K. Michelle Checks Interviewer Who Ignored Her Country Upbringing

K. Michelle, known as Puddin’ in the world of country music, had to put an interviewer in check recently after they attempted to claim that she “didn’t grow up with country music.”

“I did grow up in country music. You do this all the time,” said the Memphis native. She spoke on her Southern roots and shared how she even got a college scholarship for yodeling. “My start, to you, has been when the Judd [family] reached out to me to go pay Naomi Judd tribute,” she explained.

She was referring to her 2023 performance of “Love Can Build A Bridge” with Jelly Roll at the 57th Annual County Music Association Awards.

The former R&B songstress noted that country music has “always been a thing for me.” She even shared, “I was told I could not sing country music because I was Black, but it was something I had always been doing and will continue to do.”

Of her appearance at the 2025 CMA Fest, where this interview took place, K. Michelle noted, “I’m born and raised in Tennessee. I didn’t fly here. I grew here.”

Going back to country music, she shared, “I am so happy to be able to sing the songs of who I am and what it is I want to. So, I’m happy that people like you are just discovering me though.”

When the interviewer tried to backpedal and state that K. Michelle was unknown on contemporary country radio, she fired back, “Well, you don’t hear a lot of women in contemporary radio, period, right now. And you really don’t hear Black ones, but you will.”

Puddin’s “Outlaw Music” is coming soon, but her debut country single, “Tennessee,” is out now. She signed with BMG Nashville in 2024.