For years, Orville Peck has been forging his own path within the country music genre as a gay musician from South Africa. Now, the singer is ready to showcase everything he’s learned on Apple TV+’s new singing competition, “My Kind of Country.”
Produced by Hollywood legends and LGBTQ+ allies Reese Witherspoon and Kacey Musgraves, Peck is one of the three scouts – along with Jimmie Allen and Mickey Guyton – who mentor up-and-coming country artists on the show.
During an interview with Out, Peck, who will perform at WeHo Pride in June, opened up about his experience on “My Kind of Country” as well as the inclusivity within the series.
“Me and the other scouts came up in our respective careers often feeling like we didn’t have any support at times,” he reflected. “So now being on the other side of it and being able to bring this much inclusion and diversity into a competition like this, I think it feels really rewarding for us because of our experiences.”
Overall, Peck believes that this show is another great avenue to keep “growing country in this way that I think forces it to be more inclusive.”
Peck is also very excited about the roster of musicians that he scouted and mentored during the competition. “My group of singers are going to be the best, of course… nothing but legends and icons,” he declared. “There are some people from my home country of South Africa in my group. There’s a non-binary artist. It runs the gamut, really. I think people watching the show are going to absolutely fall in love with them the same way that we did.”
This article originally appeared on Out.com, and is shared here as part of an LGBTQ+ community exchange between Q Voice News and Equal Pride.
