Post Malone on success, loneliness, and making his audience know they're loved

Last month Nashville shut down its legendary Broadway for Post Malone, one of the biggest pop stars in the world, who would be singing with one of the biggest names in country. "We're shooting a video with Mr. Luke Combs," Malone said. "We're gonna be performing on the back of a semi-truck."

Malone's duet with Combs, "Guy For That," is featured on Malone's new album, "F-1 Trillion." It also also includes duets with other country superstars, including Morgan Wallen, Blake Shelton and Dolly Parton.

Stars like Combs signed up quick for Malone's country album. "I heard he was gonna be working on this thing and I just wanted to be part of it," Combs said. "Big times for country music!"

To watch the music video for Post Malone's "Guy For That" featuring Luke Combs, click on the video player below:

"Everyone here was so accepting and kind," Malone said.

"That's a testament to you," said Mason.

"I disagree. I think that's a testament to them," he replied.

Post Malone wasn't met with that kind of acceptance in the beginning. In 2015, when his hip hop track "White Iverson" dropped on the internet and went viral, he was called a "culture vulture," and a "one hit wonder."

And how did that response make him feel? "It sucked," he said. "I was a kid." He dealt with it by drinking, a lot.

"Did you take it personally?" Mason asked.

"Absolutely," said Malone. "It's hard not to."

But he kept writing hit songs. "It's not for the people who hate you," he explained. "It's for the people who love you, and for yourself, you know what I mean?"

A decade later, he now has more than 40 billion streams on Spotify, and six #1 hits, including a hip hop track ("Rockstar" with 21 Savage), a pop song ("Circles") …

… and most recently a country tune ("I Had Some Help" with Morgan Wallen):

Across Malone's knuckles are tattooed an eclectic collection of heroes: George Harrison, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Elvis Presley. "They're all dead dudes, by the way," he said. But dudes that are important to him.

Austin Richard Post (he added Malone as a stage name) grew up in Dallas, where his dad managed concessions for the Cowboys.

Asked what made him want to play guitar, he replied, "Guitar Hero. It was, 100%. And I was like, 'Alright, let me get a real guitar and see if it translates.' And it did not!"

But he started writing, and found what Rolling Stone would call "a gift for turning dreamy darkness into Top 40 gold." "You're making a baby with sound waves," he said, "which is neat, I think."

He has a baby now – a two-year-old daughter he sings about in the new song, "Yours":

Yesterday she said her first word
She's a long way from "I do"
Right now, she runs at me
One day she'll run to you
And it will be your best day,
but it's gonna be my worst
You might watch her walking towards you,
but I saw her walking first 

And she might be wearing white,
but her first dress, it was pink
She might be your better half,
but she's my everything
We'll both love her forever,
but I loved her long before
And one day I know I'll give her away
Buddy, that don't mean she's yours

"Yours" by Post Malone

Mason asked, "You're already envisioning your daughter getting married?"

"I think about it a lot!"

"Is this the first song you've written about your daughter?"

"No sir, I've written a whole lotta songs," Malone said.

He keeps her name private, but her initials are tattooed on his forehead – right by his brain. "I'll never forget her. If you heard her cry, you'll never forget her, either! It changes you in the best way ever. And the most beautiful thing is, she has a beautiful mom."

He says both women saved his life: "Four years ago I was on a rough path."

"What were you wrestling with then?" Mason asked.

"Everything," Malone replied. "It was terrible."

"You were already really successful."

"Yes, sir."

"So, what was troubling you?"

"That's a good question," he said. "Just loneliness."

Malone says he was spiraling downward: "Gettin' up, havin' a good cry, drinkin,' and then goin' living your life. And then whenever you go lay down, drinkin' some more and having a good cry. And just like, 'I gotta wake up tomorrow and do this again.' And I don't feel like that anymore. And it's the most amazing thing."

"I'm sorry you went through that," said Mason.

"That's alright. I needed to for myself, to figure who I am."

At 29, Post Malone (who fans affectionately call Posty) is now one of the most popular musicians in the world.  Yet, backstage before a gig in Nashville last month, he was nervous: "I got a big pit in my stomach, like, ready to go, big butterflies."

But "Posty" has an intimate relationship with his fans. He frequently tells his audience that they are loved. "It's important, because not everyone knows it," he said. "There's a lot of very, I think, lonely people."

"Are you trying to give people something that you yourself have at times felt missing?" Mason asked.  

"I think so. Yes, sir. I think that's a good way to put it. Because I don't want people to feel how I've felt. And I know they do. And I'm here and I'm on stage and I just want everyone to feel welcome and to feel loved. And that's the most important thing for me."

"And the love you get back is just as important?"

Malone replied, "I cannot even believe it, the place that I'm in."

      
For more info:

• postmalone.com | Show info
• "F-1 Trillion" tour (Live Nation)
• Pre-order Post Malone's album "F-1 Trillion," to be released August 16
• Done + Dusted
• Definate Films

     
Story produced by Jon Carras. Editor: Mike Levine.

     
More from Post Malone:

"Pour Me A Drink" featuring Blake Shelton:

Post Malone and Swae Lee's "Sunflower" (from "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse"):