Robert Randolph Talks Beyoncé Collaboration On ‘CBS Mornings’

Pedal steel guitarist Robert Randolph appeared on today’s episode of CBS Mornings to discuss collaborating with Beyoncé on her new album. Beyoncé’s country-focused Cowboy Carter arrived today featuring contributions from an all-star supporting cast that includes Randolph, Rhiannon Giddens, Raphael Saadiq, Miley Cyrus, Post Malone, Nile Rodgers, Jon Batiste and many others.

Robert Randolph’s pedal steel can be heard on “16 Carriages,” one of two singles Beyoncé released last month to preview Cowboy Country. The six-time Grammy nominee revealed he was extremely surprised to receive the call from Beyoncé and Saadiq to work on the album. “I got the call and I’m like ‘what, for real? I’m going to play with Beyoncé.’ What am I going to do? We gonna do ‘Bootylicious’ or something?,” Randolph quipped in reference to the 2001 hit from Bey’s time in Destiny’s Child.

Randolph had to wait for his opportunity to shine. “I was so excited, I couldn’t wait to do it,” he said before explaining the session was initially supposed to happen the week he received the call but kept getting delayed. “Don’t you know who I am? I got something to do, I can’t be waiting around,” the ever-busy Randolph said as the time in the studio was repeatedly pushed back. When Robert finally hit the studio with Beyoncé he recorded multiple parts at her urging in trying different approaches.

The in-demand collaborator was impressed by the wide scope of Cowboy Carter. “As you can see today with the release of so many songs, rightfully so, she had all this creative energy for all of these different country collaborations,” Randolph said. “For her, it has a lot of historical context with a lot of hidden stories, song titles and people are researching like, ‘What was that?'” He brought up Beyoncé shining the light on late Black singer Roy Hamilton who heavily influenced Elvis Presley.

Robert Randolph also discussed the importance of Beyoncé going in the country direction for the 27-track effort. “For the past 20 or 30 years there’s been a lot of Black country artists trying to break through out of Nashville,” he explained. “Just the fact that she’s hinted at released a record and now that it’s out, she’s given all those people new found hope like ‘hey, I can be a country star’ because it didn’t happen before.”

Randolph went to recall learning to play the pedal steel as a youngster in church. He then showed off a few of the country-tinged licks he learned on the instrument for the sessions with Beyoncé.

Watch Robert Randolph’s visit to CBS Mornings and stream Cowboy Carter below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpqCFn1ntHk