Elle King Discusses 'Come Get Your Wife' and Finding a Home Within Country Music

In 2015, you couldn’t turn on the radio or go in public without hearing Elle King’s dignified rasp and grainy vocals on her hit song “Ex’s & Oh’s” from her debut 2015 record Love Stuff. In 2021, you couldn’t turn on country radio and not hear King’s twangy new sound in her collaboration with Miranda Lambert on “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home).” King, who used to not listen to contemporary country music at all, is now submerged in it. “Every aspect of this album, I wanted it to be a piece of me,” King notes. “I wanted to be my very true, authentic self. That’s something country (music)’s given me.”

Unlike her past releases, King feels this one honors all of her inspirations and influences. “Looking back at everything I’ve ever put out, there’s always been a country song on there,” she says with a sweet eagerness. “Country is like the best old-school writing that you can be funny with, you can be heartbreaking with, you can find connections with, you can be rowdy with, and it was everything that I loved.” As she crafted the record, which she co-produced, she pulled from genres like soul, pop, and southern rock to create her very own definition of what country music is and could be.

The LP kicks off with the extremely autobiographical, “Ohio” which digs into King’s childhood. “If anybody is wondering why I would feel any sense of home within country music I wanted to share a little bit more about my life and my childhood and where my family comes from and that’s Ohio,” she shares. “That basically tells the story of me and my family.” The banjo-heavy instrumental is covered up with gritty lyricism and imagery as she sings, “Down by the river, near the burned down bridge / Pulled a .22 trigger and it bust my lid / I was eight years old when I learned how not to cry.”

When pondering on the vulnerable state of that track and the LP as a body of work, King seemingly has a lightbulb go off above her head. “I’ve never known who I could tell that to," she says surprising herself. "This is what I want to share, that there is a lot more to me than I have ever even been open to telling."

The project also feature a collaboration with Dierks Bentley on the catchy track, "Worth A Shot." This isn't the first time the duo teamed up, Bentley asked King to collaborate on his song "Different For Girls." At the time, King didn't know who he was but her brother, who loved current country music, urged her to do it. Being full time in the country music sphere has altered King's familial relationships as she shares, “All of this really helped my family come closer together. They can understand more about my job and what I’m doing because they’re interested in it.”

Speaking of family, King is growing one of her very own. King welcomed her son Lucky in 2021. On Come Get Your Wife there's a track named after him which she wrote with Ella Langley, Matt McKinney, and Bobby Hamrick; the trio also wrote songs "Out Yonder" and the raunchy, unabashed "Tulsa." She never had intention of creating a song dedicated to her child, it just kind of fell out. “It was just beautiful. It was a really nice experience of writing from a place of total gratitude and joy and happiness and also being reflective on everything that has come into my life,” she exclaims. King even mentions that Lucky knows that the song is for him and lays his hand on the speaker every time it comes on.

She also credits her son for having the confidence to forge a new path for herself. "I’m glad that my son had something to do with that because he helped me get out of my own way. I’m not very tall," she adds with a laugh, "But I can get in my own way. I hope he’s proud of this record because he inspired all of it.”

After speaking about her son, she pivots to pouring out her gratitude for the new genre she's found herself in. She expresses love for watching the genre bend and grow and praises peers like Ashley McBryde and up-and-comer Madeline Edwards. Contrary to what outsiders might think of the country music genre as a whole, constraining and conservative, King felt freedom and support. “I just felt that feeling of home and comfort and I felt welcomed. I didn’t know what it would be like to make a full album from a place of joy and comfort. I’ve only really ever made music out of discomfort and pain," she states with a burning passion. "I also didn’t know that it would be my favorite album that I’ve ever made. It’s just been a really incredible experience.”

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