Lily Rose and Amythyst Kiah have joined Hunter Kelly on Proud Radio on Apple Music. Lily Rose talks about new music, the importance of pronouns, and opening the door for queer artists in Nashville. Amythyst Kiah talks about her album Wary + Strange, being Black and Queer in the south, losing her mother, addiction, and more. Tune in tomorrow at 2pm PT / 4pm CT / 5pm ET or anytime on-demand here.
Lily on how Big Loud and Republic Records accepted her
Me being in a place like Big Loud and with Republic Records… Like, really? Just don’t care. They are like, “Let’s put out this song,” and “Let’s send it to radio if it’s reactive,” you know?
I’m so overwhelmed with how Music Row… I think that’s the biggest misconception about Nashville. We’re such a blue city, and I’ve dealt with 10 times more crap in the state of Georgia and in college than I ever have here. So, I have musicians and artists from around the country that slide into my DM’s and they’re like, “We wanna move to Nashville to chase the dream, but we’re afraid because X, Y, and Z.” I’m like, “Come. You’ll feel the warmth.” Yeah, we’ve got a lot to work on still, but like, TJ and, you know, just everybody, we’re all trying to change this game.
Lily on the importance of pronouns in writing music
Many of us would be lying if we said that we were concerned that we weren’t going to be able to fit into a box to get a record, have a hit song, or whatever that is, but for me, it’s all about kinda just serving the song. A lot of times when it has to do with a rhyme or when it has to just do with the storytelling like “Remind Me of You,” we’re going to serve it. But then you have songs like “Villain” that, if we, I think, across the board whether you’re straight, gay, anything, if you can avoid pronouns, it makes it just so universal that it kinda has the feelings of a hit… But I mean, if we serve the song, then you bet that I’m gonna be using she and her because it’s authentic, you know?
Lily on family acceptance and supporting the next generation
My parents have always been supportive since the day that I came out and everything. I think every parent’s biggest fear of, you know, their kid being gay or them being gay or whatever it is, is the fear of people accepting them. So, if we can get “Villain” to number one on country radio, we might be able to look at parents and kids and my generation that’s starting to have children and say, “What do you have to be afraid of? They can do any…” We still have a long way to go. It’s a lot of things that we’re fighting for, but if I can do anything, it is that if you love and support your kids the way my parents did, they can achieve whatever the hell they want.
Amythyst Kiah on writing her album Wary + Strange
The first time into the studio, I put a lot of pressure on myself to release something new, because it had been a few years. My last release prior to that was released, like, in 2016. And it had been a couple years, and I’m like, you know, “I should really, I don’t want to wait too long in between, between times.” So I had this pressure on me to do something. But when I put that pressure on myself, I was in the middle of a writer’s block, so what I was choosing for the record was, like, songs to fill time. So I was kind of like rehashing songs that I had already recorded, and then pulling out, like, old time songs that I hadn’t played in a while. And later on down the road, I really, I came to this realization that it just wasn’t really truly representing where I was in that moment, and after working on Our Native Daughters, the writer’s block really broke through, and I started… So I wrote a few more songs, and then I’m like, “Well, you know what? I just need to go back, and I need to record some more. I just have to.” I can’t, you know. And then by this time I had these songs from two different sessions that had two totally different sounds, and need to reconcile my roots in alternative background, which is what both sessions kind of represented. And that’s where Tony Berg came in the picture. He was able to not only help me cohesively combine these two elements, but also create an atmosphere that truly matched the title of the record.
Amythyst on the story behind “Wild Turkey” and her mother’s passing
Even though at that point in my life, I transferred to a high school that was better, well integrated, and everybody was a weird-, it was an art school, so everybody was a weirdo. Like, I felt even more comfortable in my own skin in most instances. But I had already still built up that anxiety, and also being like, on top of that being introverted and spending a lot of time to myself, and being able to be around people in larger settings has always been something that I’ve had to deal with anxiety about.
So I already had, still had a lot of this mental stuff that I had to work through. So then when that happened, it was just, like, “Well, if my own mom won’t stick around for me, then why would, why should I ever count on anybody else to stick around?” From that way, I went, like, further withdrew, and we don’t really know what all my mom was doing, because we were surprised about the fifth of “Wild Turkey” in the car. It’s like, “Well, if a person drinks that, then they’ve been drinking.” Like, nobody can just do that.
My dad, he was battling with substance abuse as well, and that stemmed from when his dad died, and he had kind of been on again, off again, you know, using substances. And then at one point he just started… it started to go off the rails, and so, once my mom, you know, which none of us saw… I mean, obviously none of us saw any of this coming. And so my dad is now, he’s dealing, struggling with his own substance abuse, and then also, having to still raise and take care of me, because it’s like, there’s a lot of things at stake that we both had to eventually work through.
My dad’s been clean for 11 years, and he’s been my number one fan and supporter of my music. And you know, helping me get to shows and all that, and traveling with me, so I wouldn’t be alone in the beginning, because I was still a naïve, scared kid. Even though I was playing shows, and so in my late 20’s, when I decided, “Okay, I’m gonna try to have personal relationships. I’m gonna want to start dating.” I was just ready to do all those things, that I wasn’t really ready to do in my 20’s. And then all that anxiety came back again, and so I started drinking because I’m like, “Well, if I drink, I’ll be more interesting, and I’ll open up more.”
Amythyst on Our Native Daughters
You know, being part of Our Native Daughters really helped me come a little bit more out of my shell when it came to writing about things that I think about or have opinions about, and have just not really put it out there. I mean, for one, I’ve always been kind of like, you know, a private person anyway, and on top of that, also being aware of the climate of speaking out in certain situations, because of the nature of what Americana or in country music, I guess, kind of has been presented as for a while. So I was concerned about losing audience, but as times got on, every time I’ve opened up about something about myself, whether it be about my sexuality or even the way that I present myself, I end up, whatever I lose, I don’t even notice it… Because more and more people are feeling like Americana and country really speaks to them, and I’m able to overcome the kind of longstanding stereotype and separation that the commercial music industry has created, creating a wedge between queer people and people of color to be able to see country and Americana as legitimate forms of expression.
What better way to break through all of that than to make a project about the Transatlantic slave trade, using folk music with four other black women. So that after that it was just like feeling that support there, it was just kind of like, “I really feel like I can do anything,” and where the chips fall where they may. And then after that, things just sort of… I really felt like, also being older too, and having more confidence within myself, and having these important experiences, like working on Our Native Daughters, to be able to be like, “You know what? This is what I think.” I know that there’s people that need to hear it, want to hear it, and whoever doesn’t like it, I mean, as long as they stay away from me…(laughs)
Amythyst on addiction and self healing
Then my dad, about two years of doing this as things gradually got worse, my dad talked to a counselor out at the school, and he gave me her number. He gave me a pamphlet of how much alcohol you should drink responsibly, and he was just like, “I’ve been where you are, and I see where this is going, and your entire career and your life and everything you’ve worked for up to this point is going to go down the drain if you don’t sort out.”
So because of this experience with addiction and despair, and within our family, and being able, me and my dad both to overcome that, I had a better understanding of what suicide really is. I have a better understanding of addiction. Addiction is not something that people decide they’re gonna wake up, and just be high on heroin or high on cocaine, or be alcohol- like, that’s not how that works. People go to substances because there is something within them. There is a hole in them. There is something within them that they feel lost and empty, and they do that to not feel that.
And if you don’t ever address the hole that’s inside of you, then you know, and once I finally addressed that, I’ve been going to therapy, for the past five or six years now, and started to slowly unpack all of these reasons. Now it’s like, because now I’m in a place where I’ve made peace with my mom, and with my dad about everything that’s happened. And now it’s like, I don’t feel like I need to drink alcohol in order to be interesting, or in order to enjoy myself. And if I am in a situation where I feel uncomfortable, then it probably means that I shouldn’t be there. It doesn’t mean I need to pick up a bottle and start drinking.
