Margo Price talks alcoholism, mushrooms and family tragedy ahead of First Avenue gig

When you hear her talk about giving up drinking and having a spiritual awakening since her last album came out, you might think Margo Price has turned into some kind of teetotaling goody-two-shoes.

Yeah, right.

"I count my psychedelic experiences up there with the most important experiences of my life," the country-rock hero said, "even as symbolic as it was to have children."

Raised 350 miles downriver from the Twin Cities in Aledo, Ill., Price has come a long way musically, professionally and metaphysically since her Loretta Lynn-channeling 2016 breakout album for Jack White's label, "Midwest Farmer's Daughter."

Her biggest leap yet arguably came before her newest record, "Strays." An album that literally strays from her throwback country sound into Southern rock and folky balladry, the LP was heavily inspired by Price's experiences writing her well-received, heart-tugging memoir "Maybe We'll Make It."

Talking by phone from the road earlier this week ahead of her return to First Avenue in Minneapolis on Sunday, Price also cited her experiences taking psychedelic mushrooms with husband/guitarist Jeremy Ivey during the songwriting phase as a major influence on the album.

"We wanted to take this little vacation just the two of us to write some songs, and we brought along a bag of mushrooms and kind of just let them guide us wherever we wanted to go next," she recounted. "I'm very grateful that we did."

That physical and mental getaway, she said, opened her up to changing up the musical style on "Strays" to a more kaleidoscopic sound. It also brought more of a "letting go" element to the album's lyrics.

The making of "Strays" paralleled the unpacking of many memories during the writing of her very personal book. In it, she recounts the struggles of making it in Nashville and the pain of having one of her twin sons die from a genetic heart condition two weeks after he was born. (She and Ivey have since welcomed a daughter to the family, too.)

"Strays" also followed a rather serious run-in with COVID-19 at home. All of which also led to her choosing to give up alcohol and start going to therapy.

"Jeremy had nearly died from COVID, he was that sick," Price said. "We were strictly isolated for almost 100 days with young children and no one else there. It was very intense."

"From the very first time I embarked on a [psychedelic mushroom] journey, it has changed the course of my life. I was going to college in the Midwest and was just going to get a job in advertising, do what was expected of me — get the steady job, get the 401(k). Anybody that decides they want to be an artist instead of that has to follow a strange path.

"Mushrooms really kind of opened me up to the idea that I could follow that path, I could just do what I wanted to do."

Now 39, Price moved to Nashville at age 20 and began a decade-plus struggle to carve out a music career in Music City. She and Ivey had played in a few bands, including Buffalo Clover, before Price stepped out on her own and got the career boost via White's Third Man Records.

In the more recent case of making the new album, she said, "I was wondering: 'Are people going to like me if I don't make strictly country albums?' 'Are fans going to say I betrayed them or I sold out?' But ultimately I wanted to follow my muse and go wherever my inspiration took me."

That change of direction is overtly reflected in the album's lead single, "Change of Heart." A bluesy, organ-laced rocker, it became something of a mantra for the rest of the new tunes with such telling lines as, "I quit trying to change the past."

Another bold new track on "Strays," the more psychedelic epic "Light Me Up" — featuring Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell — is a fiery exposition on a topic that Price thinks is far too taboo for women country singers: S-E-X.

"Men have been writing songs about sex for a long time, but at least within my genre of music it's definitely still looked down upon for women to sing about it," she said.

"Especially now, with the challenges to Roe v. Wade, I think we need to celebrate women's pleasure more and women's freedom to do what we want with our bodies."

Price said she was mostly thinking of her own physical well-being when she decided to quit drinking alcohol.

"I didn't need to check into rehab out of emergency, didn't drink every day, anything like that," she said. "I went out and read a lot of books, got a lot of information and studied the science behind what alcohol is doing to my brain. It's kind of like cigarettes: It's a carcinogen, and it damages your body over time."

Of course, Price had one of her heroes and now personal friends and his well-known remedy for stress and alcoholism to thank for encouragement: Willie Nelson, who has long cited his marijuana use as a life savior. She's even followed Nelson's lead and launched her own line of cannabis, Mom Grass, after widely advocating for its benefits.

"Having Willie as a role model in that way was really huge for me, because I didn't have to worry as much about being seen as some kind of pariah or seen as a broken person" in quitting alcohol, she said.

The Midwest farmer's daughter is even now a board member of Nelson's Farm Aid organization. She said becoming friends with the country music legend is "just the best."

"He's just such a joy to be around, always telling jokes and always offering wisdom of some sort for us all to gain. Just sitting and listening to him, I'm grateful to do."

Now, she said she feels "freed up" without alcohol. And she said she is enjoying a similar unburdened contentment after the publication of "Maybe We'll Make It," the writing of which she said had long been a personal goal.

"I wanted to document that time of my life before it was erased from my memory," she explained. "And I wanted to try to explain what Jeremy and I went through."

"It wasn't simply, 'Oh, we lost a baby but just kept making records and finally had our breakthrough.' Because it obviously was very painful and really ugly at times. I wanted to be really transparent with people."

Between the book, the new album and the long career ascent — and those occasional psychedelic excursions, too — Price has found a pretty clear message to pass along.

"I just want to be out here telling people you can absolutely change your life. You don't have to do the same things as everybody else. You can be different."

Margo Price

With: Lola Kirke.

When: 8 p.m. Sun.

Where: First Avenue, 701 1^st Av. N., Mpls.

Tickets: $30, axs.com.