Orville Peck Calls Canceling His 2023 Tour a Major Turning Point

Orville Peck has spoken candidly about how a suicide attempt in 2023 influenced some of the most deeply personal material he has ever created.

The 38 year old country artist shared in a recent interview that he was experiencing serious difficulties with his mental and physical well being when he called off his Bronco tour in June 2023. Peck said he deliberately overdosed two days before making the cancellation public.

“I was a bad addict, a coping alcoholic,” the openly gay singer told Rolling Stone. “And I had this spiral moment, where I went back to my hotel and tried to take my life. It was a big turning point for me, with a lot of realizations to come. It was something that needed to happen.”

Peck, whose birth name is Daniel Pitout, explained that he was “in one of the worst places” he had ever experienced. That period, which also involved the end of a relationship and time in rehab, provided the inspiration for his fourth record, Mule, arriving Sept. 18 through Warner Records.

A press statement introducing the album calls the 13 song project a “chronological timeline of the year that reshaped his life, tracing the collapse of addiction, the difficult pursuit of sobriety, and the slow, often uncertain process of rebuilding. Told with unflinching honesty, humor, and compassion, Mule finds Peck confronting love, loss, and identity through songs that move fluidly between classic country storytelling, bluegrass, and expansive Americana.”

The first single from the record, “Too Little, Too Late,” was released Friday, July 24. Written by Peck with Steve Rusch and Semisonic’s Dan Wilson, the pop country song delivers a firm rejection to a former partner hoping to reconnect.

Peck also shared with Rolling Stone that his experience in rehab led him to create the Mule track “Rehab Blues.”

“I didn’t want to be there. I thought it was a waste of time, that I’m unique and didn’t have a problem,” he said. “So I was like, I’m going to write the funniest song about this experience, because at the time I was just like, ‘F— this. I want to leave.’”

Mule comes after the Appaloosa EP, which arrived last November following Peck’s 16 week Broadway engagement as the emcee in Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club.

After performing Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” during his Grand Ole Opry debut on Tuesday, July 21, Peck will begin his Man Turned Mule 2026 North American tour in Sacramento, California, on Oct. 28. The schedule continues until Nov. 22 and concludes at the Paramount in Huntington, New York.