Pharrell Williams Changed My Life – Adekunle Gold

Nigerian international superstar Adekunle Gold (AG) is one of the artists whose music continues to stretch the creative boundaries of Afrobeats through his stellar fusion of sounds, elevated writing, and superlative stagemanship.

In an interview with Apple Music Africa Now Radio, Adekunle Gold tells the host Nandi Madiba about the inspiration behind his new album ‘Tequila Ever After’.

According to Adekunle Gold, he was in a down mood after his last album ‘Catch Me If You Can’ was postponed and to help lift his mood, he was handed a bottle of Tequila. That was his first time taking that brand of alcohol and according to AG, the alcohol put him in a whole new mood.

“I discovered tequila for the first time last year – yeah, I know. We had moved my ‘Catch Me If You Can’ release that day, and I was so upset about it. I wanted the album to come out at a certain time, so I was just upset and obviously, they knew I needed an antidote or something. They brought me a bottle of Patron and I had just one shot… I’m telling you, tequila makes everything better. My mood lifted so much and I’m like ‘sheesh!’. It felt so good.

I pay attention to things a lot and I’m like wait, this experience should not just happen like this without me talking about it. I wondered what if people listen to my music and this is how they feel? I made a song that day and it was a beautiful song and I’m like you know what, I’m going to carry on with this energy. I’m going to let people feel this way after one shot.”

‘Tequila Ever After’ is AG’s fifth album which will fully usher in his Tio Tequila artistic era. According to AG, the album is the fifth level of his adventure, and he’s at his most happy, cheerful, and confident.

“I’m on level five of my adventure game and it’s all fun. It’s happy, it’s a party, it’s more confident, all better off. When you take tequila, it’s all better off – you don’t give any damn, you just say whatever you want to say, and that’s what ‘Tequila Ever After’ means. It’s a metaphor for where I am in my life right now. I’m in a very happy state – like very, very happy – and I want it to shine through the music.”

Adekunle Gold is inspired by the works of different music legends and he credits one of these legends for changing his life through his words. According to AG, 12-time Grammy-winner Pharrell Williams changed his life through his inspiring words.

“Pharrell changed my life with this tweet – I think it was as far back as like 2011 or 2013 – he said something about ‘you are that person already, just put yourself in that place’, and ever since I found that tweet, my perspective of life changed. I stopped being afraid and I started to put myself out there more, moving like a superstar.

One of the things I tell people is if you believe in yourself, you rig the game. You rig the game by just being yourself. Those words changed my life and working with Pharrell on this album? An absolute beauty. Everything about this album is a manifestation that’s happened already.”

AG has enjoyed an impressive 2023 with the release of his chart-topping single ‘Party No Dey Stop’ which he followed up with two impressive singles ‘Omo Eko’ and ‘Do You Know’. He will be aiming to drop the most distinguished album of 2023 come July 28 when ‘Tequila Ever After’ drops.