Margo Price

Two years ago, while tripping on mushrooms, Margo Price decided to quit drinking. This wasn't her first attempt, but something about her psychedelic journey led her to an epiphany. "I know it sounds a little woo-woo, but I was touched by something," says Price, 39.

- ANGIE MARTOCCIO

"I thought about fucking everything that had happened in my life up until that point, and I didn't know what was holding me back from quitting." With this newfound perspective, Price finished her excellent memoir, Maybe We'll Make It. It focuses on her early struggles to break through in Nashville, at a time when she was grappling with drugs, alcohol, and trauma. On its heels, she's releasing her new album, Strays, on Jan. 13. With scorching riffs, heartfelt folk, and appearances by the Heartbreakers' Mike Campbell, it's her strongest, most cohesive record yet. "Booze saved my life in a lot of ways," she says. "It almost killed me, but it also numbed feelings when everything was garbage. I might write an entire country album and dedicate it to booze."

What inspired you to write a memoir? 

I've always wanted to be an author, but it was spurred by two things. One of them was Patti Smith's Just Kids, and thinking how beautiful it was that she wrote a book that was just about her youth and her partner [Robert Mapplethorpe]. And then when I got pregnant, I just felt so purposeless. I was like, "OK, I can't tour. I need something to keep me creatively fed." So I started obsessing over it.

You reveal a lot here. You can usually disguise tough facts in songwriting, but it's harder to do that in a memoir. How was that for you?