Beyoncé Reveals That She Had Planned To Release ‘Cowboy Carter’ Before ‘Renaissance’ But Decided Not To Because Of The Pandemic, “I Had To Trust God’s Timing”

Cousins! Just off the heels of her Renaissance high, Beyoncé has followed up with her newly released body of work, Cowboy Carter. Following the recent release of the 27 track album, Beyoncé’ has revealed how the timing of her initial plans took an unexpected shift!

According to Variety, part one of Beyoncé’s trilogy project was supposed to kick off with ‘Cowboy Carter’ instead of ‘Renaissance’ however, she explains that the devastating impact of the pandemic changed things.

 “This album took over five years,” said Beyoncé in a press release. “It’s been really great to have the time and the grace to be able to take my time with it. I was initially going to put ‘Cowboy Carter’ out first, but with the pandemic, there was too much heaviness in the world. We wanted to dance. We deserved to dance. But I had to trust God’s timing.”

Beyoncé also revealed that ‘Cowboy Carter” was deeply inspired by numerous Western films, reports Variety. “She says that had the films playing during the recording process and named five as source material: “Five Fingers For Marseilles,” “Urban Cowboy,” “The Hateful Eight, “Space Cowboys,” “The Harder They Fall” and “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Some bits of percussion on the album were also inspired by the soundtrack for “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

“My process is that I typically have to experiment,” says Beyoncé. “I enjoy being open to have the freedom to get all aspects of things I love out and so I worked on many songs. I recorded probably 100 songs. Once that is done, I am able to put the puzzle together and realize the consistencies and the common themes, and then create a solid body of work.”

All the sounds were so organic and human, everyday things like the wind, snaps, and even the sound of birds and chickens, the sounds of nature,” Beyoncé explained about wanting to pay homage to the country, blues, and Black folk by using  “real instrumentation”.

Cowboy Carter features contributions from country music artists such as Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Linda Martell, Stevie Wonder, Chuck Berry, Miley Cyrus, Post Malone, Jon Batiste, Rhiannon Giddens, Nile Rodgers, Robert Randolph, Gary Clark, Jr., Willie Jones, Brittney Spencer, Shaboozey, Reyna Roberts, Tanner Adell and Tiera Kennedy.

“I think people are going to be surprised because I don’t think this music is what everyone expects,” said Beyoncé. “But it’s the best music I’ve ever made.”