NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Margo Price on new album, and turning setbacks into songs

Episode Date: August 29, 2025

In this episode of The Drink, NBC News anchor Kate Snow sits down with country star Margo Price, who just released her new album, “Hard Headed Woman.” Price reflects on her career so far: her roots in a small Illinois farm town, the odd jobs she worked in Nashville to stay afloat, and how music helped her through a profound personal tragedy.The Drink is Kate Snow’s interview series featuring candid conversations with actors, authors, athletes, and visionaries — all over the beverage of their choice.Watch every episode of The Drink now at NBCNEWS.COM/THEDRINK.

Hey, everybody, it's Kate Snow. I'm so excited for our latest episode of The Drink. It's my series all about how folks got to the top of their field. I had the chance to sit down with country singer Margo Price, who just released her brand new album. It's called Hard Headed Woman. We met at the Pig and Whistle in Manhattan, where she ordered her go-to drink, soda water, lime, and bitters. Margot's story is remarkable. It's full of setbacks and resilience. We talked about her roots in a small Illinois farm town. Her family, losing the farm, the odd jobs that she worked in Nashville to stay afloat, and how music helped her through a profound personal tragedy. As always, you can watch all of our episodes online too

at NBCNews.com slash the drink. Hello. Hi. Thank you. All right, we're going to add our own bidders, okay? This is what you asked for, right? Yeah. So what we got? We got to do more. I don't know. Yeah, I mean... Oh, yeah, you're down to know. Cheers. Salug. Margot Price, singer-songwriter, country music. We're at Pig and Whistle in Manhattan.

What's your drink? This is soda, lime, bitters, in a rocks glass. Love it. Thank you. Refreshing. Mm-hmm. It's really refreshing. I know. I don't like things that are very sweet. Yeah.

I like things that are more bitter. Does that say something about you right there? I think it does. I think you does. You're not bitter in your songwriting, but you definitely, you're real. You're real. You're not overly sweet. Bitter sweet. I've got to talk about the dark side sometimes. Yeah, for sure. I want to talk about how this all happened for you. I know it's a long story, but you grow up in Illinois. Yeah. In a farm town, basically. Your parents had a farm until you were what, like three? It was like two, almost three years old in the farming crisis, so the mid-19 kind of came and swept it out from under them. And my dad went to work in a prison. And my mom went from teaching physical education. She moved into the classroom. She was a third grade teacher. Just to try to make ends meet and stay there. Can you explain what happened? Like the farm just, it was too hard to keep up with the industrial farms? Is that it? I think that was definitely one of

the issues. It was so many different things all happening at once. There was a drought that year. There was also some corruption in the town. And then also, I think that year, there was the Russian grain embargo that was happening. And also the government asked a lot of the small farmers to put in grain bins to dry their own corn. And that just the overhead of doing that is the culmination of that and the drought. It just lost everything. You were too little probably to see the emotions.

do your parents still talk about it? It was kind of some of my earliest memories were like being at my grandmother's farmhouse and seeing her packing up all of her things. She was weeping that day while they were packing up all their stuff. And that's kind of some of my first memories. It definitely affected my entire family because it was, you know, generations of farming. And yeah, all my uncles went to like work construction. Wow. Yeah, it was just a big change for them. It's part of why you're involved with farm aid now, right? Absolutely. with Willie Nelson and all the others. Yeah, it feels very full circle to be a part of farmade

and to be able to give back to American farmers that I know are hurting now and struggling maybe more than ever. Growing up, are you singing from a young age? I heard you sing in church. Yeah, sing in church choir. All the football games, all the basketball games, I always sang the national anthem. Okay.

I started piano lessons when I was about seven. and then picked up the guitar when I was 12. Okay, first guitar at 12. First guitar at 12. You get some voice training somewhere. My mom signed me up for vocal lessons from this woman who lived about 40 minutes away. She was like the best in the area. She taught me like mezzo-soprano Italian-style singing, and she was a really tough coach, but I owe a lot to her.

Her name is Sue Clark. Okay. That's a lot different than what you do now. It sure is. That's a soprano, like opera, basically. Italian singing. It was. But it's a good, like, foundation and just to know all the breathing and the proper techniques. And then I started listening to Janice Joplin and threw it all out the window. Like, I'm going to destroy this voice. Yes, yeah. She started chain smoking also. I did. I started drinking and smoking. Yeah, that kind of comes with the territory, I think.

I think that's how a lot of people achieve the voice, right? That's right. I actually sing a little bit myself, but not at your level at all. I love that. Everybody should sing. It's a passion, right? It's just, it makes me feel better. Every time. Music is one of the only things that turns on your whole brain. It's really magical. Did you know, young, did you know that you wanted to be what you are now, like a singer-songwriter or no? Yeah, I think kind of like middle school, I really got the itch. It was once I got that guitar, I knew that I wanted to pursue the arts in some way. And I went to college for a couple years. First, I was studying communications, Spanish, and sophomore year, I transitioned to dance in theater. And, yeah, end of my sophomore year, I took a psychedelic psilocybin mushroom trip and just

dropped out of college and moved to Nashville. Wait, what? You saw this shrimp's trip and you're like, that's it. I'm out. Yeah, yeah. I know that sounds, that sounds wild. Why would you do that? Why would you do that. That sounds like a huge change to drive down to Nashville with, like, on a prayer. I mean, I don't know. I just felt like I was spinning my wheels there at college. I was partying too much. And nothing was really, I don't know, I just, I didn't have the passion for, you know, communications or whatever, you know. So you get in a car and drive to Nashville with, like, very little money in your pocket, I think. Yeah, yeah. My parents were like, are you sure you want to do this, you know, like, we'll help you. But they loaded up the back of my dad's pickup truck,

like the Beverly Hillbillies, and we drove down to Nashville. I had a cousin who was living there. Yeah, they came down there and helped me, like, move in. Oh, okay. All right. So you're not just fully solo on the road. Yeah, I wasn't completely by myself. But, yeah, I had this older cousin. I came down there to visit her on spring break and just saw the music community in a way that, I don't know. I didn't see from the outside of Nashville Star was going on. It was like a kind of American Idol country version. And I didn't like anything that it was on country music radio at that time. But when I came and actually visited a city, it was like there were so many different genres that were thriving. There was like a cool punk scene that was happening. And there was all these songwriter rounds going on. And I thought, I think I could live here. Yeah. Those first years, what do you do? Are you just like, are you just making it work somehow? Waitressing? Like, what are you up to? Every odd job you can think of. I worked in retail for a minute when I first arrived. And then that was not enough money. So soon became a waitress. Is it true? You put siding on houses?

I did. I did siding. I did roofing. I nannied. I have worked at preschools. I taught dance. I taught swimming lessons. There was just, I was wearing a lot of different hats just to make ends meet. And are you doing that so you can write songs like in your spare time? Are you part of songwriter circles and all that? It would go out, sign up for these like writers nights and you would just get on the list. And, you know, it'd usually be three people on stools and I'd play one song, then the next person, the next person. And I wanted to go to Belmont or Vanderbilt and, you know, get a music degree. But my family didn't have. have the money for that. I certainly didn't have the money for that. And so I just kind of got my

education going out and, yeah, just seeing how other people were writing songs. And you do hang out with the Belmont students a little bit, I know, right? You're married to a guy named Jeremy Ivy. Yeah, yeah, neither of us were going to school at Belmont, but both of us were partying there. And he was sitting on the couch, playing bass, and looking really sad. And I was like, that's the guy. that's him that's him yeah and he played me a couple songs that night that were just really beautiful and um so yeah it's been 21 years i've wow congrats thank you but you guys had the music in common so did that did that help did that sort of propel both of you forward do you think or absolutely having each other to lean on in those early times i mean we were just barely eking by it was always paycheck to

paycheck, like water being turned off, you know, oh, we forgot to pay the electricity bill again or like sometimes we would go cash our checks at the liquor store because we were overdrawn in the bank account and so we could go there and get cash immediately from them and they would take like 5, 10%. But yeah, it was really, it was a struggle in the early days, but we had each other to lean on and the songs have kept us together, that's for sure. Definitely writing with him is is different than writing with anybody else because we know each other's history.

He sold our car to help fund my first record. And he's believed in me when, you know, other people were like, maybe you should hang it up. Yeah. After the break, more from my conversation with country singer Margo Price on how she coped after experiencing a profound personal tragedy.

Stay with us. Your first album comes out in 2016, Midwest Farmer's Daughter. It goes pretty high, pretty fast. Or at least that's the way it looks from the outside. Was it like that for you? Once that album came out and Third Man Records and Jack White were behind me... That's his label. Yes. Everything did explode in a way that...

I mean, I went from playing rooms with 15 people in them to... being on Saturday Night Live, being on every late night show you can imagine, and, yeah, finally having, like, well-attended... Concerns. Headlining concerts. Yeah. Yeah. That's got to be validating. It was... It was amazing to be able to, like, play the Granolopry and, like, I don't know, prove it to people back home, I think. And prove it to myself. I mean, I think I would still be playing music if things didn't take off because it's just what I love to do. Yeah. But I'm really lucky that I get to do it for my career. Yeah. You get to make a living at doing

this, what you love. You're a mom. Yes. I'm a mom too. You're a mom. This is going to a tough spot in your life, but you've talked a lot about the birth of your twins, which is what year? See, that was 2010. Yeah. Yeah. So you've got a 15-year-old. I do. Yeah. But one of the twins was born and had a heart issue. Yeah. And then your son. died a couple weeks later. Yeah. I feel like I want to tell you that I had two pregnancy losses, and one of them was because the baby had a heart issue.

So I sort of, when I read your story, it really hit me. I think, you know, people feel uncomfortable. Sometimes when you talk about loss, when you talk about grief, especially when you talk about, like, miscarriages and, you know, losing a baby. but it was really how I processed that trauma, how I processed that grief was being able to write about it and have obviously done a lot of therapy as well to move through it as something that never goes away but you know you learn how to live with it. It's kind of like losing your right arm. Like nothing is ever going to be the same.

but um you learn to adjust yeah yeah yeah sorry for me lost well i'm sorry i'm sorry for bringing up something that hurts so much but i could tell that it's like it's a real part of it's a piece of who i am right yeah yeah yeah and i think it's just giving me compassion and just a different worldview that's for sure your kids are 15 and 6 is that right yeah we had a little um i guess a rainbow baby and my daughter Ramona came along, she was a surprise. In 2019, and it was not something we planned, but wasn't she with the Grammys fully pregnant with her? I sure was. Yeah, it was not the best timing, but I wouldn't trade her for the world. And it was just such a blessing to be able to go through the experience of childbirth. I'm going to ask you what people always ask me, because I have a

crazy job, too. How do you do all the mom's stuff? And I think, and I feel, badly asking that because I think that nobody asks men that question but they ask us right how do you how do you possibly be on the road and be juggling the kids and all that I don't know I don't know either yes I mean yeah it's a team around me um my mother is she's been one of my greatest supporters and she's such a good nanny she helps with the children I feel so blessed that I get to do what I love and I get to have a family. But like, it is challenging because no matter if you're the breadwinner of a family, women still have more roles to play. Yeah. Like, planning birthday parties and answering the emails from the school that just never seemed to end. Totally. I mean,

I know the guys can do that too. But for whatever reason, I, like, I don't know about you, but I were just out of it. And yeah, yeah, I want to do it. I want to do it. Yeah, I want to plan the birthday party. Same, same. Yeah. I'm still figuring it out. Where are the kids right now as we speak? They are on the tour bus with my husband and my mother. You were at Newport Folk Festival. I've already heard it was a great night, a great show. It was so much fun. John C. Riley joined me as wonderful artist Jesse Wells. And it's just one of those festivals that really brings people together.

And I think we're all stronger when we sing together. After the break, more on Margot's brand new album, Hard Headed Woman. Stay with us. Hardheaded woman is the new album. What are you trying to say? What are you trying to, I don't know, achieve with that? Well, I think the title speaks for itself. You know, we're kind of living in this strange time where we seem to be going backwards. when it comes to women's rights. And I'm just here to rattle the cage to be the squeaky wheel and raise a little bit of hell, which we need to do. There was something on your website that struck me. It said that the new album, Hardheaded Woman, is a way to march forward while being true to yourself when the path

of less resistance is right there in front of us, and shortcuts are around every corner. What does that mean? Yeah, I think it probably would have been easier for me to just stay in one lane, keep my mouth shut about politics. I've just tried to follow my heart and not get carried away and what I think anyone else wants me to do, which is really hard. I'm sure. But I've never done things the easy way. Let's just put it that way. I don't know. I just, I like being contrary. I like playing the devil's advocate. I like

doing things that are unexpected. I think, you know, one of the challenging things about having your passion become your career is still being inspired like you were in those early days. And me exploring all of those other genres was a way to keep my songwriting. inspired and keep it alive. Keep it fresh. Keep it fresh. Yeah. No, I get that. There's a song we're not allowed to say the word, but don't let the blank get you down. Yeah. I was very inspired by Chris Christofferson, who said this phrase to Cheney O'Connor after she was actually singing in a Bob Dylan tribute in New York. She had just recently ripped up a photo of the Pope on SNL. Saturday Night Live. And she was getting booed. And Chris came out and they said, drag her off stage. And he just stood next door and put his arm around her and whispered that in her ear. And, you know, Shanade is a huge, as a huge hero of mine as well. And I, you know, when she passed, I just, I thought it was, it was beautiful, but it was also sad to see that she didn't get her flowers. Well, you know, while she was living because everybody was saying, oh, she was such a hero. And she was, you know, so I have.

of her time, but I don't know if she ever got to feel that in her, in her life. You're lucky. You're feeling it, right? Your fans are there, they're present, they're celebrating you. Yeah, I mean, I'm in the best spot that I've been in, in my whole career. Personally, mentally, professionally, everything feels, feels like it's coming together in a really beautiful way. I'm so happy for you for that. more cheers for that. I'll take it. I'll take it my cheers. What is next for you? It feels like you're doing everything you want to do. Do you think about that? Do you think about what's the next horizon for you? I think in American culture, it's so easy to get caught up in the accolades. But at the end of

the day, I've got to meet so many of my heroes. On this album, Hardheaded Woman, I got the opportunity to write with Rodney Crowell, who I've just looked up to for so long. I have the paperback version of my memoir is coming out in the fall. Say the title. It's called Baby We'll Make it. Which I was kind of wondering, do you feel like you've made it now? Yeah, I feel like I made it. I mean, it's, you know, I can put food on the table, and like I said, I don't have to

get my electricity shut off anymore. But, yeah, I have so many things I have loved to do. I mean, I would love to do some acting. Oh, wait. write more. Wait, say more about acting. Have you auditioned for anything? I've auditioned for some things. Okay. I think like writing more, I... Do you write for other people? Do you write songs for other people? I have been more recently. I've been going in and doing more co-writes and yeah, I would love to write for more people. I would love to write, like, do a poetry book. I'm working on

a second book right now as well. The working title is Close Encounters in Country Music and Beyond. It's a good title. Yeah, it's just like a collection of short stories and people that I've got to meet along the way. And, yeah, it's a little more dreamy, a little bit more surreal. I want to do a rapid fire round. Is that okay? Fun. Okay. Okay.

Dream collaboration, living or dead? Stevie Nicks. Yes. She's one of my heroes. Okay. Pre-show ritual? The band and I get together. We huddle up. We have a talk.

And, yeah, I think just having that moment is just really grounding and settles your nerves. If you weren't a musician, what do you think you'd be? Maybe a photographer. Do you karaoke ever? Yes. What's your favorite karaoke song? Oh, Fleetwood Mac. Dreams. Dreams. Yeah.

There's a cover bar here in New York that I just recently went and did karaoke. Come on. Yeah. Did they know? Did people know it was you? No. but we had a really fun time. I think I sang like 10 songs that night. Made a lot of friends. That's fantastic. Margo Price, you are amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Cheers.

Thanks everybody for listening. Hope you enjoyed it. I really did. This episode was produced by Zoe Rorick, along with Bailey Howell. Bryson Barnes is our head of audio production. Geraldine Colza Zokar is our senior producer, and Erica Josephson is our executive producer. Janelle Rodriguez is our executive vice president of programming at NBC News. Thanks all.