When Beyoncé teased her country-tinged album Cowboy Carter last February, the first sound anyone heard was Rhiannon Giddens’ banjo. Giddens, who lent her distinctive instrument to the single “Texas Hold ‘Em,” has spent much of her career educating and informing audiences around the world about the deep Black roots of the instrument.

A year since the release of Cowboy Carter, Giddens shared some of her complicated feelings about what it meant to introduce her mission-oriented playing into the A-list blockbuster world of such an album.

“When I think about my banjo playing, I think of the lineage I have received through Joe Thompson and everyone who taught him, this connection to a very deep piece of my culture. Every time I pull my banjo out, I’m thinking of that. If ever I do something that seems counter to that, there’s a very good reason,” Giddens told Rolling Stone. “There are two examples I could pull out, in my entire 20-year career, where I feel like I had to make a compromise in order for a greater good. This was one of those times.”

“What was hard for me,” Giddens continued, “was to feel that gift treated as any other transaction in the music industry.”

But the experience of being associated with such a huge name and album wasn’t without its rewards. Giddens said she was gratified by the many messages she received about people taking up the banjo for the first time. She also felt as though her role on Cowboy Carter finally gave her access to an audience she’s spent her whole career trying to reach.

“Because of all the things I’ve been fighting for my whole life, it’s been difficult to be seen as a Black musician, especially since I’m mixed,” Giddens said. “But for the first time, I felt acceptance from the mainstream Black community, which made me weep.”

Giddens never once mentioned Beyoncé by name during the interview, but she went on to detail a split between the direction she seemed to have hoped to take the project and what actually resulted.

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“My idea of what the mission is and somebody else’s idea of what the mission is are not going to be the same thing,” Giddens said. “I don’t do this because I want to look pretty and make a lot of money, and so when I rub up against that world, it’s always hard.”

Read the complete Q&A with Giddens here.