My Kind of Country is Apple TV+’s newest competition series, changing the face of country music. Premiering Friday, March 24th, My Kind of Country is an eight-part series executive produced by Reese Witherspoon and GLAAD’s 2022 Vanguard Award honoree Kacey Musgraves. The series follows three trailblazing artists as they travel the globe in search of country music’s next big star. The scouts include GLAAD Media Award nominated artist, Orville Peck, Grammy nominated artist, Jimmie Allen, and Mickey Guyton, the first Black female to earn a Grammy nomination in a country category. Each artist seeks out a roster of talented artists from all over the world and invites them to Nashville, where they have the opportunity to showcase their unique sound. The winner will receive a life-changing prize from Apple Music, unprecedented support, and exposure on the platform.
Witherspoon and Musgraves, who are also featured heavily in the series, executive produce alongside Hello Sunshine’s Sara Rea and Lauren Neustadter; Sandbox Entertainment’s Jason Owen; Emmy nominated showrunner Izzie Pick Ibarra; and Katy Mullan. Hello Sunshine is a media company founded by Witherspoon that aims to broaden perspective and empower women by giving them authorship, inspiring agency, and creating a platform to help them shape culture and the world around them.
The three scouts joined GLAAD’s Anthony Allen Ramos to talk about the groundbreaking new series.
Orville Peck, who is up for the Outstanding Music Artist award at the 34th Annual GLAAD Media Awards, spoke about how with all the hateful legislation being passed in states like Texas and Tennessee, bringing queer people, people of color, and people from all over the world into country music “is incredibly important, especially now more than ever.”
Peck goes on to say that “I think all three of us feel a very big responsibility for what we represent within country music, where we come from, the things we’re very proud of, our perspectives.” Peck explains that “We took a lot of care to make sure that it felt diverse and represented.”
In the series’ trailer, the famously mysterious singer explains why he conceals his identity, “My mask allows me to be more vulnerable and share my perspective as a gay country artist.” Being openly queer, Peck knows what it’s like to feel ostracized from the genre he’s dedicated his career to. “We know that we are in some cases a very hopeful beacon for some people that maybe feel like they don’t see themselves represented.”
Artists like Peck and Kacey Musgraves have dedicated their careers to making the country music world a more accepting place.
Orville Peck ended the interview with a message of support for the drag community. “Drag is of a threat to absolutely nobody.” He says that “In this day and age we should be making laws to allow people to live freer, happier, more loving lives and not the opposite.” Fortunately, he believes there’s hope, “When people tell us we can’t be or can’t do, we get up and we say, ‘well, here we are.’”
My Kind of Country premieres on Apple TV+ on March 24th.