Joseph Hudak
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Texas country singer Paul Cauthen onstage at the Grand Ole Opry: He landed on Beyoncé's radar while she was recording 'Cowboy Carter.' Chris Hollo* Paul Cauthen released his latest album, Book of Paul, last week. Like other LPs in the Texas native’s catalog, the record ripples with Cauthen’s God-given swagger and gift for rhythm. Safe country music is not what Cauthen makes. Perhaps that’s what put the man known as “Big Velvet” on the radar of a certain pop star who was releasing a high-profile country album back in 2024.
In a new interview on Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now podcast, Cauthen recounts how the unnamed artist — who is clearly Beyoncé — came to him looking for songs for Cowboy Carter. According to the “Cocaine Country Dancing” singer, the superstar heard his music thanks to an assistant who worked for Beyoncé’s family and, as it turns out, went to high school with Cauthen.
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“She started playing my stuff and the family started loving what I do. And then their producers came, found out I was in Silverlake in California, and showed up in a black Suburban,” Cauthen says. “Three producers come out and listen to what I’m doing: ‘We love that one, we love that one…’ I was doing this for my record in a way, and now we’re going to move in for doing it for a big pop star.”
Cauthen and his collaborator Beau Bedford changed gears. “Beau and I pivoted and started churning out songs,” Cauthen says. “It kind of put me in a whole different writing space, writing for a big pop star. I put a pop-centric edge on my own honest writing and what I think is true. It really pivoted for me in a cool way.”
