Whatever you do, don’t you dare tell Wheeler Walker Jr. who he is or what he does. “I don’t play by the rules,” says the no-nonsense, straight-talking musician who, ever since his chart-topping debut album, Redneck Shit (2016), has been giving the proverbial middle finger to anyone who doubts him. “I don’t want people to tell me what the fuck to do. I’m not a one-trick pony,” says the man who has already notched a gold album with the fan-favorite “Fuck You Bitch.” While Wheeler has undoubtedly made a major name for himself in recent years by shaking up the country music industry, he now has his eyes set on tearing down new goalposts. “I’m getting sick of Nashville and country music and the current Nashville scene,” he says without hesitation. “I mean, seriously, what’s the last good country album that’s come out? I think it’s been years.”

Wheeler has never minced words, and his feelings about where things stand in his career are no exception. “First of all, fuck the music industry. I don’t gotta prove shit to the industry. They’re a bunch of fucking swine and thieves and assholes. Now I gotta find new ways to piss people off,” he says with a laugh. “So now let’s fuck with rock. If my competition is Greta Van Fleet, I’m going to win that every day.”

What excites him most, he says, is the thrill of living on the edge. Where he could have stuck to his successful country-leaning formula and played it safe, he was willing to fall on his face in the name of his creative pursuit. “I wanted to go back to not giving a shit,” he says. “And to not give a shit, you’ve got to throw it all away. People don’t understand—as an independent artist, what you’re doing with every album is going to Vegas and putting all your chips on the table every fucking time. If it tanks, you’re back at bankrupt. I wanted to risk bankruptcy again, to be blunt about it. I could see the headline: Wheeler Ruins Career. But if I do that and make the album I wanted to make, I could give two fucks.”

The Ram era kicked off in earnest with a call to Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb, Wheeler’s trusted confidant and one of the most successful producers in recent years, having helmed records for artists ranging from Chris Stapleton to Sammy Hagar and Jason Isbell. “I called Cobb up and said, ‘I want to do something that makes it sound like the first record. I’ve been writing these songs that are kind of rock. Would you make a rock album?’ I thought he’d say, ‘You’re a country artist. That’s not what you do.’ But he just said, ‘Let’s do it!’”

“What I love about my fans is they’re all kind of the not-cool kids,” Wheeler says. “I wasn’t a cool kid growing up. I got made fun of all the time. I see that in my audience, and I feel like, fingers crossed, they get that uncool kids do what they want and don’t give a shit what the jocks think. When I look out at the audience, I see more people like me out there—guys I would hang out with who remind me of myself at that age. The outcasts.”

As for what the future holds, Wheeler is doing what he’s always done: betting on himself. “If I’m going to go down, I’m gonna go down fucking swinging.”