Take yourself back to 2015 for a second, and imagine someone came up to you and said, “That kid who made ‘White Iverson’ — nine years from now he’s going to be one of the biggest country music stars on the planet.” Maybe it’d seem inconceivable. But even then there was plenty of reason and evidence to believe Post Malone could pull off exactly the kind of country pivot he has in 2024.
So far this summer, he’s had not only the biggest song in country, but the biggest song in the country: “I Had Some Help,” his hit collaboration with Morgan Wallen, spent five straight weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 (finally unseated by Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please”); it remains at Number One on the Hot Country Songs chart; and it became the fastest song to reach Number One on the Country Airplay chart since Garth Brooks’ 2007 song “More Than a Memory.” Malone has since followed “I Had Some Help” with another blockbuster collaboration — “Pour Me a Drink” with Blake Shelton — and both songs will appear on Malone’s upcoming album, F-1 Trillion (out Aug. 16).
He’s also announced a tour in support of the country LP, which will kick off in September. Malone has navigated this new era with aplomb, steadily wading into the often cloistered world of Nashville, and “paying his dues,” so to speak, with awards show performances, tasteful tributes, and classic covers. He even checked his ego at the door to play an intimate writer’s round a.