Alexandra Kay has seen a lot in her decade-plus in the music industry, but nothing has compared to the scene backstage at a Jelly Roll concert.
“Within a matter of minutes, I was passing Morgan Wallen, Snoop Dogg, Kelsea Ballerini, Ernest — was that the night [Jon] Bon Jovi was there?” Kay, 33, exclusively told Us Weekly. “Everybody was there!”
Kay opened for Jelly Roll, 40, on his Beautifully Broken Tour last year and had a blast, but this year she’s the headliner, having kicked off her Cupid’s a Cowgirl Tour on Sunday, February 23.
“There was a part of me that had been at it for so long that I didn’t know that I’d ever get to put on a show like this,” she told Us of the new tour, which winds down in St. Louis in June. “So I am so grateful and I cannot wait for everybody to see it. We’re gonna be playing four new songs from the record.”
The tour is named after her newest single, “Cupid’s a Cowgirl,” which dropped Friday, February 21. Kay said the song came out of a writing session where she was thinking about how to make something more “fun and happy” than her last album, which was largely about her divorce. (She split from her ex-husband in 2022.)
“I was in a really happy place and still am,” she recalled. “I think that was my first time going in and feeling confident that I wanna move forward and I wanna put All I’ve Ever Known, my divorce record, behind me. Everybody kind of comes in with the same kind of concepts for you when you release a divorce record. … And it was my first time kind of being like, ‘You know, I really wanna move away from that.’”
She succeeded, because “Cupid’s a Cowgirl” is a raucous take on the single life that begins with the lines, “She’s got a pistol in her pocket / Outlaw in her blood / Peekin’ out from that Stetson / Yeah, she’s lookin’ for a stud.”
“We were jumping on couches, screaming, having fun,” Kay told Us of writing the track. “I think we disturbed every other [session] happening in [the studio] that day, and I’m totally fine with that.”
“Cupid’s a Cowgirl” is out now. Before hitting the road on her Cupid’s a Cowgirl Tour, Kay shared more behind-the-scenes secrets of life on the road:
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Pre-Show Ritual
I have a nebulizer, so I’m always warming up my vocal cords. I drink, like, 10 bottles of water before I perform, so I have to get those in throughout the day. I just warm up. I usually go live [on social media] while I’m doing my makeup so I can talk to everybody and tell ’em about where we’re going next. And usually people in the crowd that are waiting for me to come out are like, “When are you coming out?”
Other than that I have more of a post-show ritual, I think, which is just eat. I wait till I get off stage and then I stuff my face. I would say pre-show, I’m having a protein drink. And then post-show, I’m usually eating chicken wings. I know that sounds crazy, but every time that they’re like, “What do you want for after-show food?” I’m like, “Just find a place that’s got chicken wings.” And that’s usually what I’m eating.
Ideal Afterparty
My ideal afterparty is to take a shower immediately after the show, get into my bunk, open my book on my Kindle, maybe crochet a little bit, rewatch all of my [Instagram] Stories from the show and then get some sleep. That’s my ideal night. Especially when I was on tour with Jelly Roll, I didn’t have many of those because they have real afterparties constantly — a lot, a lot of fun. But I’m like a grandma at heart.
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Her Craziest Tour Experience
Probably being backstage when I opened up for Jelly at Bridgestone Arena [in Nashville], because within a matter of minutes I was passing Morgan Wallen, Snoop Dogg, Kelsea Ballerini, Ernest — was that the night [Jon] Bon Jovi was there? I’m not kidding, Bert Kreischer, every comedian you could ever think of, Jeffree Star, everybody was there. And it was just like, “This is the craziest experience to have all of these people in one place.” But that’s just Jelly. Everybody loves him, you know? So you never know who you’re gonna run into.
How She Calms Her Nerves
I pray — every single time. It does not matter if it is three people or if it is an arena. I get nervous every single time, but I like that. I think that means I still care and I still love this so much and want it to be great for the fans that are out there. When you stop getting nervous, it’s a little bit of a sign that you’re kind of getting numb to it. And I’m far from that, so I’m still happy about those nerves.
Lucky Charm
I usually have a cross somewhere on me. And if not, I have one tattooed on my wrist, so God is always with me everywhere. I also play with my boyfriend [Rocko Beall]. He’s my [musical director] and my guitar player. So I guess I could say I have my lucky charm on stage with me every night.
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Favorite Song to Perform Live
“Everleave,” which is strange to say, because it is my most emotional song and everybody gets really emotional in the crowd. But there is just something that happens when I play that song. There’s a universal healing that happens in the room, and you can hear a pin drop every single time. It heals me a little bit more every time. I’m in a much better place than I was when I went through my divorce, but singing it, I have a different respect for it. I’m not hurting myself when I sing it anymore, but I’m tapping back into those emotions and that place in order to try to make people that are currently going through it understand that I went through it too and I made it out on the other side.
Most Embarrassing Moment
I had an embarrassing moment on [the Jelly Roll tour] in which he last-minute asked me to sing a song, and I went up there and botched it because I came in at the wrong part. Jelly’s favorite thing is to keep you on your toes. Last minute, he’ll come in and be like, “Hey, AK, we’re not gonna do ‘Friends in Low Places’ tonight. You’re gonna do this one. OK, we’ll see you in 30.” I’m like, “Yeah, OK, never sang that in my life.” So, that was a little embarrassing. That one’s on the internet somewhere if somebody wants to find it!
Most Cherished Souvenir
I always get a magnet from everywhere we go, especially when we were on our European tour last year. And now, Rocko and I … we’ll sneak away and do something, just the two of us, and our newest thing is seeing Broadway shows or Off-Broadway shows ’cause we’re both theater nerds. We love it, so we try to see a show everywhere we go. And so not only now do I have my collection of magnets from Germany and Holland and everywhere we played, I also have a collection of magnets from all the shows we’ve seen when we’re on tour. So I’m gonna need to get a bigger fridge!
