Since bursting onto the scene in 2016 with her breakout debut Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, Margo Price has carved out a reputation as one of Nashville’s most uncompromising voices. Her music has wandered across genres—classic rock on That’s How Rumors Get Started, psychedelia on Strays—while her personal journey has been equally transformative. She quit drinking, became the first female artist to join the board of directors of Farm Aid, and never stopped speaking her mind, even when it cost her professionally.
Now, with her new album Hard Headed Woman, Price is circling back to the traditional country sound that first earned her acclaim. But the record is more than a nod to her past—it’s a declaration of intent. “It plants a flag that says, ‘I am defiant and I’m going to do things my way,’ as I always have,” Price explained. With women’s rights under renewed pressure in the U.S., she added, “The title is just timely.”
Despite living in Nashville for over two decades, Price had never recorded a full album there—until now. “I always felt like an outsider,” she told Us Weekly. “I didn’t want anyone to make me sound too country-politan or too produced.” For Hard Headed Woman, however, she brought her band to the city’s legendary RCA Studio A, where Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard, Nancy Sinatra, and Loretta Lynn once cut tracks.
“I get chills on the back of my neck just even thinking about Dolly being in there,” Price said. “History was made in that studio, and to be able to carry on and be a part of that history is just so special.”
The record honors that lineage. Price reimagines George Jones’ “I Just Don’t Give a Damn,” covers Waylon Jennings’ “Kissing You Goodbye” at the suggestion of his widow Jessi Colter, and collaborates with songwriting icon Rodney Crowell. At the same time, she adds her own firepower with tracks like “Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down,” a song inspired by advice Kris Kristofferson once gave to Sinéad O’Connor.
For all her reverence of country tradition, Price has never been a conventional Nashville artist. She’s been outspoken about issues—from gun violence to abortion rights to the war in Gaza—that most country stars won’t touch. “Awards and fitting into the mainstream country music world, that doesn’t interest me,” she told NME. “We are losing our democracy, and they really want us to be silent about so many things. We just have to use our voice while we still can.”
That willingness to confront political and cultural issues has made her a hero to fans of alt-country acts like Sturgill Simpson and Tyler Childers, but she admits it has also cost her. “Any time you step outside of the box, people are going to have opinions. But if you have haters, you’re doing something right.”
She’s also candid about struggles within the music industry itself, once writing about a former manager “old enough to be my dad” who spiked her drinks. “Now I’m really getting to see the insides of it, and it can be very ugly,” she said. Music, she explained, has become a cathartic way to fight back.
Price has also challenged taboos within country music about personal image. Following a nose job in 2024, critics accused her of betraying feminist ideals, but Price countered that honesty was freeing in a post on Substack. “It was like I was always hiding behind a pair of dark sunglasses. Now I feel lighter.”
She’s equally frank about sobriety. Giving up alcohol, she says, helped her become more present. “It’s a completely different way to step into being.”
With Hard Headed Woman, Price insists she’s not trying to fit into Nashville’s expectations—or anyone else’s. The album reaffirms her as an artist who honors the past while demanding space for her own truth. “I am hard-headed,” she said. “I’ve taken left turns, spoken my mind, and it’s cost me. But I’m proud of the career I’ve built. And I want little girls to see that and know they can do the same.”
