What happens when one of the biggest crossover hits of the 21st century gets handed to a couple of banjo virtuosos? Steve Martin and Alison Brown have the answer.

The pair have teamed up with bluegrass heavyweights Del McCoury, Dan Tyminski, Ronnie McCoury, Stuart Duncan and Garry West for a bluegrass reimagining of Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” out today (Oct. 8) in tandem with a humorous behind-the-scenes video. The track follows Martin and Brown’s 2025 album Safe, Sensible and Sane, which features guest turns from Vince Gill, the Indigo Girls and Jackson Browne.

More from Spin:

• Travis Scott, Charli xcx, QOTSA Leap To Lolla South America
• Turnstile Wrapping 2026 Tour At Washington Monument
• Björk’s ‘Orkestral’ World Comes Home On Live LP

“I’ve always loved the idea of ‘Old Town Road’ as seen through bluegrass eyes,” Martin says, while Brown adds, “it’s such a well-known song that my challenge was to come up with an arrangement that would showcase our banjos without giving the song away too soon.”

The solution was to go all the way in. Martin wrote new, “grass-ified” lyrics about Sasquatch, gigantic chain store Buc-ee’s and import cars, while the arrangement swaps the original’s youthful, urban-leaning production for a full-on banjo-driven bluegrass romp. “Fortunately, some of the best bluegrass musicians in the world agreed to join us, and here we are, ready to ride,” Martin says.

The source material hardly needs an introduction. “Old Town Road” became a cultural event after its 2019 release, initially exploding on TikTok before crossing from hip-hop into country and pop on a scale that made genre boundaries look increasingly quaint. The remix featuring Billy Ray Cyrus spent 19 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, a record at the time that has since been tied by Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and broken by Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas.”

There’s some neat symmetry to Martin and Brown’s version arriving now, as Lil Nas X has only just begun a new chapter himself. After spending months in rehab following his 2025 legal and mental health crisis, the artist revealed in June that he’d been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was continuing treatment with a therapist and psychiatrist. He said at the time that he was feeling better, creating freely and had new music on the way.

That promise was kept earlier this month with the new single “World’s Greatest,” which was dedicated to his late mother Tamikia Hill and includes a voicemail from her.

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.