Not holding back.
Kacey Musgraves kicked off her Middle of Nowhere Tour back on August 21st at the United Center in Chicago, after cancelling the original opening night in Chicago along with three other scheduled shows.
Despite delaying the start of the tour, the “Mexico Honey” singer managed to get plenty of attention after going viral for flying around the arena on…a giant ballsack. She’d joke that the “disco balls” were “what it looks like when no one tells me no,” while also revealing that her grandmother was at the show to witness it firsthand:
“It takes a lot of balls to get up here and do what I do every night. It takes two gigantic, anatomically correct sparkly balls. I’ve actually got my Nana in the house tonight, and she always told me, ‘Honey, if you’re gonna do something, do it big, do it sparkly.’ Nana is this what you had in mind?”
@cleerlauren “This is what it looks like when no one tells me no!” Kacey Musgraves Opening Night!!!!! #KaceyMusgraves #MiddleOfNowhere #Rhinestoned #UnitedCenter ♬ original sound – cleerlauren
But in that same show, Kacey took some time to get serious and address the crowd about immigrants, urging her fans to donate in honor of her birthday to an organization that helps the children of immigrants, who she says have been “deported unfairly.”
“It’s a wonderful organization, and they help give aid, legal aid, and money to children whose parents have been deported unfairly. It’s not a political thing, it’s just these kids need help.”
Of course, Musgraves has never been one to shy away from politics. Being one of the most vocal left-leaning artists in the genre, along with the likes of Jason Isbell, Tyler Childers and Sturgill Simpson, she’s frequently advocated for the LGBTQ community, taken stances against President Trump and shown support for Democrat candidates in her home state of Texas, such as Beto O’Rourke.
With the aforementioned “disco balls” prop going viral over the past few weeks, John Rich, who has remained one of the most outspoken conservative voices in country music over the past decade, weighed in on Musgraves during an appearance on the Tomi Lahren Is Fearless podcast.
When asked about the “disco balls” in particular, Rich would call it a “cry for help” from Musgraves. He’d also joke that he heard she’s going to let controversial Democratic senate candidate, James Talarico, borrow them for his next campaign rally down in Texas.
“I think it’s a cry for help. I think she is telling the whole world she needs help because she is nuts. That’s what I think. I was told, and I read this somewhere in one of her comments, that’s she’s going to let Talarico borrow those for his next rally down in Texas. He’s gonna come out on that down in Texas.”
From there, he’d compare Musgraves to Ella Langley. Pointing out the fact that Langley has been on a historic run with “Choosin’ Texas” without relying on any shock value, controversy or political leanings in general, Rich would say Musgraves’ circus-esque acts are a comment on her music.
“I would say in a world of Kacey Musgraves, be an Ella Langley. Because when it comes to Kacey, she’s from testes, I can tell… In country music, if you have to lean on something like that to get people to pay attention to you, it kind of says something about your music. You don’t see Ella Langley doing something like that. She just puts out really good songs, and everybody goes, ‘I really like that girl. I’m gonna get that.’ And she’s #1 for 17 weeks or whatever it is. I think it’s kind of a comment on your music sometimes if you have to do ridiculous circus-ish things to that level anyway to get somebody to talk about you.
Finally, he’d finish by seemingly referencing the aforementioned comments about immigrants. Here, he’d say that country audiences don’t want to be preached to, regardless of their political affiliation. Additionally, he’d point to the fact that he honors veterans at every Big & Rich show.
“The country music audience is made up of left, right and middle. But they come to those shows, and the last thing they wanna hear is nonsense like that. I mean, Big & Rich, we bring up veterans every single show in active duty and stop the entire show for about seven minutes and recognize them and all the ones out in the crowd.
And we acknowledge that if it weren’t for you men and women, we don’t have Big & Rich concerts anymore… We recognize them all, and the crowd goes bananas every time.”
If there’s one thing about John Rich, he’s going to tell you exactly how he feels every single time.
Watch here:
