Post Malone says moving to Utah is ‘one of the best things’ he’s done in his life

While speculation about Post Malone’s foray into the country music scene has been rampant for at least a year, his arrival there isn’t all that surprising to those who have worked closely with him.
“I used to say to people, he’s a reverse Taylor Swift: He’s going to start as a rapper, become a huge pop star and after all that, he’s going to be a country artist,” Charlie Handsome, who helped produce all of the songs on Malone’s new album, told The New York Times. “He knows every country song. You can pick a random Hank Williams Sr. song from 1954 and he’s going to know all the lyrics for some reason.”
Now, almost a month after releasing “F-1 Trillion,” his debut country album, Malone is formally introducing his country side to fans across the U.S. in a highly-anticipated tour that started Sunday night in West Valley City, Utah.
For Malone and his fans, the album and tour have been a long time coming.
The artist has long expressed a love for country music and his desire to break into the genre.
“To be honest, there’s nothing stopping me from taking a camera or setting up in my studio in Utah and just recording a country album,” he said in a 2022 interview on SiriusXM’s “The Howard Stern Show,” per People.
In the months leading up to “F-1 Trillion” — which includes styles from different eras of country music — Malone teased collaborations with country stars Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs, covered Garth Brooks, played tribute to the late Toby Keith and appeared on “Cowboy Carter,” Beyonce’s own country music effort.
On Aug. 14, Malone made his Grand Ole Opry debut in Nashville, with an introduction from country legend Brad Paisley. Two days later, “F-1 Trillion,” with its slew of high-profile collaborations — including Paisley, Dolly Parton, Tim McGraw, Chris Stapleton, Blake Shelton, Lainey Wilson and Jelly Roll, per The New York Times — released and made a dent in country music.
The album broke Spotify’s single-day country streaming record with nearly 14 million streams, according to a news release shared with the Deseret News.
Throughout his career, Malone has explored a number of styles, including rap, pop and hip-hop. It’s a versatility that has helped him in collaborating with so many artists.
“Genres suck,” he recently told The New York Times. “It’s easier to catalog music that way. But at a certain point — and the cool thing is that it’s moving towards this — why can’t you mix all this together and make something that’s truly unique to you?”
Now, Malone is taking his own brand of music out on the road. And he started in one of the places he calls home.
Post Malone really loves living in Utah — and he let his fans know it at his West Valley City concerts.
“Moving here to this amazing state was one of the best things I’ve done in my life, besides have a baby girl,” Malone told his cheering fans at Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre, according to a video shared by Salt Lake-based country radio station The Bull on TikTok. “I moved to L.A. when I was a kid, and I was like, ‘Hey this is not kind of where I want to be.’ So I did a show here right on the Salt Flats, and I was like, ‘This place rocks.’ … Like a week later we bought a house here. I gotta say, Utah is one of the most beautiful places on the planet, and I’m so grateful and so honored to be a resident here, ladies and gentlemen.”
Last year, Malone appeared in a video and called Cottonwood Heights, the city where he resides, “the most amazing place ever,” the Deseret News reported.
He has previously called Utah an “oasis” away from Hollywood — “Being in Utah and being away from the grind and from everybody else and it’s just me with my video games and cold one, that feels good to me,” he told Variety in 2019.
In a cover story for Billboard magazine in 2022, Malone said “there are very few distractions” in Utah and that living in the state helps him envision a life outside of music one day.
Malone has also been fairly active in his Utah community. He performed at the NBA All-Star Game that was held in Salt Lake City last year, per the Deseret News. He also lent his eclectic style to the salmon pink Raising Cane’s location in Midvale, and donated a signed acoustic guitar to help raise money for the Utah Honor Flight Program.
So it’s fitting that Malone’s tour started with a two-night stint at Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre in West Valley City. It’s one of just three cities on his tour that gets two nights, according to the tour schedule on his website.
The tour extends through the end of October, and concludes in Austin, Texas.