems to be taking some time to “play hard” with some of his famous friends. Jimmie shared he regularly enjoys early morning fishing with Country artist Travis Denning, LANCO drummer, Tripp Howell, and Parmalee frontman, Matt Thomas. He’s also a part of a bowling team with Country personality and artist, Chick Wicks.
“We’re having a blast!,” Jimmie said, despite the story he shared of Matt getting a fish hook stuck in his finger. “He pulled a Luke Bryan! We ain’t scared [though], we’ll be back out there tomorrow.”
One of Jimmie’s newest friends appears to be Elton John, who was shown in a photo posted to Jimmie’s Instagram last month. Despite being one of Jimmie’s biggest role models, he seems to have kept it “pretty cool.”
“I’ve been a fan of Elton John for a long time,” Jimmie shared. “He was going to be in LA the same time I was out there, so I went by and hung out with him for a couple of hours. It was good times.”
“Elton John is one of those people — he’s beneath God, but he’s above humans. He’s right in the middle!” Agreed!
Check out Jimmie’s full interview with Coop above, and be sure to check out his newest album, Bettie James Gold Edition, available now!
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