Elle King Reveals How Finding Her Faith and Becoming a Mom Inspired New Country Song 'Try Jesus'

Matthew Berinato Elle King

Elle King has always been a little bit country — now she's committing to the genre.

On Friday, the Grammy-nominated "Ex's & Oh's" singer-songwriter released her soulful new single "Try Jesus," which will appear on her upcoming country album Come Get Your Wife, due out Jan. 27.

King recruited The Righteous Gemstones' Edi Patterson to make her directorial debut with the "Try Jesus" music video, which is set in a dollar store, where King searches for happiness and meaning in life — while also playing some of the male distractions she's encountered along the way.

"Try Jesus" is the third offering from the LP, following the smash Miranda Lambert collab "Drunk (And I Don't Wanna Go Home)" and the Dierks Bentley duet "Worth a Shot." And this, of course, isn't King's first rodeo in Nashville, where the industry has welcomed her with open arms. She found success with the Bentley duet "Different for Girls" in 2016, which went on to win the CMA award for musical event of the year; she won the 2020 music event of the year ACM award for singing on Miranda Lambert's "Fooled Around and Fell in Love" cover with Caylee Hammack, Ashley McBryde, Maren Morris and Tenille Townes; and earlier this year, she and Lambert won video of the year for "Drunk" at the ACMs.

Ahead of the music video's release, King, 33, opened up to PEOPLE about filming the music video, finding her faith, reconnecting with her roots on Come Get Your Wife — and how becoming a mother to 13-month-old son Lucky (with partner Dan Tooker) changed her life.

Matthew Berinato Elle King

On the message of the "Try Jesus" music video:

Can someone look at this f---ing video and be like, "Well, that was a really silly thing and it made me laugh"? Yes. Do I hope that maybe people could also see that there is a deeper meaning underneath something being so silly? Yes. Do I think that a beautiful message is me rolling around in beans? Absolutely, yes. Because I also want to bring joy to people. And if people are laughing, I also want people to watch the video and say, "What the f--- did I just watch? Can we watch that again?" Because it's silly, and it's happy, and it's joyous. And the message of the song, if you think about it: God is in all of us. And so if we connect to our higher self, isn't that sort of connecting to a part of God? So if we look within ourselves and we find love for ourselves, maybe we're letting in some great spirit. I don't think I've ever been so proud of something.

On letting go of insecurities — and dressing up in drag:

Music videos were kind of a very anxiety-fueled thing for me. Unfortunately, as a woman in this industry and even in this world, I feel like I have to fight harder for my expression and for things that I want. I will continue to do so because I want to enjoy what I believe I've been put in this life to do, which is make music and make connections and show people that you can be yourself and you can be celebrated for it; you can be celebrated for being different, you can be celebrated for being silly. I knew that the thing that made me the most uncomfortable was putting pressure on myself to be the prettiest version of myself singing to camera and having to just be me. But then when I got to start being in character, it brought me back to my younger years of being in theater and doing improv, and how being silly brought out this joy in me.

And I'm not going to lie — the muscle suit, something happened to me when I put that on; I became that person. We were laughing so hard because I just became that guy. But for me, I didn't necessarily consider it being a drag king or anything, even though I would love to do that. I'm such a fan of drag and what it represents, and how it represents so much beauty in expressing love and beauty of all genders.

On finding her faith:

When "Try Jesus" came into my life, it came into my life in a personal way when I'm trying to figure out what my faith is. I'm a mother. How do I teach my son about right and wrong? What do I take from my upbringing as having Christianity and God shoved into my heart, and being told what to do and how to believe and there's only one way to do it. I kind of fought against that. And as I got older, I realized, no, everyone has the capability to connect and have their own love with God in their own way. I think that the song came to me at a time when I literally had just got a Bible and was like, "Let me just see what it says."

I also really think it's important to say that we all went into this as saying this is not a blasphemous video because this song came to me during a time when I'm not only deepening my roots and my faith, but falling in love with my faith and my spirituality.

On embracing vulnerability:

I thought I was being vulnerable on [2018 album] Shake the Spirit. No, I was just getting s--- off my chest. Now I'm in a place where I have nothing to hide. I'm much more comfortable with being vulnerable. I don't have to be so defensive, I can just be open.

This whole album and everything is revealing a lot more about myself, because now I'm much more comfortable because I have nothing… It's not that I don't have anything to prove, because I'll always prove it to you. I will. I love to. But I'm being much more revealing about my life and about a part of my life that I've been so protective of, which is where my family's from and where my family still lives in Ohio, and what truly made me who I am and what brought me here.

Jason Kempin/Getty Miranda Lambert and Elle King

On committing to country:

I was given a talk, like, "They're going to give you a chance, but why should they let you take up airplay if it's a one-and-done?" Because in country, you have to be a lifer. They're like, "OK, we really like this. You're going to have to make a whole record." And I was like, "I just made a whole pop record. You guys, I can't be writing. I can't write a whole other record. I just wrote and recorded an entire record, so I could have a few months off to be a mom?" And they're like, "Well, you want to blow it or what?" And I said, "I know country music. Send me the best songs in Nashville. Send me songs written for men. Send me songs written for women." So they sent me some songs. I recorded some.

And then a song came to me called "Out Yonder," and I said, "Who the f--- wrote that song?" Turns out it's a 22-year-old girl named Ella Langley, and then Bobby Hamrick and Matt McKinney. And I said, "Get me in a room with them." [My label] put them on a tour bus for two days to follow me around. We wrote half the record together. Some songs made me cry. Some songs made me laugh my ass off.

I didn't even really remember or realize until this year that I got signed [to RCA] because of a country song on my first EP, "Good to Be a Man." I was just a girl playing a banjo. But I happened to be able to play any genre on that instrument. Everything is full-circle.

On becoming a mom:

I want my son to see that he has two parents with dreams and they work really, really hard to do it. Motherhood, it will f---ing humble your ass. Parenthood in any sense, whatever caregiver anyone is in that position, it will f---ing humble you. You have to learn empathy. I tell [Lucky], "You have to wake up. You have to brush your teeth. You have to eat. You have to love yourself. You have to be kind to other people. You have to be kind to yourself." I have to show him this. And so I have learned to be patient.

Motherhood made me a gentler person, a stronger person, someone who tries to be… I'm still working on being less reactive, but I'm happy, I'm joyous. I have an incredible partner that believes in me. I've never thought in a million years I would ever move back to Nashville — and I've never been so happy.