Country

Mickey Guyton is more than a decade into her career, but she keeps forging new milestones. Just weeks ago, she launched her inaugural headlining tour, CMT on Tour Presents Mickey Guyton, which finds her performing in clubs and theaters spanning the country. She also just released her sophomore full-length album, House on Fire, on Capitol Records Nashville.

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In those performance rooms, as on House on Fire, Guyton is celebrating hard-earned joy, especially in a season that has been dotted with struggle, loss, heartbreak and change.

“I’ve worked so hard for it, and it’s been awesome getting to sing for my fans, not somebody else’s fans. Hearing them sing the words has been amazing,” she tells Billboard, noting that the first night of the tour, “I was a mess. It was just tears and love. All of the audiences have been so diverse and loving and it’s been a dream come true.”

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Over the past four years, Guyton has piled up accolades, including performing the national anthem at the Super Bowl in 2022 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 co-hosted the 2021 Academy of Country Music Awards alongside Keith Urban, becoming the first Black woman to co-host the ceremony.

Her 2021 debut full-length album, Remember Her Name, featured soaring ballads and country constructions, pulling from her Texas childhood and her decade spent determinedly pursuing a career in Nashville, and included songs aimed at her experiences with racism (“Black Like Me”) and sexism (“What Are You Gonna Tell Her?”).

From the first songs on House on Fire, it’s clear that Guyton is no less truthful this time around, but her blend of pop, country, soul and gospel is decidedly 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 toward her son. Guyton wed California native Grant Savoy in 2017; they welcomed Grayson in 2021.

“It takes work,” she says of her seven-year marriage. “You have to choose that person every single day. You go on TikTok and all that and see people portraying love in a happily-ever-after way, but in my opinion the real ‘happily ever after’ is going through something hard and coming out stronger. We have fought through different things and have gotten stronger. I love him more than I could ever love a person.”

Some songs from the album skew older, such as “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 haven’t brought them up again and we’ve been able to come out stronger on the other side,” she says.

She adds of those relationship-fortifying sessions, “I thought I was going to walk into these sessions, and he was going to be doing all the apologizing, and I was the one doing all the apologizing. I was able to see a lot of ways that I was wrong, and seeing this person that I love so much, we had just missed each other in communication that we loved each other so much, but we didn’t know how to communicate it.”

Guyton says their relationship journey has taken “a lot of understanding each other. I bring him structure. He’s a California wild child and growing up, he basically took care of himself, and I grew up in a very Bible Belt household, so he definitely opened my eyes, helping me be a bit more free in showing 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 shy of their 10th wedding anniversary, but Guyton says they don’t wait for anniversaries to celebrate each other.

“We’ll do cool things together and it not even be our anniversary. My husband grew up extremely poor. He didn’t really do birthdays. He lived in motels and stuff like that, so he’ll just randomly give me a gift or do something on just a regular day.”

At the same time, the title track was inspired by mental health, particularly on the lines such as “Can you love me when things are really bad/ When I’m in flames?” In February 2023, Guyton lost three people she was close to, including her grandmother.

“My grandmother passed away, which was really hard. And Twitch [Stephen “tWitch” Boss]—I sang at his funeral. I didn’t make it a public thing, and then another of my husband’s friends who I loved [passed away],” she says.

Guyton is open about the remedies that have aided her in her own journey for positive mental health, including using Zoloft. “I was grappling with intrusive thoughts and this kind of stuff I couldn’t get a grip on and once I started taking Zoloft, it changed everything for me. I didn’t even know I was operating in such a state of angst for a long time,” she says.

She’s also taken other steps 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 doing that for me, to be honest. I just really needed to stay off of 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 love crime shows, but I don’t watch those anymore. I’m trying to keep myself positive. I just need joyful things–cute animals, nail tutorials, makeup tutorials.”

The past year also brought shifts in her professional life. She left her longtime management home at Borman Entertainment and is now working with music executive Cameo Carlson (who previously worked at Borman).

“I love [Borman Entertainment’s] Gary [Borman] and [her former co-manager] Steve Moir,” Guyton says. “They were amazing managers and have the ability to do so many amazing things in artists’ careers. I just needed a little change. I felt I needed a woman to continue my career with and Cam was just right. We’ve known each other for a long time and it’s been amazing…she’s a hustler and that’s what I need.”

Guyton brought all of those experiences, struggles and life shifts into the writing rooms for the album, teaming again with several key writers from her previous album, including her “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, without question — 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,’” she says. “ I intentionally want them to 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 stress. In creating that environment, I will say that the songs come out so much better.”

Lately, Guyton has also been taking inspiration from pop newcomers, such as Teddy Swims, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan.

“I feel like they are very literal in what they are saying. They talk about anxiety; they talk about all this stuff that we haven’t always talked about, and it’s motivated me to be more open and honest with my life.”

Another artist she admires is her fellow country artist and reigning CMA entertainer of the year Lainey Wilson, whom she’s championing to take home a second entertainer of the year honor at the CMA Awards on Nov. 20 (“I hope she wins. It would be nice to see a woman win again. That’s who I’m voting for,” Guyton says).

That openness extends beyond simply her music and into her career and performance choices. In August, Guyton performed at the Democratic National Convention, playing her song “All American.”

“If you felt joy watching it [at home], it was a hundred times more joyful in person — the excitement, the sea of people,” she says of being at the DNC. “There was every race, nationality. It was patriotic. There were flags and just people proud to be an American. I will never forget that moment. That was one of my most favorite moments that I have been a part of.”

This year’s DNC featured an elevated number of country and Americana artists, also including The Chicks, Maren Morris and Jason Isbell, while artists including Jason Aldean, Lee Greenwood and Brian Kelley took part in the Republican National Convention — an evolution in a genre whose artists have often been discouraged from voicing their political opinions for fear of alienating portions of their fanbases.

“It’s been this whole taboo thing, but at the end of the day we’re still citizens,” Guyton says. “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 Presidential candidate. And especially as a Black American, my ancestors fought for me to even be able to vote. It is my duty.”

One of the reasons her song “All American” was chosen for the DNC was the joyous, positive aura the song embodies, and she names that same uplifting spirit as the centerpiece of her new album.

“I’m a fun, joyous person, and I wanted people to feel that,” she says. “I feel like people need to feel joy. I think so much has been going on in the world. I’m tired of the fear. I’m tired of the strife. I just want joy.”