Orville Peck on His New Album ‘Muse,’ Battling Addiction and Making Out With a Pro Football Player

Orville Peck follows a tradition at each stop on tour: he embraces every band member and says, "I love you." On June 20, 2023, the country artist carried out that ritual at Madison Square Garden while kicking off his Bronco tour. Yet that evening stood apart from all others. Only hours before the performance, his team discovered him overdosing in his hotel room. "It was sort of a disturbing show because me and my band were completely aware before we even stepped on stage that I was canceling the tour and I was going to rehab the next morning," Peck recalls. Since Patron backed the tour, he was contractually obligated to take a shot of the liquor on stage. "I remember taking the shot and just looking at my band and everyone just looking at me and thinking, 'How the hell have we ended up like this?' It was a very dark night. It was very difficult."

Now more than three years sober, Peck is spending a Wednesday afternoon at the Hollywood Bowl, rehearsing for his headlining debut at the landmark amphitheater that Friday. The Hollywood Bowl, which first opened its gates in 1922, ranks among the largest natural amphitheaters in the United States and has welcomed everyone from The Beatles to Beyoncé. "I've gotten really good at compartmentalizing events like this, so I tried not thinking about it until the last few days because I'd overwhelm myself," Peck says. "I put way too much pressure on myself, and then I actually end up not enjoying shows like if I overthink it. I've just started allowing myself to get excited, and I'm kind of freaking out now."

Friday also brings the release of his new album, Mule, a 12-track record with a prologue that traces his drinking and drug use, his treatment, and his sober life today. The album even includes a song titled "Rehab Blues." It stands as his fourth studio album, following Stampede in 2024, Bronco in 2022, and Pony in 2019. "I think a big struggle for me, why my addiction ramped up so badly, was truthfully just trying to navigate these compartmentalized worlds I'd created in terms of navigating public life and being someone who suddenly there were thousands of people who had opinions about everything I did and going home and living as a normal person with problems and issues and trauma," Peck explains. A music industry veteran might note that few artists sustain a four-album arc while navigating such public vulnerability; as one Nashville producer familiar with Peck's work put it, "He's turned the confessional into a craft, and that's rare in any genre."

Peck, who never appears in public without a Western-style mask covering part of his face, has been a trailblazer in country music as an openly gay artist from the very beginning of his career. He has become a queer icon, collaborating with Kylie Minogue, Shania Twain, and Noah Cyrus, and made his Broadway debut as the MC in Cabaret. Who else but Peck could persuade Willie Nelson to duet on "Cowboys Are Frequently Fond of Each Other," a song about same-sex love and desire among the boots-and-Levi's crowd? Willie Nelson, a Country Music Hall of Fame inductee and one of the genre's most enduring figures, has a history of supporting LGBTQ causes, including his 2006 recording of that same song. "Mule spoke to me because a mule is part horse, part donkey and they're sort of bred specifically for working and they're known for being stubborn," Peck says. "They also have a connotation with drug trafficking … I think that's funny."

Peck's longtime partner and his family have stood behind his honesty on Mule. "A lot of this album is, of course, about me, but I also intended it to be a thank-you to many people and an apology to some people and an explanation to other people," he says. In "Ring the Bell," Peck sings, "I love the Lakers, the Mets and the Longhorns, made out with a guy on the Raiders." That kiss-and-tell line will surely send curious listeners hunting for the pro athlete's identity. "I'm going to preface this by saying that I did receive permission to sing that lyric from the subject in question and he was very thrilled," Peck says. "I told him, 'Look, I'm gonna keep it sort of ambiguous and mysterious, but I would like to include this in this song.' He was very, very honored." He adds, "I would never have done it if it were somebody who was hiding or fearful of it coming out. This person would have probably allowed me to say their name if I wanted, but I didn't think it was necessary. People can use their own common sense and discovery to try to figure out who it may be, but that's all I'll say." For context, Carl Nassib became the first active NFL player to publicly come out as gay while playing for the Las Vegas Raiders in June 2021. Peck declines to confirm or deny that Nassib was his makeout partner.

Earlier this month, Peck performed the full album across both nights of a two-show run at San Francisco's Castro Theatre, a historic 1922 movie palace that has long served as a gathering place for the LGBTQ community. Asked whether he struggles to hold back tears while singing some of the new material, Peck says, "Even in rehearsals, I could barely make it through some of the songs. These are very deep wounds. What better therapy is there than getting up and being able to express these songs? Then there are people listening and relating, and they're sharing their pain. It's a spiritual experience." Watch the video for Peck's latest single "Already Gone" below.