‘I Shouldn’t Have Told You That’: Shaboozey Spills the Tea on His Feminist New Album & Designing an F1 Race Car

As a Virginia native, Shaboozey naturally grew up with a deep love for the sport of racing — and now, he’s becoming part of the action ahead of the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, this weekend.

Thanks to his continued partnership with Cash App, the country star’s signature tortoise credit card design — which he initially helped launch in February — will decorate both of the Visa Cash App Racing Bulls’ Formula 1 race cars this Sunday (Oct. 19) as they speed alongside 18 other drivers on the track. Boozey also appears in a short film showing off the eye-catching new vehicle for the first time.

And while speaking to Billboard ahead of the car’s big debut on race day, the musician explains why this is such a major full-circle moment for him. “I grew up in Virginia, and when I was going around to different thrift stores — there was like a huge vintage community — a lot of us would collect different race-car merchandise from like the early ’90s, late ’80s, even early ’70s,” he says.

“It kind of started from there, just picking up on different race car drivers like Richard Petty and Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt and all those things,” he continues. “[Racing] felt like it was something that was ours, you know? 
It was something that kind of started from that region — Virginia, the Carolinas — it was cool to just feel like we had something that was part of our culture. So it was really cool to see how they influenced my sound and my music and my style and everything. Everything started from racing a little bit, to be honest.”

Now, the spotted F1 United States Grand Prix car design he was involved in may very well become the stuff of vintage racing collector’s items someday. “I think Cash App has continued to really push the line as far as what they have been doing with their creative, which is something that, honestly, I’ve been waiting to see a lot of brands do,” Boozey tells Billboard. “The tortoiseshell was so awesome, seeing it all come together from the storyboard, from the treatment … it looked better than anything I could have ever expected. 
It really could have been a movie.”

In addition to nurturing his love of racing — the musician is excited to attend the Grand Prix in Austin this weekend — Shaboozey has been hard at work on his next album and launching his own record label. While speaking to Billboard, he says that his follow-up to 2024’s Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going is pretty much “ready to go,” except for the fact that he keeps “changing the songs and sequences and the track order and all that stuff — and making new songs.”

“[It’s about] feminism, I’ll say that,” he also reveals. “Femininity is probably the best word I can use. There’s a story there. It’s a concept album, but y’all are the first to know that, to be honest. It’s a Western concept album about femininity — I shouldn’t have told you that!”

As for launching his American Dogwood label with EMPIRE and signing his first artist, Kevin Powers, in September, Shaboozey says he’s loving being the boss and hopes to bring more musicians aboard as soon as someone “crosses [his] radar.”

“He’s awesome,” Boozey says of Powers, whom he hopes to bring along to the big race in Texas on Sunday (Oct. 19). “He’s also from Carolina, so I think that ties back into my origins and just the love I have for that region, which I feel like sometimes is a forgotten region — Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland. I feel like we’re kind of left out of a lot of conversations for one reason or another, but I feel like we’ve started so many trends and started so many things. There’s so much history over there.”

Watch Shaboozey’s short film premiering his new livery below.