Beyoncé is notorious for working hard to perfect her craft. Her new album “Cowboy Carter,” which is breaking Billboard, Spotify, and Amazon Music records, is a testament to this. So, it’s no surprise that if you want to work with the Queen Bey, you have to bring your A game. Country music newcomer Willie Jones learned this lesson for himself.
Willie Jones joins talented artists Dolly Parton, Linda Martell, Willie Nelson, Miley Cyrus, Post Malone, Tanner Adell, Reyna Roberts, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, and Shaboozey as collaborators on the “Break My Soul” singer’s chart-topping country album. He appears on the duet “Just For Fun” and also lends his vocals to Beyonce’s cover of the Dolly Parton classic, “Jolene.”
Although Jones undeniably sounded amazing on the final project, which was released on March 29, it was not without some tough critique from Queen Bey, as evidenced by the notes Jones shared on Instagram — and promptly deleted because as strict as Beyonce is about her music, she’s just as strict about her NDA.
The two-page notes, which were screenshotted and reshared to Twitter on April 5, include Beyonce’s commentary scribbled throughout. The 42-year-old diva notes that Jones was “too raspy” while singing his portion of “Jolene.” She also advised the singer to match the “timing” of the reference singer and made remarks about his runs.
On “Just For Fun,” she had even more to say, scribbling and circling across the lyrics, leaving observations for the 29-year-old singer. Eventually, however, according to the final cut of the song, Beyoncé decided to sing some of the earlier critiqued portions herself.
Willie Jones was a good sport about Beyonce’s advice, took it in stride, and delivered. According to the former X-Factor contestant, he had no choice if he wanted his contribution to make the album’s fast-approaching release date.
“It was literally in the fourth quarter,” Jones told The New York Post. “It was literally … end of February, February 20-something.”
According to Jones, it was Alex Vickery, the vocal producer on “Just For Fun,” who notified him that Beyonce was interested in having him on the album.
“She’s like, ‘Are you sitting down?’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And she’s like, ‘You know Beyoncé is working on a country album … she loves your voice.’ I was like, ‘Are you serious?’ She was like, ‘Can you come out here tomorrow?’ I was like, ‘Send the car,’ ” the Shreveport, Louisiana, native recalled.
Fans on X enjoyed seeing the handwritten notes and remarked on Bey’s perfectionist ways on X.
“OUUUU Bey got him together I know that’s right mother,” wrote one fan. “This actually completely debunks that she ‘just sings the lyrics written for her.’ Writing lyrics is one thing, but having the ear as a producer for little things like this is even more amazing,” she added.
“It’s giving singer, songwriter, vocal coach, and producer,” added another. “So this is what they mean when they say that she knows what she wants,” replied one.
Another fan joked that the notes left for Post Malone’s collaboration “probably looked like a 5k word essay.”
Beyoncé is known for being a perfectionist, and British singer-songwriter-producer Labrinth shared a story about working with the Grammy Award-winning artist on the soundtrack for “The Lion King” back in 2019. The two collaborated on the song “Spirit,” and Labrinth recalled Bey being extremely detail-oriented.
“She cared about everything that was in the record. She cared about what piano we were going to use. Is there enough bass? Not many artists care that much,” the singer told USA Today in 2019.
Labrinth made sure to note that while she was a perfectionist, Bey always treated others with humility.
“Also, just the way she treated us as well. A lot of artists in her position, they can be divas and they can be hard to deal with,” he continued. “Her energy and the messages she sent to us in terms of saying thank you for contributing to ‘The Lion King’ — she sent really beautiful messages. I was really kind of surprised to see that someone in her position still has that humility. For me, that’s when I was like, ‘She’s got all the respect from me in the world that I can give.’”
