We interview Lauren Alaina about her UK tour, duetting with Chris Young, her new single ‘Ladies in the 90s’ and more for Episode 77 of the podcast, available here.
How has the UK tour been so far? I’ve been watching your Instagram story and there already seems to be some confusion over ‘Biscuits and Gravy’….
Oh my goodness… Next time you go to the States try biscuits and gravy, it is not anything at all like your biscuits or your gravy. It’s completely different, it’s a white gravy with sausage in it a lot of the time, peppery. It’s nothing at all like your brown gravy, nothing like it…
Is it nice being able to come back and actually explore the UK…
Yeah, we were so busy last time, so we’re getting to get out and explore this time.
The timing’s worked out pretty well with the Chris Young single being released on Friday… How did that happen?
Chris just called me up one day and was just like ‘Hey, do you want to come sing on this song,’ and I was like ‘let’s hear it.’ So, he sends me it and I loved the song. It made sense because his accent when he sings is a bit stronger than mine but when I talk mine’s way stronger but when I sing my accent isn’t as prominent. Stylistically, we’re very similar because we do a lot of runs and riffs, so it just made sense for us to sing together.
It’s been 8 years since American Idol, when you look back – obviously there’s so many people that come out of that show – but what do you think is the magic ingredient that’s kept the likes of you and Scotty McCreery and Carrie Underwood at the forefront?
I don’t know, I think American Idol fans are very loyal fans, and country music fans are very loyal fans. I think it’s the country music tie for sure, because I’ve had very loyal fans since day one. American Idol is a show about families, and a bunch of families watch it, and country music is a genre that families go to.
And it’s been 2 years since ‘Road Less Travelled,’ have you yet processed the success of that album and just what it meant to you?
Well every time somebody says the things that we’ve accomplished – because I don’t just sit around and think about those things – but when they really list it to me, you won an ACM award, 2 CMT awards, I’m always like ‘how did this happen to me?’
There are so many important messages in that album and messages you delve into. Was that really intentional?
It was. When I wrote the songs, it wasn’t intentional. I was going through such a transitional time in my life, and I wrote these songs about all these really hard things I was going through and then when we went to put the album together those songs just rose to the top.
There’s so much depth in the album, it must have been an emotionally draining process…
The album kind of taught me how to write songs, I really dove into my songwriting and the album set up who I wanted to be as an artist messaging-wise, encouraging and taking the light and taking the best of them.
There are so many songs like ‘Pretty’ that are such important messages for young girls. Again was that very important to act as a role model to those girls?
I do, I think about being a role model with pretty much every decision I make at this point, because I don’t want to be that girl who’s being crazy – I am crazy – but I’m always trying to make sure I do the right thing, particularly with the music because I’ve been very outspoken about my eating disorders and my childhood and I would like to be helpful with things like that.
It’s so important to be highlighting those issues, they’re things everyone are going through and important to have people like you showing that people are not alone.
Thank you, we’re all struggling with something for sure.
So ‘Ladies in the 90s’ has been the song of this year, of course you’ve got all these references to massive, iconic people. When you look back at your musical career, what would you like your legacy to be in a song like that?
Ooh, that’s pretty good. My favourite song I’ve ever released is ‘Three,’ and so if a girl was writing a song like that; ‘a little girl with a dream, that girl was me,’ if someone put that in a female empowerment song that would fit perfectly – but that was never a single. So, I think it would have to be something from ‘Road Less Travelled’ or ‘Doin’ Fine’ could be cool – ‘Trust your rebel heart’ would be cool…
What was the specific inspiration behind the song?
There’s been such talk about the lack of female presence on the radio, but I grew up in a time when there was not a lack of female presence on the radio, we had Shania, Reba McEntire, Martina McBride, Faith Hill, Trisha Yearwood, all these people, so I just wanted to be like ‘Hey, here’s a reminder, they’re legends and they were made legends because they were on the radio.’
Album three, dare I say it, how far through are you on that project?
We just went into the studio to start recording for it, so we’re still writing and trying to get all the songs together but we’ve definitely got some stuff.
Final 10
Which Spice girl are you? Surprisingly, I would say Sporty Spice.
90s boyband crush? Justin Timberlake all the way…I was obsessed.
Scrunchies or snap bracelets? Scrunchies.
Friends, That 70s Show or Saved By The Bell? Yikes – all of them, I watched all of those. I’ve watched Friends more as an adult, but as a child ‘Saved by the Bell.’
Record you couldn’t live without if you were stuck on a desert island? Elvis Presley’s Greatest Hits.
Complete the sentence…
Music is… My heart.
Country music is… My soul.
Lauren Alaina is… A crazy person.
