Last month, Nashville closed its legendary Broadway for Post Malone, one of the biggest pop stars in the world, who wanted to sing with one of the biggest names in the country. “We’re shooting a video with Mr. Luke Combs,” Malone said. “We’re going to perform in the back of a semi-truck.”
Malone’s duet with Combs, “Guy For That,” is featured on Malone’s new album, F-1 Trillion. It also features duets with other country superstars, including Morgan Wallen, Blake Shelton and Dolly Parton.
Stars like Combs quickly signed up for Malone’s country album. “I heard he was working on this thing and I just wanted to be a part of it,” Combs said. “Great times for country music!”
To watch the music video for “Guy For That” by Post Malone feat. Luke Combs, click on the video player below:
“Everyone here was so welcoming and friendly,” Malone said.
“That speaks for you,” said Mason.
“I disagree. I think that speaks in her favor,” he replied.
Post Malone didn’t receive this kind of recognition at first. When his hip-hop track “White Iverson” hit the internet and went viral in 2015, he was labeled a “culture vulture” and a “one-hit wonder.”
And how did he feel about that reaction? “It sucked,” he said. “I was a kid.” He coped by drinking a lot.
“Did you take it personally?” Mason asked.
“Absolutely,” Malone said. “It’s hard not to.”
But he continued to write hits. “It’s not for the people who hate you,” he explained. “It’s for the people who love you, and for yourself, you know what I mean?”
A decade later, he now has more than 40 billion streams on Spotify and six number one hits, including a hip-hop track (“Rockstar” featuring 21 Savage), a pop song (“Circles”)…
… and finally a country song (“I Had Some Help” with Morgan Wallen):
A colorful collection of heroes is tattooed on Malone’s knuckles: George Harrison, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Elvis Presley. “They’re all dead guys, by the way,” he said. But they’re guys who are important to him.
Austin Richard Post (he added Malone as a stage name) grew up in Dallas, where his father managed the franchises for the Cowboys.
When asked what made him want to play guitar, he replied: “Guitar Hero. That was it, 100%. And I thought, ‘Okay, I’ll get a real guitar and see if it works.’ But it didn’t!”
But he started writing and discovered what Rolling Stone would call “the gift of turning dreamy darkness into Top 40 gold.” “They’re making a baby with sound waves,” he said, “and I think that’s cool.”
He now has a baby – a two-year-old daughter, about whom he sings in his new song “Yours”:
Yesterday she said her first word
It is far from “I do”
Right now she is running towards me
One day she will run to you
And it will be your most beautiful day,
but it will be my worst
You could see them coming towards you,
but I saw her go first
And she could wear white,
but her first dress was pink
She could be your better half,
but she is my everything
We will love them both forever,
but I loved her long before
And one day, I know, I will give them away
Dude, that doesn’t mean she’s yours
“Yours” by Post Malone
Mason asked, “Are you already imagining your daughter getting married?”
“I think about it a lot!”
“Is this the first song you wrote about your daughter?”
“No, sir, I’ve written quite a few songs,” Malone said.
He keeps her name to himself, but her initials are tattooed on his forehead – right next to his brain. “I will never forget her. If you heard her cry, you will never forget her either! It changes you in the best way ever. And the best thing is, she has a wonderful mother.”
He says both women saved his life: “Four years ago I was on a difficult path.”
“What were you struggling with back then?” Mason asked.
“Everything,” Malone replied. “It was terrible.”
“You’ve been really successful.”
“Yes, sir.”
“So what was bothering you?”
“That’s a good question,” he said. “Just loneliness.”
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Malone says he found himself in a downward spiral: “Getting up, having a good cry, drinking and then living your life. And then when you lie down, you drink some more and have a good cry. And you think, ‘I have to wake up tomorrow and do this again.’ And I don’t feel like that anymore. And that’s the most amazing thing.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” Mason said.
“That’s OK. I had to do it for myself to find out who I am.”
At 29, Post Malone (affectionately known as Posty to his fans) is now one of the most popular musicians in the world. But backstage before a performance in Nashville last month, he was nervous: “I had a sinking feeling in my stomach, like I was ready to go, big butterflies.”
But “Posty” maintains a close relationship with his fans. He often tells his audience that they are loved. “That’s important because not everyone knows that,” he says. “I think there are a lot of very lonely people.”
“Are you trying to give people something that you yourself have sometimes missed?” asked Mason.
“I think so. Yes, sir. I think that’s a good way to put it. Because I don’t want people to feel the way I felt. And I know they do. And I’m here and I’m on stage and I just want everyone to feel welcome and loved. And that’s the most important thing to me.”
“And the love you get back is just as important?”
Malone replied, “I just can’t believe the place I’m in.”
For more information:
Story produced by Jon Carras. Editor: Mike Levine.
More from Post Malone:
“Pour Me A Drink” with Blake Shelton:
“Sunflower” by Post Malone and Swae Lee (from “Spider-Man: A New Universe”):
Anthony Mason
