Mickey Guyton joins Kelleigh Bannen on Today’s Country Radio for an interview to discuss the stories that inspired “Lay It On Me” and “Indigo” from her new album ‘Remember Her Name.’ They also chat about Mickey’s self-doubt early on in her career, and the advice she has for new artists. Tune in and listen to the episode in-full on-demand here.
Mickey Guyton on Following Her Gut Musically
I even go back to some of the old [music I was writing], and I was like, “I was there all along,” but so often we as women, as young artists, we want to be accepted and we want to please these people in these label positions. We think they have all the answers. We think they know. But the reality of it is that they don’t always know. A lot of times they have no idea. Majority of the time, I would like to say that. And I wish I had followed my gut. I’ll tell you who said this, it was Estelle. And she said, “Your gut is almost 100% right every time.” And had we have followed our guts, just imagine. If every artist just truly followed their guts, and not only follow them, but spoke up for themselves, where would we all be?
Mickey Guyton on “Lay It On Me”
We wrote “Lay It On Me” like right before the pandemic. And what people don’t know – the song… My husband was really sick. He had something going on with this health where we went through a whole year of testing and that included us going to the cancer ward and getting a bone marrow biopsy and all of these things. At one point he was misdiagnosed with leukemia and it was a really difficult time that I didn’t talk about. And I wanted to write a song like, “You know what? I can’t save you from what you’re going through, but let me just help you take a load off for a minute.” And that’s what that song really was about.
Mickey Guyton on “Indigo”
Mickey Guyton: When you think of the rainbow, you think of ROYGBIV, but we always forget the color indigo. You can’t really see it in the rainbow, but it’s there and that’s me. I feel like I’m the indigo of the rainbow. I felt like I was misunderstood. People didn’t necessarily see me but the reality of it is, is that if all the colors aren’t there, then it isn’t a rainbow… and that’s me. I felt like I had been forgotten and that’s what indigo is about.
Kelleigh Bannen: Do you feel seen now or still somewhere on the journey?
Mickey Guyton: Yes. Yes I do.
Kelleigh Bannen: Does it feel like you thought it would?
Mickey Guyton: No. No, it does not at all and I think part of the reason why it doesn’t feel like what I thought it would, is because I was working so hard towards this, for so long, and I was so used to hearing “no” for so long, that once you finally hear “yes,” you still don’t… It’s like, “Okay, now what do I do?”
