Ashley McBryde’s fifth studio album, “Wild,” follows years that included biker-bar beginnings, a severe concussion, colorful tattoos and sobriety after a heavy drinking spiral that lasted until 2022. With “Bottle Tells Me So” as the emotional centerpiece, she
Ashley McBryde has always moved the way someone does when they’ve earned every step. She grew up in Arkansas in a household shaped by a fire-and-brimstone fundamentalist preacher as her father. She got her start in music playing biker bars. She survived a severe concussion after falling off a horse and hitting her head. She shows it all anyway—colorful tattoos. a gray streak in her brown hair that she refuses to cover. and a kind of hard-earned confidence that doesn’t try to look tidy.
By the time she reached stardom, the story underneath it wasn’t soft. McBryde spent years drinking heavily before getting sober in 2022. On her fifth studio album, “Wild,” she doesn’t just sing about that road—she builds an entire emotional map from it.
“Wild” is an 11-song project produced by John Osborne of the Brothers Osborne. It was recorded with her live band, Deadhorse. The first four cuts carry unmistakable rock energy. Then the fifth track changes the temperature. When McBryde sings “Bottle Tells Me So,” the album’s grit turns into something openly raw.
That song is about a particular kind of rock bottom: a long night of drinking, waking up in a friend’s bed in someone else’s pajamas, and being unable to find her phone. McBryde’s team treated the incident as a turning point. They staged an intervention and encouraged her to check into rehab.
She says she doesn’t frame sobriety as a lecture. “Not everybody has a drinking problem,” McBryde says. “Some people drink perfectly normally — they can consume or not consume. For me it was a bottle, and for you it’s something else, and that’s the point. I don’t come at sobriety from a preaching place. I don’t say. ‘I stopped drinking. and you should. too.’ Your drinking has nothing to do with me. My drinking was killing me, quite literally ending my life. And whatever it is that you’re struggling with, that’s what one song is for.”.
Her career achievements did not protect her from the dark place she ended up in. Despite having one Grammy, three Academy of Country Music Awards, one Country Music Association Award and membership in the Grand Ole Opry, she describes a moment that sounds like a private negotiation with fear.
“The only thing I had was a pistol and a cell phone. and I had to choose which to use. ” McBryde says. “I would pick up my cell phone and call my friend and say. ‘I’m in a bad spot again.’ And he would say. ‘OK. I love you. thanks for using your phone. So you drank again, and it’s getting darker faster. I understand. Try again tomorrow.’”.
Tomorrow, in her case, didn’t stay tomorrow. She now has four years of sobriety. The memories are still there, though. She says even today the bottle still calls her name sometimes—and that she’s learned to fight the voice that offers a shortcut back to the life she survived.
“I’ve negotiated with myself,” she says. “If you’re willing to trade being a member of the Grand Ole Opry. your Grammy. your accolades. every band member. every crew member. and the way your voice sounds. then drink the drink. No one’s going to stop you from chugging the whole thing. Years after I’ve stopped coming to you. bottle. you’re still tapping me on the shoulder. saying I can fix it. But you’re wrong, and f–k you, I will not bend.”.
On “Wild,” she leans into storytelling as the vehicle for everything she’s lived through. The album doesn’t stick to the familiar country templates. Instead. she tackles her difficult childhood relationship with her father on “Rattlesnake Preacher. ” sings about a marriage devoid of emotion in “Lines in the Carpet. ” and turns “What if We Don’t” toward the death of a high school friend and unrequited love.
She carried that approach into a visual series too: she filmed 11 videos, one for each song on the album.
“It was exhausting,” McBryde recalls. “Some of the time we shot three songs in one day. But looking at the songs and trying to tell the story of who you’re sitting across from and where she came from, I think it was fitting.”
When “Wild” moves from studio walls to live rooms, she wants those stories close enough to feel. McBryde will play the songs on her “Into the Wild” tour, which kicks off in September for a 26-city run. At 42, she says she genuinely loves touring.
“I’m at an age in my life where I love being home. planting flowers. providing a safe place for wildlife to get food and water. ” she says. “But I am most alive when I’m trapped in a bus with eight other people because there’s nothing to distract you. Nutrition can sometimes be a challenge. but none of it matters. because what I’m going to get at the end of the day is 90 minutes of: nothing can touch me. safety. security and creativity. If I’m home too long, I actually get homesick for the highway.”.
That need for both safety and space shows up offstage too. When she’s not traveling, McBryde is often found at “Redemption,” the Nashville nonalcoholic bar she owns on the fifth floor of Eric Church’s Chief’s. She says Redemption sells alcohol—but only if customers specifically request it.
“You can ask my bartenders for alcohol, and they will happily serve it to you,” she says. “They’re not going to treat you asking for alcohol the way people treated me when I would ask for a nonalcohol drink. I’m not saying this is a bar for sober people. but I made some space available for people who don’t drink a lot or don’t want to be slobbered on by a bunch of drunks.”.
Onstage and around town. she’s comfortable in T-shirts and jeans. though she went through a jumpsuit phase earlier in her career and moved on because she was uncomfortable moving around in them. She frequently wears sleeveless or low-cut pieces to show off her brightly colored tattoos. including an exploded TV on the back of her calf that nods to the John Prine song “Spanish Pipedream.”.
On her feet are boots—always. She has partnered with Ariat in the past, and they designed models she wore for red carpet appearances. Today she opts for slightly higher heels because she is 5 feet, 3 inches tall, and she chooses “swankier” materials such as suede.
For her “Wild” media campaign and tour. she’s wearing waxed jeans with studs. tank tops and a “fresher. more natural face. more of my natural hair texture.” Her signature gray streak runs down the left side of her hair. “That’s the only part we don’t color,” she says, adding that she went gray at 24. Her hairstylist created permed extensions to match her natural curls. allowing her to spend less time on her hair every day.
On the red carpet, hosting awards shows or presenting, she goes bigger: “Whatever looks great on camera wins,” she says. For the recent Academy of Country Music Awards. she wore a dark brown dress with ruching around the waist for the red carpet and a red column dress while presenting the award for Male Artist of the Year.
As for what comes next, she has her own measured kind of ambition. “It’s so rewarding to see us move from a van to a sprinter. to an RV. to a bus. to two buses. to two buses and a truck. but I would like to see our audience quadruple. ” she says. “I want us to play to 10,000 people a night and reach more folks. I want to headline Red Rocks. I want to play Madison Square Garden.”.
She’s also plotting new ink. “I want to get more tributes to the songwriters that made me want to write songs,” she says, mentioning Kris Kristofferson. “And I need a Guy Clark piece.”
For McBryde, the thread running through all of it is simple: the music is where she tells the truth. The tour is how she keeps it moving. And the album—especially the moment in “Bottle Tells Me So”—is how she makes sure the darkest chapters don’t get rewritten into something easier. They get sung.
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