Lana Del Rey is back, and she’s stepping into her country era. But while her next album might not arrive until next year, she insists that she hopped on these sounds first.
In an interview published by W Magazine on Tuesday, August 26, Del Rey — whose real name is Elizabeth Grant — revealed her next album, Stove, is set to arrive in January 2026. The album will have country-inspired sounds. Though Stove follows suit of Beyoncé, Post Malone, BigXThaPlug, Sabrina Carpenter, and several other pop and hip-hop acts who’ve release country albums and singles over the past year, Del Rey claims that she had the idea first.
“Eight years ago, when I was looking to make a country record, no one else was thinking about country,” Del Rey said. “Now everyone is going country! I’ve asked myself, Should I retire all my snakeskin boots? Should I put my cowboy hats in storage?”
It is worth noting that Beyoncé — who recently wrapped up her Cowboy Carter Tour which accompanied her country-inspired Cowboy Carter album — revealed that said album was born from an experience when she felt unwelcome, which fans quickly deduced was an allusion to the 2016 CMA Awards, when she was met with backlash for her performance with The Chicks. So both concepts were likely conceived around the same time.
Perhaps Del Rey’s 2024 marriage to tour boat captain Jeremy Dufrene, who hails from Louisiana, inspired her to continue to work on her country album. Elsewhere in the interview, Del Rey revealed that she knew she and Dufrene were in love the moment they met.
“When we met, I realized pretty immediately that I loved him, but that it might get difficult because of what I was bringing to the table. Jeremy said, ‘I work with alligators—I have tough skin.’ And he is a man of his word,” Del Rey said. “All the things that made me upset—and there were so many!—he would just listen and say, ‘You be you—and I’ll just love you more.'"