He admits to feeling a little groggy, but for good reason — although who knows what kept the rapper up until the birds started singing that morning. For the record, Yelawolf, whose real name is Michael Wayne Atha, does not sound as rough as he may have felt.
“I was up until 6 a.m. with Riff Raff,” he says. “I saw him at a That Mexican OT show, I rolled up to his crib and we did six songs. That’s how the last project [2021 album TURQUOiSE TORNADO] we did happened.”
A new Yelawolf-Riff Raff collab hasn’t been officially announced yet, but the Alabama-born, Tennessee-raised artist is no stranger to teaming up with his peers and writing whatever feels right. And his resume proves it, as he’s joined forces with the likes of Eminem (Yelawolf was signed to Shady Records), Ed Sheeran, Big Boi, Tech N9ne, Lil Jon, Killer Mike, Paul Wall and Three 6 Mafia, to name a fraction of the musicians Yelawolf’s worked with.
In the twenty years since he first started putting out mixtapes, Yelawolf’s learned that sometimes having no plans is the best plan.
“I’m done predicting or calling shots about what’s going to happen, what’s not going to happen, because it never happens the way that I envision it. There’s always a turn. Things always happen. I just let it flow,” he says. "I’m in Austin, Texas, kicking it with OT and Riff Raff, I pulled up with Riff and six songs happened, literally, and that was it, so now there’s that happening. You just never know.”
Yelawolf looking fresh, most likely not after a late-night writing songs with his friend Riff Raff.
Courtesy Alectra Busey
Most recently, Yelawolf and urban country artist J. Michael Phillips put a full album together in much the same way. Well, they didn’t do it in one nocturnal session, but after crossing paths a little over a year ago, the two hit it off, so they decided to create Whiskey & Roses, set to be released on July 11 via Yelawolf’s independent record label Slumerican. For now, singles “I Swear” and “Searching For Heaven” serve as a taste of what to expect.
Yelawolf makes sure to mention, though, that it is not a contemporary country-rap record in the current pop-culture flavor. “It’s a delicate line when you’re doing music right now that has any kind of country in it. To be unique in that world is difficult because it’s oversaturated. I think we’re bringing something fresh to the whole idea,” he adds. “It can be obviously influenced, but it cannot be country-rap shit. That’s a wrap. That ship has sailed.”
Yelawolf’s 2017 record, Trial By Fire, the follow-up to 2015's critically-acclaimed Love Story, already did that anyway, in featuring guest spots from Wynonna Judd, Joshua Hedley, Lee Brice and Bones Owens. Travis Barker, Juicy J and Kid Rock also contributed to the tracklist.
“That’s as far as I will ever take it in my career, period, and I said that during that album,” he explains. “I moved on from it because I saw it coming. I saw everyone running for it.”
He’s happy to see so many of his friends — as he casually names Jelly Roll, Post Malone and Morgan Wallen — doing well in that realm. But Yelawolf is doing his own thing, as he’s always wont to do.
So the self-proclaimed "ghetto cowboy" is ready to get down with Three 6 Mafia soon. The co-headlining tour stops in Denver on Saturday, June 14, for a show at Mission Ballroom. If you’re in Colorado Springs, you can catch it on Friday, June 13, at the Ford Amphitheater, too. He calls performing with the legendary Memphis crew "a rowdy time."
But even Yelawolf needs time to relax. “I just have too many ideas, man,” he concludes. “That’s why I started golfing. It gives me at least three to four hours to get out of my own head.”
Yelawolf, with Three 6 Mafia, 7 p.m. Saturday, June 14, Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St. Tickets are $67-$125.
