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Ne-Yo admitted he’d received “warnings” about Nashville before he arrived in the city to work on his country-inspired project.
However, “my experience has been the exact opposite,” he said.
The R&B icon caught up with Senior Music Editor Joseph Hudak on a recent episode of Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now podcast. Ne-Yo explained in a clip from the show that he and Rolling Stone shared on Instagram, “before I came out here — I had planned to do this, and told a few people that I planned to do this. And it came with all of these warnings and all of this fear that people were trying to put on me, like, ‘oh, man. They’re not real accepting of anything outside of what they do over there [in Nashville].’”
Ne-Yo said others described Nashville, the pinnacle of country music history, as “really cliquey,” and people likely wouldn’t accept his artistry. “I hate to admit it, but I came out here kind of expecting something like that. And I gotta say, my experience has been the exact opposite. Every single person that I’ve worked with out here has embraced what I’m trying to do with open arms. You know, everybody’s interested and intrigued about how I’m going to take what I do, and what country music is, and kind of fuze them together, and what that could sound like. And everybody’s just been real receptive.”
Throughout their conversation, Ne-Yo spoke about what makes country stand apart from other genres (pointing to Dolly Parton’s classic, “Jolene,” as an example), the time Tim McGraw and Faith Hill invited him over for fried chicken, his impression of Nashville’s famous Lower Broadway, and more. Listen to the full episode on iHeartRadio here.
Ne-Yo spoke about his country-inspired era when he caught up with iHeartRadio at the 59th Country Music Association Awards in November 2025. The Grammy-winning artist attended the show for the first time, and teamed up with Gretchen Wilson to present the Vocal Duo of the Year award. He told iHeartRadio at the time that he’s “been a country music fan forever.” Ne-Yo’s appreciation for the genre “started with Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, and just kind of been going from there. My next project is a country-inspired project. I won’t call it a country album because I’m not a country artist. I feel like that’s a little disrespectful. But definitely inspired by all the things I love about country music.”
Shortly after presenting at the CMA Awards, Ne-Yo made his debut on the historic Grand Ole Opry stage and released his first country-inspired single, “Simple Things.” He’s since followed that single with “Up Out & Gone,” which made its debut last month.
“I'm doing a project that's inspired by all the things I love about country music,” Ne-Yo said when he talked about his upcoming project on the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards red carpet. “I honestly feel like it would be disrespectful for me to say I'm doing a country album when I know for a fact that there are artists that eat, sleep, live, and breathe country music 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And then for me to just jump in and say, ‘Oh I’m doing a country album,’” he said. “So this is music that is inspired by what I love about country music.”