Mickey Guyton is over a decade into her career, but she continues to break new ground. Just weeks ago, she kicked off her inaugural CMT on tour Presents Mickey Guyton tour, which finds her playing clubs and theaters across the country. She also just released her second full-length album, House on Fireon Capitol Records Nashville.
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In these performance halls, as well as in House on FireGuyton celebrates his hard-earned joy, especially in a season littered with struggles, losses, heartbreaks and changes.
“I've worked so hard for this and it was great to sing for my fans, not someone else's fans. Hearing them sing the words was amazing,” she says Bulletin boardnoting that on the first night of the tour, “I was a mess. It was just tears and love. The whole audience was so diverse and loving and it was a dream come true.”
Over the past four years, Guyton has garnered accolades, including performing the national anthem at the 2022 Super Bowl and earning four Grammy nominations, including nominations for Best Country album (Remember her name) and Best Country Solo Performance (“Black Like Me,” “Remember Her Name”). She hosted the 2021 Academy of Country Music Awards alongside Keith Urban, becoming the first black woman to co-host the ceremony.
Her debut full-length album in 2021, Remember her nameit featured soaring ballads and country builds, spanning her childhood in Texas and the decade she spent resolutely pursuing a career in Nashville, and included songs that took aim at her experiences with racism (“Black Like Me”) and sexism (” What Are You Gonna Tell Her?”).
From the first songs House on Fireit's clear that Guyton is no less honest this time around, but her blend of pop, country, soul and gospel is undeniably upbeat, on songs like “My Side of the Country” and “Here With You.” Much of the album focuses on love in various forms – romantic love, self love and the love she feels as a mother towards her son. Guyton married Grant Savoy from California in 2017. They welcomed Grayson in 2021.
“It needs work,” she says of her seven-year marriage. “You have to choose that person every day. You go on TikTok and all that and you see people portraying love in an optimistic way, but in my opinion the real happily ever after is going through something difficult and coming out stronger. We have struggled with different things and we have become stronger. I love him more than I could ever love a man.”
A few songs from the album are older, like “Little Man” and “I Still Do,” which Guyton wrote in 2018, early in her marriage, when the couple went through therapy.
“We had a therapist and we had a forgiveness session and any of our issues with each other, we didn't bring them up again and we were able to come out stronger on the other side,” she says.
She adds of these relationship-building sessions, “I thought I'd go to these sessions, and he'd do all the apologizing, and I'd be the one doing all the apologizing. I could see so many ways that I was wrong and seeing this person that I love so much, we were missing each other in the communication that we loved so much but didn't know how to communicate.”
Guyton says the journey of their relationship took “a lot of understanding between them. I bring structure to it. He's a wild child from California and growing up, he basically took care of himself, and I grew up in a very Bible Belt home, so it definitely opened my eyes, helping me be a little more free to express who I am. I think it's helped shape my songwriting to be more open with who I am as a person.”
They are a few years away from turning 10u wedding anniversary, but Guyton says they don't wait for anniversaries to celebrate each other.
“We're going to do great things together and it's not even our anniversary. My husband grew up extremely poor. He didn't really have a birthday. He's been staying in motels and stuff, so he'll randomly give me a gift or do something on a normal day.”
At the same time, the title track was inspired by mental health, particularly in lines like “Can you love me when things are very bad/ When I'm in flames?” In February 2023, Guyton lost three people she was close to, including her grandmother.
“My grandmother died, which was very difficult. And Twitch [Stephen “tWitch” Boss]—I sang at his funeral. I didn't make it a public thing, and then another friend of my husband's that I loved [passed away]she says.
Guyton is open about the treatments that have helped her on her own journey to positive mental health, including using Zoloft. “I was dealing with intrusive thoughts and that kind of thing that I couldn't get a hold of, and once I started taking Zoloft, it changed everything for me. I didn't even know I was operating in such a state of stress for a long time,” she says.
She has also taken other measures to protect her joy and mental health. “I don't Google myself. I don't read comments, I don't even go on my social media. I have someone do that for me, to be honest. I just really had to stay away from it. I have a Finsta, a fake Instagram, but it's my real Insta and I just share things with my friends and family. I used to like cop shows, but I don't watch them anymore. I try to keep myself positive. I just need happy things – cute animals, nail tutorials, makeup tutorials.”
The past year brought changes in her professional life as well. She left her longtime management house at Borman Entertainment and is now working with music executive Cameo Carlson (who used to work at Borman).
“Love [Borman Entertainment’s] Gary [Borman] and [her former co-manager] Steve Moir,” says Guyton. “They were amazing managers and had the ability to do so many amazing things in artists' careers. I just needed a little change. I felt I needed a woman to further my career and Cam was right. We've known each other for a long time and it's been amazing…he's a hustler and that's what I need.”
Guyton brought all of these experiences, struggles and life changes into the album's writing rooms, re-teaming with several key writers from her previous album, including “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?” Co-writers Emma Lee, Karen Kosowski and Victoria Banks and Tyler Hubbard, who worked on her Kane Brown collaboration “Nothing Compares to You,” as well as “My Side of the Country” and “Make It Me” .
“Nashville has the best songwriters in the world, hands down — and I try to make every writer, new or familiar, feel like, 'Hey, if we don't get it today, we can come back to it,'” he says. they feel safe and not discounted as a songwriter, because sometimes you just don't get it the first time. People are relaxed, they don't feel the pressure. By creating that environment, I will say that the songs come out much better.”
Lately, Guyton has also been inspired by pop newcomers like Teddy Swims, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan.
“I feel like they are very literal in what they say. They talk about stress. they talk about all these things that we didn't always talk about and it motivated me to be more open and honest with my life.”
Another artist she admires is fellow country artist and reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year Lainey Wilson, who she's rooting for her second Artist of the Year honor at the CMA Awards on Nov. 20 (“I hope she wins. It would be nice to I see a woman winning again. That's what I'm voting for,” says Guyton).
This honesty extends beyond her music and her career and performance choices. In August, Guyton appeared at the Democratic National Convention, performing her song “All American”.
“If you felt joy in seeing it [at home]it was a hundred times happier in person — the excitement, the crowd,” she says of her attendance at the DNC. “There was every race, nationality. It was patriotic. There were flags and just people proud to be American. I will never forget that moment. That was one of my favorite moments I've been a part of.”
This year's DNC featured an increased number of country and Americana artists, including The Chicks, Maren Morris and Jason Isbell, while artists such as Jason Aldean, Lee Greenwood and Brian Kelley took part in the Republican National Convention – a development in a genre whose artists have often been discouraged from expressing their political views for fear of alienating parts of their fan bases.
“It was all this taboo, but at the end of the day we're still citizens,” says Guyton. “I'm not telling you who you should vote for — I'm telling you who I'm voting for. But I don't think it should be a crime that you can't support who you think is the best candidate for President. And especially as a Black American, my ancestors fought for me to be able to vote. It is my duty.”
One of the reasons her song 'All American' was chosen for the DNC was the happy, positive aura the song embodies, and she names that same uplifting spirit as a centerpiece of her new album.
“I'm a fun, happy person, and I wanted people to feel that,” she says. “I feel people should feel joy. I think there has been so much going on in the world. I'm sick of fear. I'm tired of arguing. I just want joy.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/country/mickey-guyton-house-on-fire-album-1235809414/
