It all started with a hymn. Or maybe a viral video. Or maybe a quarantine-induced need for spiritual mischief. Either way, Leslie Jordan—TV icon, Instagram darling, Southern raconteur, and self-described broken toy—has found himself with a new album, a SiriusXM radio show, a movie role, and, sure, why not, a book deal. Somewhere along the way, he also became more famous than he’s ever been. “People scream my name on the street now,” he says. “Like I’m Lady Gaga.”
The album, Company’s Comin’, is a gospel record—sort of. It’s also a full-on queer hootenanny with Dolly Parton, Brandi Carlile, Tanya Tucker, Chris Stapleton, Katie Pruitt, and, yes, Eddie Vedder. “I went viral,” Jordan says of his sudden internet explosion, “and I didn’t even know what that meant. I thought they meant I had the virus.”
Raised in Tennessee, baptized approximately 14 times (“The preacher said, ‘I baptized you last week,’ and I said, ‘Well, it didn’t take’”), Jordan never considered himself a singer. “Rolling Stone said my voice was ‘serviceable,’” he notes with a laugh. But singing those old hymns every Sunday on Instagram? That became a lifeline. “We’re not back in church,” he explains, “but we’re back in our faith. And that’s something.”
The idea for the album came from his friend Travis Howard. The guest list came from Leslie sliding into DMs. “I messaged Dolly. Chris Stapleton. Brandi. TJ Osborne. K.D. Lang. Katie Pruitt. And they all said yes! No one said no!” He still seems stunned. “You record a hymn with Dolly Parton and you start thinking… someone pinch me!”
Meeting Dolly was everything you’d expect and more. “She’s tiny. Just this little bitty thing with the tiniest butt,” he marvels. “She asked what song we were going to do, and someone said The Soul of Man Never Dies. I said, ‘I don’t know it,’ and Dolly goes, ‘Oh, we sang that every Sunday growing up!’ and just starts singing. I about fell on the floor.”
While many tracks were recorded remotely due to COVID, Tanya Tucker happened to be in Nashville and stopped by in person. “We sang in glass partitions, but honey, you can hear the fun,” he says. Brandi Carlile became a fast friend, and now they talk “all the time, baby.” The mutual admiration was instant. “She’s a sterling human being. The way she lives her life… and that talent on top of it? Forget it.”
Then there’s Eddie Vedder. “I was in Hawaii visiting a friend who works with the Obamas,” Jordan says casually, as if this isn’t already the weirdest sentence of 2021. “He says, ‘We’re gonna pick up Eddie Vedder and go on a boat ride.’ I’m like, ‘I cannot go on a boat with Eddie Vedder.’” They did. Songs were played. Vedder liked what he heard and agreed to contribute an original song, In the Sweet By and By-adjacent track called “Hide Me.” “You just don’t expect that,” Jordan admits. “Next thing I know, he’s in the studio, locked in, laying down a ukulele track. It’s like… what world am I in?”
The album isn’t just star-studded—it’s cathartic. “We’re all misfits,” he says. “Brandi, Katie, Chris… none of us fit in the mold. But we’re all comfortable in our skin now. And I think that’s what ties us together.”
It’s also a deeply queer album born from a deeply religious songbook. “I was riddled with internal homophobia,” Jordan says candidly. “I didn’t like effeminate gay men, and my friend said, ‘Honey, you’re a f**-hating f**.’ It made me stop and go: why am I pointing the finger at others?” He credits his 22 years of sobriety—and time—for allowing him to revisit these hymns with, as he puts it, “no axe to grind.”
Beyond the album, Jordan has a role in The United States vs. Billie Holiday (“that wig has a life of its own—I looked like Aunt Bee”) and a new book called How Y’all Doin’? based on his Instagram stories, written in a month (“They said, ‘We usually give our writers a year!’”). His SiriusXM show Hunker Down Radio finds him spinning everything from Loretta Lynn to KT Oslin, with stories between the tracks. “It’s the easiest thing I’ve ever done,” he beams. “I just yak a little. Stretch it out. Boom—three episodes from one.”
So what’s next? Saturday Night Live? “There was a Facebook campaign to get me on as Lindsey Graham,” he says, eyes twinkling. “I told folks, they’re not gonna get me when they can bring in Alec Baldwin. But who knows? I could be the host and the musical guest. Just me and all my famous friends. Sweeten the pot, baby. Call me up, Lorne!”
And if that doesn’t happen? Well, Leslie Jordan will be just fine. “We’re all just broken toys trying to get through the day,” he says. “But honey… we’re singing while we do it.”
Watch the interview above and then check out the videos below.
