Hell just froze over… because Kacey Musgraves and Miranda Lambert are back on stage together for the first time ever as two of country music’s biggest stars.
Kacey released her sixth studio album Middle of Nowhere last Friday, which features the highly anticipated duet with Miranda Lambert called “Horses and Divorces,” and it marks not only a huge moment in the country genre from a purely musical standpoint, but a turn around in their personal relationship, too.
The two had a years-long feud that stemmed from Miranda’s song “Mama’s Broken Heart,” which was released as the fourth single from Lambert’s 2011 Four the Record album in 2013, and was written by Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally and of course, Kacey Musgraves. The song peaked at #2 on the U.S. Billboard Country Airplay chart and has since been certified 3× Platinum by the RIAA, which means it has moved over 1,960,000 units.
The simple version of the story goes that Miranda really wanted the song, and Kacey was reluctant to give it up, clearly knowing that it was a hit, and it was apparently pitched to Miranda without Kacey’s knowledge. Kacey wanted to use it as the lead single to her debut album, but she ended up giving it to Miranda (though she does sing background vocals on it), mostly for the sake of her co-writers because Miranda was the much bigger artist at the time. But being forced to give up her song created some resentment, understandably, that lasted for years.
Their beef also led to an iconic internet moment, which resulted from Miranda’s 2013 speech at the CMA Awards, when she won Female Vocalist of the Year, a category Kacey was also nominated in. That same year, Kacey won the CMA Awards for New Artist of the Year, and they were both also nominated for Single of the Year and Song of the Year with the aforementioned “Mama’s Broken Heart.”
During the speech accepting her trophy for Female Vocalist of the Year, Miranda congratulated Kacey on her New Artist win, and it the camera panned to a young Kacey looking very much less than thrilled by that comment:
“Kacey, congratulations on New Artist, that was awesome.”
You’ll still see this meme online from time to time, and if you scroll to the second slide, you can see Kacey’s very funny reaction to that which I’m sure was because she was not happy with whatever had transpired that led up to this moment with Miranda and her song:
After years of keeping their distance, Kacey decided it was time to bury the hatchet, so to speak, and in speaking with NPR Music’s Jewly Hight, Kacey explained what went down back then and how the two of them ended up working together for this album.
They lost touch at that point and definitely “wouldn’t consider each other friends,” but when Kacey saw a photo of Miranda riding one of her horses on Instagram one day, it sparked an idea… because they have two things in common: “horses and divorces,” and a song was born. Kacey says she randomly reached out and asked Miranda if she wanted to write it with herself and Shane McAnally, and Miranda was eager to do it. She said it was a “very full circle” moment, adding that they aired out any past laundry, had some laughs, and wrote the song in a matter of hours.
The girls have known each other since 2000, being raised in towns not too far from each other and being into music from a young age, and their issues were very much real, as Kacey described their beef as “grade A, grass-fed,” so their making up and writing this song came from a very real place, and it looks like they’ve totally moved on as Kacey surprised the crowd at her Gruene Hall show with a very special guest.
Miranda came out to perform “Horses and Divorces” with Kacey live last night, and I can’t even put into words how jealous I am…
I truly never, ever thought I would see this day, but it’s one of the coolest things to happen in country music in a long time, and I can’t hardly even believe my eyes:
“Is this a dream? Is this really happening?”
Miranda responded over cheers from the crowd:
“Tonight we bury the hatchet right here in Gruene Hall, y’all.”
Some dreams really do come true. It’s hard to put into words what this means to me but I could just about cry:
@arnoldaruelas @kaceymusgraves brought out @Miranda Lambert at Gruene Hall night 3! #kaceymuskgraves #mirandalambert #gruenehall ♬ original sound – Arnold / Pilates + Raver / ATX
The full performance is just everything:
@choosingwasnot Kacey Musgraves brings out Miranda Lambert (who was slated to headline Kid Rock’s MAGA concert, btw) at the final night of her Gruene Hall residency in New Braunfels, TX #kaceymusgraves #middleofnowhere ♬ original sound – mandy
Two east Texas girls singing bad*** country music after so many years and finally burying the hatchet at the honky tonk… you LOVE to see it.
Turn it up…
“Horses and Divorces”
