Margo Price has lived in Nashville for more than 20 years, but she's never recorded a full album there, despite its abundant supply of legendary studios. For her fifth LP, Hard Headed Woman, she decided to change that. "It was just because I always felt like such an outsider in Nashville," Price, 42, exclusively told Us Weekly. "I wanted to do things outside of the box. I didn't want anyone to try to make me sound too country-politan or too produced. But now I really feel like all of the narrative and everything is in my hands, and so it made sense to finally record here, because Nashville is a part of my DNA, for better or worse." Price, however, didn't choose just any old studio for Hard Headed Woman. She and her band went to Nashville's iconic RCA Studio A, a national historic landmark whose hallowed halls have hosted the likes of Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard, Nancy Sinatra, Charley Pride and Loretta Lynn. It was the perfect place for Price to make a return to her original, country-forward sound after veering toward rock and psychedelia on 2023's Strays. "I get chills on the back of my neck just even thinking about Dolly being in there," Price told Us. "History was made in that studio, and to be able to carry on and be a part of that history is just so special." Hard Headed Woman is a new album, obviously, but there are nods to the history of country music all over it. Price puts a new spin on the George Jones classic "I Just Don't Give a Damn," and the closer, "Kissing You Goodbye," is a Waylon Jennings cover that his wife, Jessi Colter, suggested she sing. (Price produced Colter's 2023 album, Edge of Forever.) Several tracks were cowritten with Rodney Crowell, and "Don't Let the Bastards Get You Down" was directly inspired by the words Kris Kristofferson once said to Sinéad O'Connor when she was facing backlash for comments she'd made about the pope. Margo Price Says Sobriety Put Her in 'Best Headspace' of Her Life "That song was written a couple years ago, back before things kind of felt like they had reached this complete boiling point," Price explained of the latter track. "But it was really like a mantra for me, in a way, to be able to let things roll off my back and keep on my path - musically, personally, everything, and not be worried about what critics or Joe Schmo on the internet with his private profile and hidden avatar [has to say]. ... Any time you try to step outside of the box and do something different, people are going to have opinions about that. And really, the way I look at it is, if you have haters, you're doing something right, because you're getting people's attention." Price has faced down her share of haters over the years, refusing to stay silent about politics in a genre where the most radio-friendly artists seem to adopt a "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward anything potentially controversial. She's also been outspoken about the issues she's faced in the music industry itself, having previously sung about a former manager "old enough he could have been my dad" who spiked her drinks ("This Town Gets Around" from her debut album, Midwest Farmer's Daughter). "[With] Midwest Farmer's Daughter, I was writing about my frustrations in the music business, but I hadn't even tapped into it yet," she said. "Now I'm really getting to see the insides of it, and it can be very ugly. And so ["Don't Let the Bastards Get You Down"] was just a really cathartic song to write." While Price is beloved among fans of "alternative" country artists like Sturgill Simpson and Tyler Childers (the latter of whom appears on the heartbreaking Hard Headed Woman duet "Love Me Like You Used to Do"), she believes her outspokenness has probably lost her some career opportunities - but she wouldn't do anything differently. 8 Times Female Country Music Stars Stood Their Ground "It's important for other little girls to see someone saying, 'I am a woman. I am completely in my own body, in my own mind. And I don't have to try to appear to be younger than I am,'" she told Us. "I wanted [this album] title because I am hard-headed. Everything I've done has been sometimes one left turn after another, like changing genres, like speaking my mind about social causes and trying to be a cultural worker. It's cost me, but I'm very proud of the career that I've built, and so that's why I wanted that title. And also, just because of the way that the world is right now. We're taking away women's rights. We're trying to paint trans people as a threat or a problem, and I really just want to very proudly say, 'I'm a woman, and we deserve to have our rights too.' And it'd be nice if some guys would stand up and shout that along with us." Last year, Price caught heat for something a little less dire than her political opinions: her nose job. In July 2024, she revealed that she underwent rhinoplasty and septoplasty surgeries the year prior after having breathing problems from having broken her nose more than once. But also, she just d