French proposal in Paris. Couple get engaged on stage #OneOnOne pic.twitter.com/MhQPQDD3bz

— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) May 31, 2016

Hope everyone had a memorable Memorial Day Weekend! pic.twitter.com/x98STAxs2V

— Tiësto (@tiesto) May 30, 2016

James jammin' on Seven Days with his friends in @coccabal tonight in Oakland! #thatriffissiheavy pic.twitter.com/15NT6cGbyu

— Metallica (@Metallica) May 30, 2016

Thank you, Sydney. Thank you @VividLIVE #Cercle pic.twitter.com/yziTvA7HWM

— Bon Iver (@boniver) May 30, 2016

hi fiancée @JeremyMichael22 https://t.co/NtLYvJUUq3 pic.twitter.com/o54HgidBF2

— Kirstin Maldonado (@kirstin_taylor) May 30, 2016

Backstage at @hangoutfest with #BrittanyHoward of @alabama_shakes. A possible duet in the future? This lady is the real deal.

A photo posted by Lenny Kravitz (@lennykravitz) on May 23, 2016 at 6:06pm PDT

#BadBoyReunionConcert #MJB

A photo posted by Mary J Blige (@therealmaryjblige) on May 23, 2016 at 9:24am PDT

A photo posted by Pharrell Williams (@pharrell) on May 29, 2016 at 11:35am PDT

2013 Grammys with @brunomars. #waybackwednesday

A photo posted by Sting (@theofficialsting) on Jun 1, 2016 at 12:34pm PDT

Family

A photo posted by John Legend (@johnlegend) on May 31, 2016 at 12:48am PDT

As expected, much buzz followed the release of Taylor Swift's 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, on April 19. Fans and critics alike have devoured the sprawling double album’s 31 tracks, unpacking her reflections from "a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time" in search of Easter eggs, their new favorite lyrics and references to famous faces (both within the pop supernova’s closely guarded orbit and the historical record). 

Shoutouts abound in The Tortured Poets Department: Charlie Puth gets his much-deserved (and Taylor-approved) flowers on the title track, while 1920s screen siren Clara Bow, the ancient Greek prophetess Cassandra and Peter Pan each get a song titled after them. Post Malone and  Florence + the Machine’s Florence Welch each tap in for memorable duets. Relationships old (Joe Alwyn), new (Travis Kelce) and somewhere in between (1975’s Matty Healy) are alluded to without naming names, as is, possibly, the singer’s reputation-era feud with Kim Kardashian. 

Swift casts a wide net on The Tortured Poets Department, encompassing popular music, literature, mythology and beyond, but it's far from the first time the 14-time GRAMMY winner has worn her influences on her sleeve. While you digest TTPD, consider these 10 figures who have influenced the poet of the hour — from Stevie Nicks and Patti Smith to Emily Dickinson, William Wordsworth, Arya Stark and more.

Stevie Nicks

If Taylor Swift is the chairman of The Tortured Poets Department, Stevie Nicks may as well be considered its poet laureate emeritus. The mystical Fleetwood Mac frontwoman earns an important mention on side A closer "Clara Bow," in which Swift ties an invisible string from herself to a pre-Rumours Nicks ("In ‘75, the hair and lips/ Crowd goes wild at her fingertips"), and all the way back to the 1920s It Girl of the song’s title.

For her part, Nicks seems to approve of her place in Swift’s cultural lineage, considering she penned the poem found inside physical copies of The Tortured Poets Department. "He was in love with her/ Or at least she thought so," the Priestess of Rock and Roll wrote in part, before signing off, "For T — and me…"

Swift’s relationship with Nicks dates back to the 2010 GRAMMYs, when the pair performed a medley of "Rhiannon" and "You Belong With Me" before the then-country upstart took home her first Album Of The Year win for 2009’s Fearless. More recently, the "Edge of Seventeen" singer publicly credited Swift’s Midnights cut "You’re On Your Own, Kid" for helping her through the 2022 death of Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie.

Patti Smith

Swift may see herself as more "modern idiot" than modern-day Patti Smith, but that didn’t stop the superstar from name-dropping the icon synonymous with the Hotel Chelsea and punk scene of ‘70s New York on a key track on The Tortured Poets Department. Swift rather self-deprecatingly compares herself to the celebrated Just Kids memoirist (and 2023 Songwriters Hall of Fame nominee) on the double album’s synth-drenched title track, and it’s easy to see how Smith’s lifelong fusion of rock and poetry influenced the younger singer’s dactylic approach to her new album. 

Smith seemed to appreciate the shout-out on "The Tortured Poets Department" as well. "This is saying I was moved to be mentioned in the company of the great Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. Thank you Taylor," she wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of herself reading Thomas’ 1940 poetry collection Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog.

Emily Dickinson

When it comes to iconic poets, Swift has also taken a page or two over her career from Emily Dickinson. While the great 19th century poet hasn’t come up explicitly in Swift’s work, she did reference her poetic forebear (and actual sixth cousin, three times removed!) in her speech while accepting the award for Songwriter-Artist of the Decade at the 2022 Nashville Songwriter Awards.

"I’ve never talked about this publicly before, because, well, it’s dorky. But I also have, in my mind, secretly, established genre categories for lyrics I write. Three of them, to be exact. They are affectionately titled Quill Lyrics, Fountain Pen Lyrics and Glitter Gel Pen Lyrics," Swift told the audience before going on to explain, "If my lyrics sound like a letter written by Emily Dickinson’s great-grandmother while sewing a lace curtain, that’s me writing in the Quill genre," she went on to explain.

Even before this glimpse into Swift’s writing process, Easter eggs had been laid pointing to her familial connection to Dickinson. For example, she announced her ninth album evermore on December 10, 2020, which would have been the late poet’s 190th birthday. Another clue that has Swifties convinced? Dickinson’s use of the word "forevermore" in her 1858 poem "One Sister Have I in Our House," which Swift also cleverly breaks apart in Evermore’s Bon Iver-assisted title track ("And I couldn’t be sure/ I had a feeling so peculiar/ That this pain would be for/ Evermore").

The Lake Poets

Swift first put her growing affinity for poetry on display during her folklore era with "the lakes." On the elegiac bonus track, the singer draws a parallel with the Lake Poets of the 19th century, wishing she could escape to "the lakes where all the poets went to die" with her beloved muse in tow. In between fantasizing about "those Windermere peaks" and pining for "auroras and sad prose," she even manages to land a not-so-subtle jab at nemesis Scooter Braun ("I’ve come too far to watch some name-dropping sleaze/ Tell me what are my words worth") that doubles as clever wordplay on the last name of Lake Poet School members William and Dorothy Wordsworth.

Swift revealed more about why she connected to the Lake Poets in her 2020 Disney+ documentary folklore: the long pond studio sessions. "There was a poet district, these artists that moved there. And they were kind of heckled for it and made fun of for it as being these eccentrics and these kind of odd artists who decided that they just wanted to live there," she explained to her trusted producer Jack Antonoff. "So ‘the lakes,’ it kind of is the overarching theme of the whole album: of trying to escape, having something you wanna protect, trying to protect your own sanity and saying, ‘Look, they did this hundreds of years ago. I’m not the first person who’s felt this way.’"

Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney and Swift have publicly praised one another’s work for years, leading to the 2020 Rolling Stone cover they posed for together for the special Musicians on Musicians issue. The younger singer even counts Sir Paul’s daughter Stella McCartney as a close friend and collaborator (Stella designed a capsule collection for Swift’s 2019 studio set Lover and earned a shout-out of her own on album cut "London Boy").

However, Swift took her relationship with the Beatles founder and his family a step further when it was rumored she based Midnights deep cut "Sweet Nothing" on McCartney’s decades-long romance with late wife Linda. While the speculation has never been outright confirmed, it appears Swift’s lyrics in the lilting love song ("On the way home, I wrote a poem/ You say, ‘What a mind’/ This happens all the time") were partially inspired by a strikingly similar quote McCartney once gave about his relationship with Linda, who passed away in 1998. To add to the mystique, the Midnights singer even reportedly liked a tweet from 2022 espousing the theory.  

The admiration between the duo seems to go both ways as well, with the former Beatle admitting in a 2018 BBC profile that the track "Who Cares" from his album Egypt Station was inspired by Swift’s close relationship with her fans.

The Chicks

From her days as a country music ingénue to her ascendance as the reigning mastermind of pop, Swift has credited the Chicks as a seminal influence in her songwriting and career trajectory. (Need examples? Look anywhere from early singles like "Picture to Burn" and "Should’ve Said No" to Evermore’s Haim-assisted murder ballad "no body, no crime" and her own Lover-era collab with the band, "Soon You’ll Get Better.") 

In a 2020 Billboard cover story tied to the Chicks’ eighth album Gaslighter, Swift acknowledged just how much impact the trio made on her growing up. "Early in my life, these three women showed me that female artists can play their own instruments while also putting on a flamboyant spectacle of a live show," she said at the time. "They taught me that creativity, eccentricity, unapologetic boldness and kitsch can all go together authentically. Most importantly, they showed an entire generation of girls that female rage can be a bonding experience between us all the very second we first heard Natalie Maines bellow ‘that Earl had to DIE.’"

"Game of Thrones"

When reputation dropped in 2017, Swift was on a self-imposed media blackout, which meant no cover stories or dishy sit-down interviews on late-night TV during the album’s roll-out. Instead, the singer let reputation speak for itself, and fans were largely left to draw their own conclusions about their queen’s wildly anticipated comeback album. Two years later, though, Swift revealed the dark, vengeful, romantic body of work was largely inspired by "Game of Thrones."

"These songs were half based on what I was going through, but seeing them through a 'Game of Thrones' filter," she told Entertainment Weekly in 2019. "My entire outlook on storytelling has been shaped by ["GoT"] — the ability to foreshadow stories, to meticulously craft cryptic story lines. So, I found ways to get more cryptic with information and still be able to share messages with the fans. I aspire to be one one-millionth of the kind of hint dropper the makers of 'Game of Thrones' have been."

Joni Mitchell

Swift has long made her admiration of Joni Mitchell known, dating back to her 2012 album Red, which took a cue from the folk pioneer’s landmark 1971 LP Blue for its chromatic title. In an interview around the time of Red’s release, the country-pop titan gushed over Blue’s impact on her, telling Rhapsody, "[Mitchell] wrote it about her deepest pains and most haunting demons. Songs like ‘River,’ which is just about her regrets and doubts of herself — I think this album is my favorite because it explores somebody’s soul so deeply."

Back in 2015, TIME declared the "Blank Space" singer a "disciple of Mitchell in ways both obvious and subtle" — from her reflective songwriting to the complete ownership over her creative process, and nearly 10 years later, Swift was still showing her appreciation for Mitchell after the latter’s triumphant and emotional appearance on the GRAMMY stage to perform "Both Sides Now" on the very same night Taylor took home her historic fourth GRAMMY for Album Of The Year for Midnights.

Fall Out Boy & Paramore

When releasing the re-recording of her third album Speak Now in 2023, Swift cited two unexpectedly emo acts as inspirations to her early songwriting: Fall Out Boy and Paramore. 

"Since Speak Now was all about my songwriting, I decided to go to the artists who I feel influenced me most powerfully as a lyricist at that time and ask them to sing on the album," she wrote in an Instagram post revealing the back cover and complete tracklist for Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), which included Fall Out Boy collaboration "Electric Touch" and "Castles Crumbling" featuring Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams.

Tim McGraw

For one of Swift’s original career inspirations, we have to go all the way back to the very first single she ever released. "Tim McGraw" was not only as the lead single off the 16-year-old self-titled 2006 debut album, but it also paid reverent homage to one of the greatest living legends in the history of country music. 

In retrospect, it was an incredibly gutsy risk for a then-unknown Swift to come raring out of the gate with a song named after a country superstar. But the gamble clearly paid off in spades, considering that now, when an entire generation of music fans hear "Tim McGraw," they think of Taylor Swift.

Taylor Swift's 'The Tortured Poets Department' Is A Post-Mortem Autopsy In Song: 5 Takeaways From Her New Album

While in a studio, Andrew Watt bounces off the walls. Just ask Mick Jagger, who once had to gently tell the 33-year-old, "Look, I can deal with this, but when you meet Ronnie and Keith, you have to dial it down a little bit."

Or ask Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard. "He really got the best out of [drummer] Matt [Cameron] just by being excited — literally jumping up and down and pumping his fist and running around," he tells GRAMMY.com.

As Watt's hot streak has burned on, reams have rightly been written about his ability to take a legacy act, reconnect them with their essence, and put a battery in their back. His efficacy can be seen at Music's Biggest Night: Ozzy Osbourne's Patient Number 9 won Best Rock Album at the 2023 GRAMMYs. At the last ceremony, the Rolling Stones were nominated for Best Rock Song, for Hackney Diamonds' opener "Angry."

On Pearl Jam's return to form, Dark Matter, due out April 19. Who was behind the desk? Take a wild guess.

"You want to see them live more than you want to listen to their albums, and they have the ability to look at each other and play and follow each other. I don't like my rock music any other way, as a listener," Watt tells GRAMMY.com. "All my favorite records are made like that — of people speeding up, slowing down, playing longer than they should."

As such, Watt had a lightbulb moment: to not record any demos, and have them write together in the room. "They're all playing different stuff, and it makes up what Pearl Jam is, and singer Eddie [Vedder] rides it like a wave."

If you're more of a pop listener, there's tons of Watt for you — he's worked with Justin Bieber ("Hit the Ground" from Purpose), Lana Del Rey ("Doin' Time" from Norman F—ing Rockwell) and much more. Read on for a breakdown of big name rockers who have worked with Andrew Watt.

Pearl Jam / Eddie Vedder

Watt didn't just produce Dark Matter; he also helmed Vedder's well-received third solo album, Earthling, from 2022. Watt plays guitar in Vedder's live backing band, known as the Earthlings — which also includes Josh Klinghoffer, who replaced John Frusciante in the Red Hot Chili Peppers for a stint.

The Rolling Stones

Dark Matter was a comeback for Pearl Jam, but Hackney Diamonds was really a comeback for the Stones. While it had a hater or two, the overwhelming consensus was that it was the Stones' best album in decades — maybe even since 1978's Some Girls.

"I hope what makes it fresh and modern comes down to the way it's mixed, with focus on low end and making sure the drums are big," Watt, who wore a different Stones shirt every day in the studio, has said about Hackney Diamonds. "But the record is recorded like a Stones album."

Where there are modern rock flourishes on Hackney Diamonds, "There's no click tracks. There's no gridding. There's no computer editing," he continued. "This s— is performed live and it speeds up and slows down. It's made to the f—ing heartbeat connection of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Steve Jordan.

"And Charlie," Watt added, tipping a hat to Watts, who played on Hackney Diamonds but died before it came out. "When Charlie's on it."

Iggy Pop

Ever since he first picked up a mic and removed his shirt, the snapping junkyard dog of the Stooges has stayed relevant — as far as indie, alternative and punk music has been concerned.

But aside from bright spots like 2016's Josh Homme-produced Post Pop Depression, his late-career output has felt occasionally indulgent and enervated. The 11 songs on 2023's eclectic Watt-produced Every Loser, on the other hand, slap you in the face in 11 different ways.

"We would jam and make tracks and send them to Iggy, and he would like 'em and write to them or wouldn't like them and we'd do something else," Watt told Billboard. "It was very low pressure. We just kept making music until we felt like we had an album." (And as with Pearl Jam and Vedder's Earthlings band, Watt has rocked out onstage with Pop.

Ozzy Osbourne

You dropped your crown, O Prince of Darkness. When he hooked up with Watt, the original Black Sabbath frontman hadn't released any solo music since 2010's Scream; in 2017, Sabbath finally said goodbye after 49 years and 10 (!) singers.

On 2020's Ordinary Man and 2022's Patient Number 9, Watt reenergized Ozzy; even when he sounds his age, Ozz sounds resolute, defiant, spitting in the face of the Reaper. (A bittersweet aside: the late Taylor Hawkins appears on Patient Number 9, which was written and recorded in just four days.)

Maroon 5

Yeah, yeah, they're more of a pop-rock band, but they have guitars, bass and drums. (And if you're the type of rock fan who's neutral or hostile to the 5, you shouldn't be; Songs About Jane slaps.)

At any rate, Watt co-produced "Can't Leave You Alone," featuring Juice WRLD, from 2021's Jordi. Critics disparaged the album, but showed Watt's facility straddling the pop and rock worlds.

5 Seconds of Summer

When it comes to Andrew Watt, the Sydney pop-rockers — slightly more on the rock end than Maroon 5 and their ilk — are repeat customers. He produced a number of tracks for 5 Seconds of Summer, which spanned 2018's Youngblood, 2020's Calm and 2022's 5SOS5.

Regarding the former: Watt has cited Youngblood as one of the defining recording experiences of his life.

"I had started working with 5 Seconds of Summer, and a lot of people looked at them as a boy band, but they're not," Watt told Guitar Player. "They're all incredible musicians. They can all play every instrument. They love rock music. They can harmonize like skyrockets in flight. They just were making the wrong kind of music."

So Watt showed 5 Seconds of Summer a number of mainstays of the rock era, like Tears for Fears and the Police. The rest, as they say, is history.

Elton John

A year after Britney Spears was unshackled from her highly controversial conservatorship, it was time for a victory lap with the God of Glitter. What resulted was a curious little bauble, which became a megahit: "Hold Me Closer," a spin on "Tiny Dancer," "The One" and "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" that briefly launched Spears back into the stratosphere.

"Britney came in and she knew what she wanted to do," Watt recalled to The L.A. Times. "We sped up the song a little bit and she sang the verses in her falsetto, which harkens back to 'Toxic.' She was having a blast."

Blink-182

Watt has also worked with pop/punk heroes Blink-182 — but not after Tom DeLonge made his grand return. He produced "I Really Wish I Hated You" from 2019's Nine, back when Matt Skiba was in the band.

Where in the rock world will this tender-aged superproducer strike next? Watt knows.

Songbook: The Rolling Stones' Seven-Decade Journey To Hackney Diamonds

It’s a special feeling, knowing you’re still getting better, 20 years into doing whatever it is you’re good at. “I identify my career as a bit of a slow burn,” says Katie Crutchfield, chatting from her home in Kansas City, Missouri. 

Tigers Blood, Waxahatchee’s sixth LP, arrives March 22 on Anti- Records. It sounds earthy and time-tested, hugging the border of alt-country and indie-folk. Pedal steel and banjos are just as welcome as electric guitar. Lucinda Williams, Townes van Zandt, and Gillian Welch are its musical north stars. Lyrics evoke late-night banter with old, trusted friends, the small handful of people in this world you could say anything to. 

Crutchfield has been writing songs for 20 years and, even as a teen, was perhaps the most respected voice in her Alabama punk scene. By the early 2010s, the same could be said of her place in DIY-minded rock, nationwide. Released March 27, 2020, Waxahatchee’s Saint Cloud, will be remembered as her breakthrough, though it certainly did not feel that way initially. For Crutchfield, the album still brings to mind bushels of COVID masks and days upon days spent indoors.

"There were phases of grief," Crutchfield says. "I was grieving the [canceled] tour, the normal experience of putting out a record. My therapist suggested I have a funeral for it." She says all this with a chuckle — one that comes easier after the success Saint Cloud eventually earned: a No. 1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers albums chart, significant radio play for the first time in her career, a spot at Newport Folk Festival once pandemic restrictions eased. “In hindsight, I know that record provided solace for a lot of people.”

Like Saint Cloud, Tigers Blood was produced by Brad Cook, an alt-rock standby whose production and co-writing work with Bon Iver earned him nominations for Album Of The Year and Record Of The Year at the 2020 GRAMMYs. "[Brad and I] developed this language and life philosophy as collaborators that I am not finished with," Crutchfield says.

Tigers Blood separates itself with one new, notable collaborator: singer/songwriter MJ Lenderman. Through his storytelling solo albums and cathartic guitarwork in the North Carolina band Wednesday, Lenderman, 25, is already a Gen Z indie rock icon. His contributions to Tigers Blood are subtle, but affecting: hazy backing vocals on the title track and "Right Back to It," artistry on his six-string that left Crutchfield in awe: "There are so many moments on [Tigers Blood] where I’m like, That’s the hookiest guitar part or solo. I never would have put it there without him."

Speaking with GRAMMY.com, Crutchfield looked back on how she arrived at Tigers Blood and the many stops along the way: showcasing her high school band for the guy who signed Nirvana, learning to re-embrace her Southern-ness, staying the course when you know, deep down, it’s the right thing to do. 

For artists today, I feel there’s this pressure to be constantly reinventing yourself. Is this something you’ve noticed?

Contemporarily – maybe this is a thing in pop – there’s a real pressure to reinvent yourself on every record as you move through your career. I’ve certainly done that. And I’ve certainly felt that. Brad [Cook] and I had a conversation about this very thing: What is the next thing going to be? Should we pivot to a new style?

It really brought us to my heroes. None of them ever reinvented themselves. A lot of them worked with the same people. Tom Petty, for example, played with a lot of the same musicians for his entire career. 

The confident choice is to retain some self-awareness about why people liked the last record, and to hang onto that. Then, to depend solely on the songs. Do whatever we can to elevate the songs. 

How did Tigers Blood come together, compared to the last LP?

It came together quickly and a lot of it was on tour. I had a lot of writer’s block working on Saint Cloud. The narrative of that record was that I had just gotten sober. I was experiencing a lot of anxiety. A friend told me, “When you get sober, you’re not gonna recognize yourself.” That was really true. I was like a raw nerve. I kind of had to take a long time off from touring, to catch my breath and figure out what my life was going to look like. Throughout that 18-month period of time off, I slowly wrote [Saint Cloud]. 

I started writing the melodies for Tigers Blood right after we made Saint Cloud, and continued to for several years, as I worked on other projects like the [2022] Plains record [in collaboration with singer-songwriter Jess Williamson]. In the peak pandemic months I was stowing away melodies, like, I’ll come back to this. I finished all the Tigers Blood songs in about a six-month period, a lot of which was on the road. When I say I finished a song, it means I wrote all the lyrics.  

*Releasing an album like Saint Cloud, I imagine you might be worried it would just be labeled as “the sober record.” Looking back at how well it was received, it feels like much more than that.*

I hope this doesn’t land wrong on music writers, but in a way it’s sort of easier for me when there’s a narrative. I think it’s sort of easier for everyone. Tigers Blood doesn’t have a clean-cut, neat little narrative. There’s a lot of things going on. 

I was writing about a lot of different things on Saint Cloud, too, but [sobriety] was the headline, and it made life easier to have a headline. I always knew there was more going on than just sobriety. I don’t write lyrics in a way that’s very on-the-nose. Someone could maybe listen to that album and have no idea it’s about sobriety. There’s a couple love songs on that record: “The Eye” and “Can’t Do Much.” And “Lilacs” is about being in a bad mood. It’s not really about being sober. 

If you don’t mind me asking, what made you want to get sober?

Everybody’s story is different. Mine isn’t particularly salacious. Over a decade, I had noticed that, for me, drinking had a weight to it that it didn’t have for everyone I knew…

I got sober when I was 29. I was getting a little bit older and my physical health was starting to catch up to me, and certainly my mental health [as well]. Some alarm bells were going off: I actually think the biggest issue in my life is drinking and if I cut that out, I’m curious if everything will balance out. And it really did. 

In June, it’ll be six years since I quit. I definitely feel like a way different person now, but I don’t even remember how I felt six years ago. I can’t really remember myself as a drinker. A lot has changed in my life. I live in a different city. I have a lot of different people around me. 

You’ve lived all over and it’s so intertwined with your music. Could you give me the whole story? 

I grew up in Birmingham. When I was 19 or 20, I moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama – my sister Allison was going to college there and our band P.S. Eliot existed there for a short time. Then she moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee and I moved back to Birmingham for a few years. Then we both moved to New York when we were 22. I’d made the first Waxahatchee record right before that and she had just started her band, Swearin’. 

I tell you her story, too, because they’re so intertwined. We lived in New York for about 18 months. At the time, [Allison], her boyfriend, and my boyfriend were all in Swearin’. They [decided to] move to Philadelphia and I was kind of sad — I really wanted to stay in New York — but that was my family, so I was like, “I guess I’ll go with you guys, because I’d be alone here.” So I was in Philly for a few years, then I made my [2015] record Ivy Tripp while I was on Long Island for about a year. Then I moved back to Philly for three years, moved back to Birmingham briefly, and then to Kansas City, where I’ve been ever since. 

You started playing in bands with your sister Allison when you were teenagers, 20 years ago. How has that shaped your relationship with her? 

When she was in my band, it was tricky. Because we’re siblings, it’s crazy how boundaryless that relationship can be in a working setting. It was a little chaotic at times. But ultimately, really great. I’ve always kind of made my songs for myself, and Allison. That’s always been my prime audience: if we really like it, I usually trust the rest of the world might like it, too. 

Now she’s such an important part of the people around me, guiding me. We’re in the best place we’ve ever been, even though she’s not in the room when I’m making the records.

From the outside, the trajectory of your career – to bigger stages, bigger record labels, etc. — seems like it’s gone at a nice, measured pace. Does it feel that way to you? 

Yeah. I’m really grateful for the pace my career has gone at. I’ve seen things blow up overnight for some of my peers. As exciting as I’m sure that can be, I think it would be pretty disorienting. There have been moments in my life where if that had happened, I think I would have been completely swallowed up by it. I’m happy at this point in my life. For the most part, every door that opens up in my career, I’m ready to walk though it.

Are there any doors you’ve chosen not to go through over the years? 

When I was in high school, my band performed at this showcase for Gary Gersh, who [famously signed Nirvana], this big time music biz guy. It was us and this other band in Birmingham, who were the two most popular younger indie rock bands in town. I don’t know if they got his attention, but we didn’t. 

I look back on that, and that’s probably for the best. If I had gotten this hotshot L.A. manager when I was 16, my life could look really different. I could have maybe signed on for things that wouldn’t be reflective of the values I’ve developed. My songwriting voice had not really developed yet. It’s probably good I took the slow route. 

If you’d been offered that management deal, what do you think you would have said? 

We were pretty punk rock already. I can see us saying, “We don’t really want to do this.” Allison and I had pretty developed tastes for 16-year olds. 

Collaborating with MJ Lenderman on this album – how did that come up?

I heard his music at South By Southwest. [My partner] Kevin [Morby] was playing South By, he was busy, and I was killing time. My sister Allison does A&R at Anti- [Records] now and my producer Brad Cook, they both texted me at the same time: “We’re gonna go see this guy, MJ Lenderman from North Carolina. Come meet us, you’re gonna love this.” I heard his voice outside the venue [and thought] “This is exactly what I like.” There were 12 people onstage, they had a pedal steel player. Everything I love. 

Then, Brad and I were trying to figure out what we could do [for my next album] that would be different from Saint Cloud. So I threw it out to Brad: “Maybe we could get [MJ] in the mix.”… Brad invited him to the first session. The three of us had a blast. [MJ] played drums for a lot of it, and obviously guitar. When we tracked “Right Back to It,” that was a big turning point. Brad and I were like, “This is a great anchor for what this record should be.” And when [MJ] sang backup on it, it was all over. We had to have him be a big part of the record. 

What grabs you about MJ Lenderman’s playing? 

[MJ] is really into a lot of music I love, but wasn’t engaging with much at the time. Specifically Southern alternative rock from the ‘80s and ‘90s: Drive-By Truckers, Sparklehorse. Jason Molina is a big influence on him. And it really invigorated my love of R.E.M. It knocked out the cobwebs for me. 

I knew he was a great guitar player, but I didn’t totally understand just how special and creative a guitar player he was until we were in a room together.

And MJ’s band, Wednesday – their 2023 album Rat Saw God already feels like a classic. What do you think of that album? 

I spent a lot of time with it. It was one of my favorite records of last year. 

I try not to go too hard with this to [Wednesday], but my sister Allison and I connect with what they’re doing because it reminds us so much of ourselves 10 years ago. Wednesday and MJ, they’re these intertwining creative forces. They’re young, they’re Southern. I think both Wednesday and MJ are making some pretty classic records that teenagers are gonna find for years to come. 

Do you think there’s something unique about indie rock musicians who grew up in the South, around country music? 

I grew up in the South and I’ve been on a journey with it. When I was younger, I lived in the Northeast and that was a big part of my identity — I really rejected country music. I did not think it was cool. Once I was able to come back around on that, not even wholeheartedly embracing being Southern, but accepting it as a part of my story, [the South] lent itself as a great backdrop for my songs. 

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On the heels of her first GRAMMY wins, Miley Cyrus is feeling good — and she's ready to be your cure.

The pop superstar unveiled her new single, a lustful, funky dance track titled "Doctor (Work It Out)," on March 1. The track is her latest collaboration with Pharrell, and their first in 10 years.

Over a pulsating bass guitar-driven beat, Cyrus opens with the punchy chorus (“I could be your doctor/ And I could be your nurse/ I think I see the problem/ It's only gon' get worse/ A midnight medication/ Just show me where it hurts," she sings) before erupting into a dance break as she declares, "Let me work it out… Imma work it out…”

So far, 2024 is feelin' fine for Cyrus. At the 2024 GRAMMYs, her 2023 smash, "Flowers," took home two awards, for Best Pop Solo Performance and Record Of The Year. Following her first win, she delivered a knockout performance featuring the unforgettable ad lib, "I started to cry and then I remembered I… just won my first GRAMMY!" 

Less than a month later, "Doctor (Work It Out)" serves as another groovy celebration of Cyrus' achievements in life and music so far.

The song's music video is reminiscent of her 2024 GRAMMYs performance, too. Not only is she wearing a similar shimmery fringe dress, but the entire video is a jubilant, blissful solo dance party.

Though Cyrus first teased "Doctor (Work It Out)" just a few days before the song's arrival, Pharrell first gave a sneak peek in January, at his American Western themed Fall/Winter 2024 Louis Vuitton Men's fashion show in Paris. It was Pharrell's third collection for the luxury house, and the bouncy single served as a fitting soundtrack. 

The song marks Cyrus' first release in 2024, and her first collab with Pharrell since 2014's "Come Get It Bae" from his album G I R L'; Pharrell also co-wrote and produced four tracks on the deluxe version of Cyrus' 2013 album, Bangerz.

Watch the "Doctor (Work It Out)" video above, and stay tuned to GRAMMY.com for more Miley Cyrus news.

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