A few miles west of the high-rise corporate offices of Nashville’s many major record labels, and the glitz of the tourist trap honky-tonks along Broadway, the trip to Margo Price’s house takes you off the interstate onto a quiet two-lane road. Before long it begins to feel like you are traveling through a Smoky Mountains town in eastern Tennessee, as the only landmarks seen are the steep drop-offs into thick forest where sidewalks would normally be, and you realize this would be the perfect place for the highest-profiled proponent for legalized marijuana in modern country music to light up comfortably without fear of being busted.
Well, not as much fear, anyway.
“Yeah, its kinda reached a point where I’ve started wondering if my house is going to get raided,” Price admits with a laugh when asked about her public love of weed. Through both mainstream and social media, the singer isn’t shy about partaking, with pictures of the performer lighting up with the help of a magnifying glass posted next to tour stop announcements.
“I look forward to a day when I can be completely open with preferring to just smoke.”
“Does it feel a little ‘extra’? It is seriously so good, because there’s no butane,” Price explains with zeal. “Butane is terrible for my voice, and sometimes—depending on the batteries being used – vaping irritates it, too. With the magnifying glass, all you taste is the weed, which is a bonus as well.”
If the makeshift use of the glass as a lighter feels a little too much like a Twitter gimmick, it would be the only aspect of Price’s life — whether personal or creative — where the singer did something less than genuine for the sake of someone’s approval. 2016