Issue #105: Fancy Hagood Answers the Don’t Rock the Inbox Proust-ish Questionnaire

Growing up, my mother subscribed to many, many magazines. This may come as no surprise considering what I do for a living, but on any given day there would be several wicker baskets around our apartment filled with periodicals like National Geographic, New York, Vanity Fair and whatever I insisted on (Rolling Stone, Spin, Jane) to dig into – which I would do, for hours and hours at a time. I didn’t always read every page of every issue, but I definitely learned about things far earlier than I probably should have, and I did grow to love a true magazine profile where I felt like I was next to an artist or musician or actor at a café, figuring out what makes them human.

But I also loved the fun stuff – the quizzes, the surveys, the easy front of book content I could read over breakfast before catching the bus on First Avenue in the morning. One of my favorites, and most memorable, was always the Vanity FairProust Questionnaire, which you could predictably find on the last page of the magazine and where people like Patti Smith would tell you about their penchant for tweed coats or Johnny Cash would tell you his greatest regret.

So in tribute to that time and to the magazines we loved, I thought it might be fun to resurrect a version here at Don’t Rock the Inbox: the Don’t Rock the Inbox Proust-ish Questionnaire. And who better to kick things off than the supremely talented, funny and insightful Fancy Hagood, who made one of the best country albums of 2024, American Spirit (and released an excellent deluxe edition in April American Spirit: The Last Drag). Fancy’s songs continuously stop me in my tracks for how dead honest, how tender, how true they are, made by someone who clearly adores country music and feels it on a cellular level – and it’s also important to mention that, as a queer person, he makes it part of his artistry to fight for room in this genre for everyone, not just, as he puts it below, mediocre straight white men.

Turn on American Spirit and check out Fancy’s answers below – we based the questions on the original Proust style, but obviously tailored things to suit our country music inclinations. Let us know in the comments who you want to see here next!

The Don’t Rock the Inbox Proust-ish Questionnaire: Fancy

1. What country album is your idea of perfect happiness?

The Price of Admission, Turnpike Troubadours.

2. What’s your greatest fear about your career?

That it will end me.

3. What is the trait you most deplore in other artists?

Being too thirsty.

4. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

My hesitation to immediately trust the process.

5. Which living country artist do you most admire?

Reba McEntire.

6. What is your greatest extravagance on tour?

Extravagance? Please...as if!

7. What is the most overrated virtue in the country music world?

Conservatism.

8. Which of your past aesthetic choices do you dislike most?

2013 – 2017.

9. Which country artist, living or dead, do you most despise?

<insert mediocre straight white male here>.

10. Which words or phrases do you most overuse in your songwriting?

Pass.

11. When and where were you happiest?

Last year at Bonnaroo listening to the 76ers theme song for the 76th time with all of my friends.

12. Which talent would you most like to have, other than music?

I wish I could paint and draw.

13. If you could change one thing about your career so far, what would it be?

That I didn’t have to fight so hard to be seen and recognized.

14. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

My long lasting friendships.

15. If you were to die and come back as another country artist, living or dead, what would it be?

Tanya Tucker.

16. Where would you most like to live if you didn’t have to be tied to one particular place for work (if you are)?

London.

17. What is your most treasured musical possession?

My grandpa's guitar

18. Which historical figure in country music would you most like to collaborate with?

Dottie West.

19. Who are your heroes in real life?

Elton John, Nickel Creek, Michelle Obama, Oprah, Beyoncé, Reba, Dolly.

20. What is your greatest regret?

Not kissing him...

21. What is one perfect country song, to you?

“Feathered Indians” by Tyler Childers.