Lou Ridley Says Her Mom Asked Her to Cut Risqué Scene from ‘American Girl’ Video — but She Refused (Exclusive)

Tricia DespresWed, September 30, 2026 at 3:50 AM UTC

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Lou RidleyCredit: Shelby Parks -

Lou Ridley says the visual for her recent single “American Girl” is the first to match her creative vision

“For a long time, I just felt like I couldn’t get my point across,” she tells PEOPLE

Ridley says Maren Morris offered validation after others urged her to stop sharing her opinions

Lou Ridley has always been one to notice what others are too busy to catch.

“The biggest wasp I have ever seen in my life is in here with me right now,” Ridley, 36, tells PEOPLE from the screened-in porch of her producer’s house in Georgia. “So if it gets weird, me and the overweight pug are running in the house.”

It’s a proclamation that wouldn’t surprise those who have come to know the outspoken figure with the Lady Gaga vibes who has made far more than a few waves in the music industry through the years. But what makes Ridley truly different is the way she can cuss you out while still bringing with her a sincerity that is undeniable — something that comes through loud and clear on songs such as her heartfelt new single “Good Bad Day.”

“I find that these days, it’s easy to focus on everything we are up against, but I don’t believe that will make it any better,” says Ridley, who grew up singing Garth Brooks’ songs in the back seat of the family car. “Sometimes it’s the dedication to finding the good in the rough spots that makes the good exist.”

Searching for that good in the bad is somewhat of a mantra for Ridley — and it certainly has been a crucial one to have throughout her life, having dealt with everything from an adoptive father who convinced her that her music wouldn’t make her any money to the rape that took her virginity as a teenager to the ex-boyfriend who forced her to question everything she had worked toward up to this point of her life.

“He was absolutely terrible to me, but it was the best thing to ever happen to me because it completely changed the trajectory of my career,” the former house cleaner says of the relationship that would ultimately come to an end a year and a half ago.

Most recently, Ridley has been working at a chiropractor’s office — but not anymore. “I worked my last shift on Saturday,” she reveals. “I’m going on tour.”

Indeed, the career twists and turns continue to play out for Ridley, as the Houston native gets ready to hit the road with Bryan Andrews as part of his Taking My Flag Back tour. “My tenacity is deep-rooted,” Ridley says with a smile.

It’s a tenacity that comes through her music — most recently on her latest defiant single “American Girl,” a song that takes a deep dive into the titles the world would still love to blindly hand out to women.

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“I’ve got a notes app full of things that I’m always thinking about,” Ridley says. “But I don’t like to prepare for anything ever. It’s kind of my MO. I don’t go into any session unless I’ve written it just five minutes prior. I think the best way to be a conduit is to not overthink it and to just allow for it to occur.”

Lou RidleyCredit: Shelby Parks

Granted, when it came time to make the music video to accompany “American Girl,” Ridley says she put a whole lot more time in. “I definitely feel like it’s the first time I have had the means to have something visually match what I had in my head,” Ridley explains. “For a long time, I just felt like I couldn’t get my point across. But for this one, the label literally was like, ‘Oh yeah, sure. We’ll pay for it’ and I said, ‘Oh my God.’”

Certainly, the expertly crafted and cast video continues to have Ridley riding that fine line between just enough and too much — but it’s a line she has never swayed from… even if her mom asks her to.

“There is a popsicle scene [in the music video for ‘American Girl’] that when my mom saw it, she was like, ‘Will you please take that out?’ And I said, ‘Oh, Mom. You’re so boring,’” Ridley says with a laugh. “She wishes so badly that I could do what I do, but just do less of it, but that’s just not how I exist in the world.”

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Lou RidleyCredit: Bethany Reed

And the way Ridley exists in the world has long been something the country music industry seems to have been a little afraid of, but things look to be changing.

“The people don’t want the bulls--- anymore,” Ridley tells PEOPLE. “We have enough mullets and smash a beer can on my head and drive a big truck because you are such a strong man. We’ve got enough of it. There’s room for other stuff. Ten years ago, we wanted artists to shut up and sing. We didn’t want politics in our art. But now, you can’t possibly be a real artist if you’re not speaking about some of the things going on. If you’re still just shutting up and singing, you scare the s--- out of me and I don’t want to be friends with you.”

But Ridley does want to be friends with Maren Morris.

“I love her so much,” she says. “She reached out to me, and we talked for hours and hours and hours. It was so validating because just a year prior, I was just being told to give up and stop with my opinions. So, to later be sitting down with Maren Morris at Village Bar and talking about these things and finding such like-mindedness in another female country artist was like, ‘Oh, s---. Okay. I am doing the right thing.’”

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”