Do you ever feel like you're being watched? Not to arouse any undue paranoia, we're just civilians, after all. But in a true sense, you never truly know what's out there or who has bad intentions, the reasoning, the desperation. It certainly makes our place in the world a lot scarier under these contexts. When we draw attention to ourselves and we're out of our element, you never know what could go down. Country singer Kip Moore felt this wild intensity when he was riding his motorcycle through Mexico. It got to the point where he says he ran into the cartel.
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Recently, Moore sat down for the Big D & Bubba radio show to promote his latest record Solitary Tracks. In addition to all the album talk, he recalls a pretty wild story about when he took a motorcycle trip with his friend from Los Angeles down to Baja California, Mexico.
However, Kip senses someone following him from roughly 10-15 miles away. Around the 10-hour mark on the trip, he and his buddy stop for gas and refreshments when the guy that was tailing him rolls by and promptly turns around to scope the country crooner out.
Eventually, Moore ends up face-to-face with the guy. He sees the gang memorabilia and immediately clocks that he needs to dip out of there. With no words at all, what was understood didn't need to be said between him and the biker.
"He pulls up in there, and he just plops right beside us at the gas pump. He's got a Vagos jacket on, which just makes the Hell's Angels look like puppies... the most notorious gang in the world, and he just nodded at the highway like, 'Get to moving,' and I said, 'You got it, buddy,'" Kip recalls.
Kip Moore Recalls Scary Run-In With Mexican Cartel During Motorcycle Trip
Moore and his friend get the message and tail out of their territory at blazing speeds in absurd heat through the mountains.
The next day, they cross paths again when Kip gets breakfast at a local restaurant. Immediately, he notices that the pair look incredibly out of place in this family establishment. Not long after, he learns that he's in cartel territory. I asked the guy that's kind of keeping an eye on us, I said, 'Let me ask you something. Is there any cartel in this place?' Because it felt that way. I don't know much, but all the stuff I've seen was just everybody dressed so, so good, and all these families, tons of kids," Kip recounts.
"And he just laughed, and he goes, 'Whole place is cartel, man.' And I was like, OHHH. It was just intense, but everybody was so great to us, but once again, I was like, we need to get moving."
Ultimately, Kip emphasizes that there was no negative experience with the cartel. If anything, he grew to respect how close everyone was, from the kids to the adults in the families. It's very communal the way he describes it. Regardless, Moore knew it wasn't his place to loiter and kept it moving.
