When British pop artist Cher Lloyd comes to mind, many fans probably think first of the “Want U Back” singer and X Factor finalist’s sassy songs and those faces she pulls on stage. While most might imagine Lloyd’s songwriting lineage travels on a direct line from Lily Allen and early Kate Nash, the singer told Radio.com a different story in a recent interview. The story of how she grew up loving country music.

“Growing up, I listened to a lot of country music with my mom. She’d be doing the washing up and I’d sit on the kitchen counter and she’d make me sing for her. She’d tell me to sing this Dolly [Parton] song or this Dolly song or Patsy Cline’s song and I loved to do it.”

A lot of people’s formative music experiences come from their parents’ record collections, but Lloyd turned her mom’s love of country music into an inspiration in her own career.

Read more on Radio.com