When Beyoncé phone calls, you can’t keep up.
So when the “Texas Keep ’Em” singer designed a previous-minute pitch to country upstart Willie Jones to appear on her new “Cowboy Carter” opus — with the album deadline quick approaching to make her March 29 release date — it was both go major or keep house.
“It was practically in the fourth quarter,” Jones, 29, told The Post of recording his “Just for Fun” duet with Beyoncé in the last levels of “Cowboy Carter.” “It was practically … conclusion of February, February 20-some thing.”
Jones got the contact that would change his lifestyle from Alex Vickery, who created his vocals on “Just for Fun” — which, despite its title, is a decidedly moody meditation.
“She’s like, ‘Are you sitting down?’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And she’s like, ‘You know Beyoncé is functioning on a nation album … [and] she loves your voice. I was like, ‘Are you significant?’ She was like, ‘Can you arrive out here tomorrow?’ I was like, ‘Send the automobile.’ ”
And now the Shreveport, Louisiana native is galloping into historical past as a person of the black region artists spotlighted by Beyoncé Knowles Carter on “Cowboy Carter” — the undisputed event record of 2024 — which just scored the major profits week of the yr in its chart-topping debut on the Billboard 200. Introduced to rave reviews (which include mine), the LP also created Queen B the initial black lady to reign around the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, whilst concurrently keeping the major three spots on the Very hot Country Music chart led by her No. 1 single “Texas Keep ’Em.”
This ain’t Texas, this is Bey State.
And along with all of its record-shattering streaming stats, “Cowboy Carter” has viewed the occupations of Jones and his fellow African-American region artists highlighted on the album — including “Blackbiird” track record vocalists Brittney Spencer, Tanner Adell, Tiera Kennedy and Reyna Roberts as effectively as “Spaghetti” and “Sweet Honey Buckin’ ” collaborator Shaboozey — explode right away. Indeed, they and “Cowboy Carter” elder Linda Martell — the initially African-American lady to play the Grand Ole Opry in 1969 — were being all honored on a Los Angeles billboard by Spotify final week.
But Jones — a former contestant on “The X Factor” who has currently introduced two albums (2021’s “Right Now” and 2023’s “Something to Dance To”) — doesn’t want to “blow up” per se.
“I really don’t even want to say ‘blowing up,’ ” he stated, “because when you watch action films, and you see anything blow up, they gotta gradual it down, they gotta present it from various angles more than and more than once more. And then it’s in excess of … But this isn’t ‘blowing up’ — this is an growth.”
It is a moment of a life time that Jones has been planning for — in fact, manifesting — given that childhood.
“You know, it’s a thing that I understood was gonna come about considering the fact that I was a small child,” he said. “You can inquire my sisters: I’m like, ‘OK, maintain y’all Instagrams collectively mainly because we gotta meet Beyoncé 1 working day.’ ”
As a teen expanding up in Shreveport, Jones solid an early Bey bond when he performed Jimmy Early in a neighborhood creation of “Dreamgirls.” Of study course, Beyoncé starred as Deena Jones in the 2006 massive-monitor adaptation of the Broadway musical. “I bear in mind the female who performed Deena sounded like Beyoncé,” he explained.
Jones’ early musical-theater coaching ultimately led him to audition for “The X Factor” in Greensboro, North Carolina as a 17-yr-previous aspiring region singer. With his deep voice placing the bass in Josh Turner’s “Your Man” for judges Simon Cowell, Britney Spears, Demi Lovato and Randy Jackson, a flat-topped Jones made the cut but was then eradicated in the first week of live shows.
This yr, Jones — who mixes country with hip-hop (“It’s just two sides of the similar coin,” he explained) — revisited “Your Man” as a fully developed male on his “Apple Songs Sessions” EP, which also incorporates a countrified go over of Usher’s “OMG” that was introduced just before the R&B star headlined the Super Bowl halftime display. And Beyoncé just so transpired to drop “Texas Hold ’Em” and “16 Carriages” — the first two singles off of “Cowboy Carter” — in the center of SB LVIII on Feb. 11.
Now Jones receives to have the most famous Willie — Nelson —introduce “Just for Fun” as a radio exhibit host on KNTRY on “Cowboy Carter.”
But he’s proudest of staying a component of the “Cowboy Carter” movement of black country artists who have regarded and supported just about every other for yrs.
“This is definitely great to see Shaboozey being in this article, Reyna remaining listed here and Tanner getting in this article,” mentioned Jones. “I done noticed ’em stand 10 toes on their artistry and who they are and what they signify.”
