Stagecoach 2023: Elle King talks foray into country music, festival memories

Singer-songwriter Elle King is getting personal like never before with her new album "Come Get Your Wife," and fans at the Stagecoach country music festival will have a front-row seat to witness it all.

The singer took the Mane Stage Friday at Stagecoach.

After the Grammy Award-nominated artist skyrocketed to the top of music charts with her 2015 pop-rock hit "Ex's & Oh's," she's slowly started letting fans get a deeper look into her life. Her second album, "Shake The Spirit," dived into her divorce, feelings of self-doubt and struggles with alcohol. With "Come Get Your Wife," she's giving fans a look into her childhood in Ohio, something she's "very protective" of, she told The Desert Sun.

It's also her full foray into the country music genre. There have always been country flourishes in her music, but once she totally embraced it, she felt like it brought her closer to her family and allowed her to "exhale and release the tension in my shoulders," she said.

King spoke with The Desert Sun ahead of her Stagecoach performance to discuss memories she has of the festival, her latest album and leaning into her country roots. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

DS: You’re no stranger to Stagecoach. What memories do you have with the past years?

EK: I love the desert, and the last time we played Stagecoach I got to see Jerry Lee Lewis. It was just so fun and it was such a chill vibe for a festival of that magnitude and size. It’s definitely been one of my favorites, and the fact that I’m officially making country music and a part of that world, I felt very honored and it made my heart swell when I got asked to play on the Mane Stage of Stagecoach this year, so it’s pretty cool.

What are you looking forward to this weekend/any artists you’re excited to watch?

I hope I can see ZZ Top — that’s what I’m talking about. Unfortunately a lot of my friends are playing on different days, but this is the life and we’re like ships passing in the night, but we’re always rooting for each other and I hope they have a great show.

I work all throughout the day doing a bunch of festival things, so I try my hardest to enjoy music when and where I can throughout the day. It’s always just a blast. There’s always somebody doing something that sounds great.

You’ve released three studio albums and two EPs in the last 10-plus years. What have you learned about yourself as an artist during that time?

I don’t think I’ve learned enough yet. All I know is I feel grateful that I get to make music in any form or capacity, and I feel very grateful to fans, whether they’re new fans or old fans, I’m just grateful that people listen to my music and are along this journey with me. I hope that I never stop evolving or growing or changing because I think that’s a good progression of life. I think my music evolves and changes and grows with me. I hope so, that’s the kind of life I want to live, and it always reflects in the music that I’m making, what’s going on in my life. Right now I’m doing pretty good, and I love country. It’s been a wonderful, warm welcome to me, so it’s been awesome.

As you've mentioned, you've had a shift toward more country music over the last few years. How has it been navigating that genre? And what is it about country music that allows you to really express yourself?

I think it’s the people who listen to country. They remind me of my home, my family, my brother, my nieces and nephews and my sister. I feel like I’m singing to them, and it’s given me this acceptance that has let me exhale and release the tension in my shoulders. Through that, I feel like I was able to create a really great record that was not very far off sounding from any other record that I’ve made. I’ve also put country music on every single release, from EP to full length albums, I just didn’t know the freedom I would feel in country, but sometimes I’m even late to the party of what my spirit or my heart or my brain is trying to tell my dumba--.

I was going to say, even though the past singles or albums weren’t labeled as country, I could still sense that coming from you. 

EK: Not to get too personal, that was something that I might have been tamping down in my own life of not really being at a place yet where I could come to terms with bridging the gap of my childhood in Ohio and my teenage years in New York City and how do I find comfort and balance in the two worlds that are so vastly different and make them into one. I just did musically and country brought me closer to my family. It’s a feeling that I get and that’s the kind of feeling I want to be in, it’s the feeling I want to raise my son around.

I know you’ve talked about how your second album, “Shake the Spirit,” was all about finding self-love following a couple of personal struggles. With “Come Get Your Wife,” what did you want to accomplish and share with your fans?

I feel like since I spent the last couple of years on a lot of country tours, it let me dig in. I’ve never really shared a lot about my life or childhood in Ohio. It’s something I’m very, very, very protective of. I felt comfortable enough to share more about my childhood and write “Ohio” that I open the record with and say thank you. My version of saying thank you is, “OK, I feel like you guys have given me space where I can be my true, vulnerable self, and this is what it is.” I may not have grown up the way that people think at first glance that I did, and I think having my own son really helped me get out of my own way and release myself from the outcome (of my own childhood). I got to be present and make music that I really enjoy with some of my friends and some new friends. I’m glad that it happened how, when, where it happened. Once I got out of my own way, of this need to control, I actually really enjoyed the process.

You’ve collaborated with Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley on your latest album, not to mention a few people previously. Any possible surprise guests we could expect during your set?

Oh my gosh, no one would ever want to come on stage with me at Stagecoach. Maybe if they lose a bet, but we’ll see it.

Ema Sasic covers entertainment and health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at ema.sasic@desertsun.com or on Twitter @ema_sasic.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Stagecoach 2023: Elle King talks country music, festival memories