One of the most underrated tracks on Kacey Musgraves’ incredible 2015 album, Pageant Material, is her duet with Willie Nelson called “Are You Sure”.
It was originally written by Willie and Buddy Emmons and first released by Ray Price in 1963.
Kacey recently sat down on the Texas Monthly podcast, One by Willie, to talk about her collaboration with the red headed stranger.
She remembers getting high with him on his tour bus (naturally) years back, and asking him if he remembered the song. He pulled out his trusty guitar, Trigger, and sang it with her right there. Then, he was actually the one who asked her if she wanted to sing it together.
Of course, she was ecstatic to eventually include it on her second studio album.
She talked about filming the music video at a random bar with Willie and her band, as well, and how in between takes, they would sing old country songs together… now I think we need a behind-the-scenes look at that:
“We were just singing all these old standards and classics, and I was singing harmony with him and stuff.
And then at one point I was like, ‘Hey, Willie, would you do a tequila shot with me?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, don’t tell my wife.'”
I mean, if you don’t take a shot of something with Willie while you’re filming your own music video he’s featured on, you’ve missed out on a huge opportunity in life.
And she also remembers taking photos with him on what is now one of her prized possessions, a photo strip with a couple shots of the duo during what she remembers as one of the best days of her life so far.
And a certain photo in particular stands out:
“There was a photo booth there on set… like a $5 photo booth strip. And I get in there, I pull him in there… it’s such a cute photo strip of us.
And I just got overtaken by the spirit and just kissed him on the cheek at one point. And it was funny ‘cuz I walked out and I didn’t realize there was a screen on top of the photo booth, and his wife and like literally everyone that was there saw the whole thing and she was like, ‘I saw that.'”
Damn, Kacey… the girl has guts. I guess that’s what the tequila shot was for.
Even if no one was watching, that takes some courage (because it is Willie Nelson we’re talking about), but I’m quite certain that Willie didn’t mind at all. And it sounds like Annie took it all in good fun, too.
And at the end of the day, they ended up with a hell of a song and music video to show for themselves:
