Ink, true to her name, is looking to make a permanent mark on country music. The singer-songwriter is already off to a dazzling start with the release of her debut EP, Big Buskin’, a collection of songs that introduce a joyous new voice to the genre. (Cue up “Hoedown” and just try to sit still.)
Born in Germany and raised outside of Atlanta, Ink has the co-sign of Beyoncé, whom she confidently approached at a music industry brunch and told her they were destined to work together.
“[Beyoncé] walked directly toward me…and I’m like, ‘I gotta Ink it out.’ So, I go up to her, I’m like, ‘Look, I’m tired of going back and forth with you. I’m going to write your whole next album,’” Ink tells Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now podcast. “She started laughing, she thought it was so funny and then we just locked in ever since then.”
In fact, Ink collaborated with Beyoncé on two albums: 2022’s Renaissance and 2024’s Cowboy Carter, co-writing “Texas Hold ‘Em,” “Sixteen Carriages,” and “Ameriican Requiem” for the latter. She also likely has a Grammy nomination in her immediate future for cowriting “Luther” on Kendrick Lamar’s GNX album.
Ink got her start playing music on sidewalks and in front of venues, including before a 2014 tour stop by Beyonce and Jay Z in Atlanta. Impressed by the well-dressed fans streaming through the Georgia Dome gates, she made herself a promise.
“I’m watching everybody going with their fit, drip to the nines, looking like real kings and queens,” she says. “And I wanted to go in that concert so bad, but I’m gonna let them have their time… because when I have that time to be at that concert, I’m gonna really be there. So, to come back and actually be making music with [Beyoncé]…I tell people for real, you can really get it done, you can see that victory.”
On this episode of Nashville Now, Ink talks in depth about her Beyoncé relationship, along with her experiences writing in Nashville, making Big Buskin’, and what may happen with some songs she co-wrote with Kacey Musgraves. Watch the episode below.
Download and subscribe to Rolling Stone’s weekly country-music podcast, Nashville Now, hosted by senior music editor Joseph Hudak, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts). New episodes drop every Wednesday and feature interviews with artists and personalities like Lainey Wilson, Hardy, Charley Crockett, Gavin Adcock, Amanda Shires, Jamey Johnson, Shooter Jennings, Margo Price, Gretchen Wilson, Lukas Nelson, Ashley Monroe, Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor, Joshua Hedley, Halestorm, Dusty Slay, and Clever.
