It feels like you’re entering a new season of life. Offstage, who are you these days? How would you describe yourself?

I’m very intuitive and sensitive, but I also recharge around people. I really love having fun with my friends. Laughter is important to me. Grounding is important to me. And honestly, normalcy is important, especially with this kind of life.

I have a very kind heart. I care about people a lot, which can be a double-edged sword sometimes. I love fashion, I love music, I love dancing, and I love going out and being around people. 

I think all of those things are probably rooted in how I see life in general.

Tell me more about your outlook and how you see life.

I feel like a lot of people think life is something to be solved, like it’s one problem after another, and you’re constantly problem-solving. But I like to think of it more as something you’re here to experience.

Things happen because it’s life. It’s uncomfortable sometimes, and it can be hard and make you sad. And then there are other times when it’s amazing, and you’re so happy you can’t believe you get to be here. I think all of that is important – to be present in the moment, to go through all of the ups and downs, and to know that you’re here on earth to experience human emotion.

We shouldn’t take everything too seriously.

One thing you mentioned immediately was dancing – not just performing, but the way it brings people together. I know “Austin” even had its own line dance. That feels like more than part of your show now. Has it become part of your philosophy as an artist? 

I do feel like it’s a big through line for me as an artist, especially as my platform grows. Human connection is so powerful, and I think so many things in the world could get better if people spent more time together and realized how much they have in common.

Take the World Cup. You see people from all over the world experiencing things for the first time, like people from Japan experiencing Texas barbecue for the first time, and it can’t help but make you emotional because it’s so human and so real. You realize we’re all the same.

That’s why I’ve always loved line dancing. Anyone can do it. You don’t have to be a great dancer. It’s just stepping and kicking and moving together. You can add your own style to it as you get more comfortable, but I’ve always been drawn to it because it’s such an easy way to connect people from different places, views, or languages.

I see it on tour, too. “Austin” became so much bigger globally than I ever expected. It’s one of the biggest country songs in history, which is honestly wild to me. 

When I go to other countries on tour, we always try to find local country bars and host pop-ups and get fans to come line dance. And while we’re there, I’ll have people break down in tears and tell me, “I haven’t felt this kind of connection in so long.” It makes me cry, it’s so sweet.

So yes, that’s a really big part of my upcoming album, and it’s going to be a big part of my music and my platform forever because I think it’s so important, especially as an artist, to create experiences that bring people together.

Music is the most powerful thing in the world, and I feel like I have this responsibility to help people. I want to help people, and I want to bring people together. I have a lot of fun doing it and I find so much satisfaction in it, more than all the accolades. 

What really makes my heart sparkle is people being brought together through my music. I love that so much.

Austin wasn’t just a big hit – it happened relatively overnight. Looking back now, is there anything you would have done differently if given the chance? 

This thought actually kept me up the other night. I was thinking, “I wish I posted more on social media. I wish I had shown more of my personality and been more true to my style and had more time to figure out simple things, like how I wanted to do my makeup.”

The thing is, my moment did happen so fast and so overnight that I blinked and all of a sudden I was on the CMT stage thinking, “What is going on?” – even though I’ve been preparing for this my entire life. 

I’ve been dancing since I was 3 years old, I did musical theater from the ages of 5 to 18, I know my way around a stage. I can perform, and I can put on a show. But it’s everything else around it that you have no clue is coming.

All of a sudden, you have a major label at your disposal. You have a fashion stylist, a hairstylist, a makeup artist, managers, agents, and publicists. You have media training telling you how to talk. And then you also have to stay grounded and stay true to your north star while all that’s happening.

So I had a burnout like I’ve never had before. I experienced depression for the first time in my life, and it was such a juxtaposition because my literal dreams were coming true.

On the outside, people were texting me, congratulating me, and telling me how awesome everything was. But privately, I was crying in my bed alone because I felt so lost.

So my advice would be that if there’s anything you can do, stay true to yourself.

Does that make it easier to feel at home, even when you’re constantly touring and traveling?

Yes, home is a feeling for me now.

Obviously, I love being home. I love my bed and all of that. But I love having my friends on the road more than anything. I love when my parents come out, and we just laugh and have a good time. That’s what makes it the most fun.

You mentioned grounding a few times throughout our conversation. What helps you find your way back to yourself?

For me, I realized how important it is to have people on the road with me who are actually my friends.

I just hired my best friend to be my social media manager, partly as an excuse for us to be together all the time. That alone, in the past six months, has made the biggest difference in my attitude and excitement to be doing this work.

Experiencing all of this with someone who has been there and believed in you since the beginning is so much more special than a group of people you’re simply paying to be on the road with you.

To me, there’s no point to any of this unless I can share it with the people I love.

As your world continues getting bigger, what does a well-lived life look like to you right now? 

Balance is a really big thing for me because we’re on the road so much. 

People don’t understand how much of a grind it really is. We drove in last night, slept on the bus, woke up, and are pulling our suitcases out in the hot sun while fans are looking at us through a fence. It’s so humbling sometimes, and it’s not always glamorous. 

After long days like that, I’m so tired. Like the other night after a day of shooting a video, one of my friends I hadn’t seen in a while texted me and said, “We’re going salsa dancing.”

I didn’t want to go, but then I thought, “You only get one life.” So I went, and I had the best night.

I think it’s really easy to become exhausted by life, but I’m not going to let it exhaust me.

When you are tired and winding down, how do you spend that quiet time? What do you read, watch, or listen to?

I just read Dan Brown’s new book – he wrote the Da Vinci Code. This one is, “The Secret of Secrets.” There’s a lot of science in it, like this theory of non-local consciousness. And it takes place in Prague. I’m Czech, so it was really interesting reading about these beautiful landmarks in the book.

I also just finished the show, “The Night Agent,” which was amazing.

Music-wise, I love Gracie Abrams’ new song “Hit the Wall.” She just announced her new album, so I’m very excited about that. I’m such a fan of hers. I think she’s an incredible songwriter.

Joshua Slone’s album is perfect, too. It’s so conversational. He writes most of the songs alone, and I feel like it’s so hard these days to write a song just purely out of how you feel. But his entire album does, and it’s so good.