Queer country-music icon Orville may be known for his masks but he lays his life bare in Mule—a candid, chronological account of his journey through addiction, sobriety and rebuilding.
Before continuing his North American Man Turned Mule Tour at Chicago’s Salt Shed on Nov. 7, Peck talked with Windy City Times about the album (which continues the equine title pattern of previous works Pony, Bronco and Stampede) as well as representation and other topics. However, the talk started with a current event: the midterm elections.
Note: This conversation was edited for clarity and length.
Windy City Times: We’re now on the other side of the 2026 midterm elections. What are your thoughts?
Orville Peck: I woke up today and it felt like it was a little easier to breathe, and I didn’t even realize how much I was holding in. There’s such a sense of relief that I didn’t know I was missing.
WCT: Yeah—you and me both. I wasn’t expecting quite that much of a turnaround, but I’m not complaining.
OP: Yeah. Honestly, it felt like Obama was getting elected—there was that kind of spirit in the air. I also felt a reassurance of hope in humanity.
WCT: [Switching gears], I’m guessing the only person I ever interviewed who has judged RuPaul’s Drag Race, been in Cabaretand been in [the film] Street Fighter.
OP: [Laughs] That is a very, very niche Venn diagram, I do admit.
WCT: Which of those was the trickiest?
OP: Oh, my God… I think they were all tricky for different reasons. Everything requires a little navigating. Street Fighter was incredibly hard physically but so, so much fun. Cabaret was just the hardest thing, period—especially mentally, stamina. And then you’d think Drag Race would be the easiest thing in the world, but the last people I want to piss off on the planet are drag queens. So all of those have their own particular challenges.
WCT: It wasn’t until I saw you on [theDrag Raceafter-show]The Pit Stopthat I realized you have been a hugeDrag Racefan. Have you seen every season?
OP: Yeah, although I haven’t been watching recently just because I’m so busy. I have been a fan; I watched season one in real time on TV. I watched the main franchise pretty thoroughly until [season] 16 or 17. But I haven’t had much time to do it in the last couple of years.
WCT: My favorite is Bianca del Rio.
OP: Yeah! She’s like the drag queens I grew up with—[the ones] you’re afraid of, you know? [Interviewer laughs.] Like they weren’t running for office like all the drag queens now. You were scared to be around them because they were going to drag you for filth.
WCT: Let’s pivot to music.Mulehas an additional element because it’s so, so personal. [Part of this personal journey inMule] was inspired by what happened in 2023, when your team stopped you from touring?
OP: Yeah. It was like an intervention and it came from a place of care and concern for me. I had been an alcoholic for a long time, but I was a functioning alcoholic and addict—a dangerous type [who] could be up all night and still go out and put on a show. [The concert] would be pretty good by people’s standards, and no one would really know any differently.
So I don’t think there were many indicators for other people to stop and ask if I was okay, because I held it together really well. I was very secretive about it. By the time that intervention happened, the cracks had really started to show because I was starting to really not be able to manage things as well; everything was becoming darker and more intense.
At that point, I think my band was starting to worry about me and they obviously saw that I was in sort of a spiral/crisis. I had this night where I almost missed rehearsal for a very big show that was starting off my tour. That was the last indicator for them; they said, “We think you need to cancel your tour and go to go and get treatment.”
WCT: And I’m sure, looking back, you realize how fortunate you were to have those people looking after you. It seems like so many celebrities are surrounded by “yes” people.
OP: Oh, my gosh—yes. I’ve said before that I think if I didn’t have my band, who are my family… I spend more time with them than my actual family most of the time. But also, if I didn’t have my family, my parents, my brothers—if I didn’t have these people in my life that I cared so much about—I would never have gotten sober because, at the time, I didn’t care enough about myself to get sober.
WCT: I’ve seen the video for one of the songs on Mule, [“Already Gone”]. It’s very cool—and I wanted to give a shout-out to the choreographer. Everything is so seamless.
OP: Yeah. Jonah Almanzar—he’s amazing.
Well, I had this idea for the video the day I wrote that song. I knew I wanted to write a song about going to rehab—[specifically,] arriving at rehab and the early part of it. But I wanted it to not be a typical perspective because my own experience with rehab was not typical. I had a lot of what we call terminal uniqueness, which had [me thinking] “I’m not like these people. I don’t have a problem.”I just drink a little too much.”
I was in such denial and I was consumed by so much ego and entitlement that I was walking around, rolling my eyes and thinking, “I don’t really need to be here.” And so that’s why this song is really upbeat. And then the music video reflects that there are these very serious and sort of clinical scenarios, but I’m viewing the whole thing as a Broadway musical. So, in my imagination, all of the nurses are dancing around and I’m doing choreography.
WCT: And I assume it was your idea to make the album chronological.
OP: Yeah—and it happened organically. I had been writing lyrics for this album, starting in rehab. So, essentially, this album was written over three years. And there were periods of that year that I wanted to write about and the lyrics kept coming naturally.
Each song seemed to be about a sort of different aspect of that year of growth. And, slowly, I started to notice that the songs were in sequence. And then I would notice a gap about a moment so I’d write a song about that. It started to make sense that I was filled in a timeline of the story of how I got sort of from this absolute low place in my life to where I am now.
WCT: Asking something I’ve asked others, what does representation mean to you?
OP: For me, representation simply means that you can see an aspect of yourself in something that should be a representation of all people. If you can look at the government and see either someone who looks, lives or loves like you, [that’s representation]. If you can open a book and you read about a character [you can relate to], that is it.
I didn’t understand how important that was until I started to be a representative for people, which is funny because, when I was a kid, I would have loved to have seen more gay representation in films. But it wasn’t until I started to be that for people and they expressed to me how important that was that I realized how much I also needed that when I was younger. I didn’t even realize it.
WCT: Is there anything you wanted to add about your music or your show, your upcoming Chicago show?
OP: I mean, I love Chicago, I’ve always loved playing there. I’ve been playing in Chicago since back in my punk days—performing at The Empty Bottle and in every venue possible. So I’ve been playing in Chicago for, like, 20 years. I’m excited to be coming back over there.
Orville Peck is performing at The Salt Shed on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 7 p.m. Purchase ticketshere.