Kacey Musgraves on Taking Risks, Speaking Her Mind and Finding Happiness: ‘I Have the Freedom to Really Be Me’ (Exclusive)
Kacey Musgraves on Taking Risks, Speaking Her Mind and Finding Happiness: ‘I Have the Freedom to Really Be Me’ (Exclusive)
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Jeff NelsonWed, November 11, 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC
Kacey Musgraves in L.A. on Oct. 21, 2026Credit:Greg Swales -
In a new PEOPLE cover story, Kacey Musgraves opens up about how embracing loneliness and returning to her roots inspired her latest album, Middle of Nowhere
The album earned the “Dry Spell” singer five CMA Award nominations at the Nov. 18 ceremony in Nashville
“I’ve noticed a lot of people saying, ‘Wow, you look so happy in this chapter.’ And it’s because I really am,” says Musgraves,
“Who am I going to piss off today?” a deadpan Kacey Musgraves muses as she sits down for her People cover interview in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley.
In the past few months alone, the country superstar has sparked online outrage over her dry, bawdy sense of humor (she performed perched on an airborne rhinestoned, anatomically accurate pair of “disco balls” on her Middle of Nowhere tour); her progressive leanings (she shut down Kristi Noem on social media after the former Secretary of Homeland Security inexplicably pitted her against fellow country star Ella Langley); and her commentary on social issues (she advocated onstage for immigrant children separated from their families by ICE).
Kacey Musgraves in L.A. on Oct. 21, 2026Credit:Greg Swales
But the straight-talking Texan isn’t always trying to ruffle feathers. “Things get really sensationalized very quickly in this modern climate,” says Musgraves, 38.
While some see her as a polarizing figure, Musgraves was calling for unity at one of her sold-out L.A. concerts at Crypto.com Arena two nights before this interview.
Kacey Musgraves in L.A. on Oct. 21, 2026Credit:Greg Swales
“At its core, country music is real songs and stories about real s---. I really hope that that outlaw spirit gets to always stay present in country because that’s really what pushed our genre forward. . . . It was Dolly [Parton]. I think about Loretta [Lynn] singing about the Pill, and I think about Tammy [Wynette] singing about divorce,” Musgraves told the crowd on Oct. 19. “I tend to stay kind of outspoken. The things that I choose to speak up about, it’s really just things that in my heart I really care about. . . . If there is anyone in here who finds themselves really disagreeing with me or thinking differently . . . I just want to say it’s all right if you disagree with me, and I’m really glad you’re here anyway.”
Kacey Musgraves in L.A. on Oct. 21, 2026Credit:Greg Swales
Her fans are equally thrilled to have the eight-time Grammy winner back in the saddle. Since its release in May, Musgraves’s sixth studio album, Middle of Nowhere, has earned some of the best reviews of her career, as well as five Country Music Association Award nods (the third-most nominations for this year’s ceremony, Nov. 18 in Nashville) and more Grammy buzz. Now, after processing a breakup and returning to her small-town roots for the project, Musgraves is enjoying the ride as she prepares to release a sister album, Middle of Nowhere Vol. 2: Tex Mex Tapes (out Jan. 15).
“Moments like this don’t last forever, so I’m just really trying to have gratitude and go, ‘This is really special,’ ” she says. “I feel really excited and inspired and fulfilled, and I have the freedom to really be me.”
Musgraves has shown her outlaw spirit from the start. Her breakthrough 2013 single “Follow Your Arrow” was banned by many country radio stations because it alluded to LGBTQ+ acceptance and recreational marijuana use — taboo subjects for a traditionally conservative genre. But the track went on to win song of the year at the CMAs and cemented Musgraves as a queer icon.
Kacey Musgraves in L.A. on Oct. 21, 2026Credit:Greg Swales
“I just try to help where I can and consider others as best as I can. Do I always get it right? No. Do I always word things correctly? No, I don’t. But I’m always looking at it with the best intentions,” Musgraves says. “It’s not easy to always find the humanity in each other when there can be so many reasons to disagree. But at the end of the day we’re still neighbors. I mean, I have loads of family where we don’t see eye to eye; we still come together and still love on each other.”
Kacey Musgraves in L.A. on Oct. 21, 2026Credit:Greg Swales
On the Middle of Nowhere standout “Horses and Divorces,” Musgraves practices what she preaches, teaming up with Miranda Lambert to bury the hatchet after a yearslong beef. The track serves as a full-circle ceasefire: Once family friends, the singers fell out when Lambert recorded the smash hit “Mama’s Broken Heart,” a song Musgraves co-wrote and planned to include on her debut album, Same Trailer Different Park.
“We do have things in common, but we are very different in ways. We can, at this point, salute each other and say, ‘Hey, we’re both at least women in country music, and cheers to that,’ ” Musgraves says of the reunion. “I do wish the whole world could sit down and have a beer together and just figure it out. Hey, if Miranda and I can, maybe everyone else can too.”
Kacey Musgraves and Miranda Lambert performing together in Austin in October 2026Credit: Kacey Musgraves/instagram
Musgraves has also found inner peace. She was on tour in 2024 and moving on from a breakup with writer Cole Schafer when she leaned into the solitude and began writing her latest record.
Up until that point, “I had carried a lot of anxiety about spending a lot of time alone,” she says. “I think learning how to be happy on your own, without the influence of anyone else, is hugely important. It was really a great lesson. I don’t need anyone else to be happy. I like being in relationships. I like being close with others, but being able to find that sovereignty within yourself allows you to put the right people back in. You start attracting the right things because you’re not searching for anything out of a place of desperation.”
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Kacey Musgraves at age 12Credit: Courtesy Kacey Musgraves
Growing up in Golden, Texas — a small town of about 200 people, east of Dallas — Musgraves had to get creative from a young age. “If we were bored, my mom had no tolerance for that. She was like, ‘I don’t want to hear it. Ride a bike. Write a poem. Read a book. Do something other than complain,’ ” says Musgraves, who, with her younger sister Kelly, was raised by mom Karen, an artist, and dad Craig, who owns a printing business.
The nearest mall was about 40 minutes away. “I think the lack of options served me well,” says Musgraves, who got her first guitar at 12. “Singing, playing guitar, expressing myself has always been there since I can remember. I didn’t have any second- guessing or any backup plan ever. I just was like, ‘This is what I’m doing.’ ”
Kacey Musgraves in L.A. on Oct. 21, 2026Credit:Greg Swales
Musgraves cut her teeth in Austin for a few years before moving to Nashville, where she found her footing as a songwriter before landing a record deal. “It was the best move I’ve ever made in my whole life,” she says. “I really owe a lot to the Nashville creative community.”
After mixing classic country production with modern lyrics on her acclaimed first two albums, Musgraves created a sound all her own (dubbed “cosmic country”) on her landmark 2018 album Golden Hour. Transcending genre, the record led to a mainstream crossover and won Musgraves the prestigious album of the year Grammy. “Golden Hour did change a lot about my life in a beautiful way. It felt really nice that people received it so well, because I was taking a risk,” she says.
Kacey Musgraves in L.A. at the 2019 GrammysCredit: Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock
That album’s success left Musgraves free to continue “exploring the borders” of country music, as she played with pop, rock and folk on the two albums that followed it — and also inspired the next class of female artists in Nashville.
Kacey Musgraves in L.A. on Oct. 21, 2026Credit:Greg Swales
But a trip home to Golden, where she owns her grandmother’s house, inspired Musgraves to return to her sonic roots quite literally: She saw a sign touting the town as “somewhere in the middle of nowhere,” and the rest is history. This time, though, Musgraves tapped into the sounds she grew up hearing in Texas. “I have found a lot of kinship in traditional Mexican music and country music. There’s a lot of similarities, a lot of the same subject matter, a lot of the same instruments, a lot of the same rhythms,” she says. “It’s honestly given me even more Texas pride because I really find such beauty in that melting pot that we have there.”
Musgraves’s Tex Mex Tapes follow-up album will feature four songs entirely sung in Spanish. “This tour has been amazing, and the Latino community has supported the hell out of me, so let’s just keep the party going,” she says.
Kacey Musgraves ‘Middle of Nowhere’ album art
Kacey Musgraves’ ‘Middle of Nowhere Vol. 2: Tex Mex Tapes’ album art
Latin Grammy winner Carín León — who recorded the bilingual 2025 song “Lost in Translation” with Musgraves — says the love is mutual: “When someone like Kacey takes the norteño, the mariachi, the Tejano sounds and puts them in front of millions of people with so much love and respect, that makes me very proud as a Mexican. Our music is for everybody, for all colors, for all tastes. Nobody has to ask permission to feel it. That’s what I see in her tour: Everybody is welcome.”
While Musgraves relishes the personal growth she’s found in the single life, she’s hilariously candid about its drawbacks. “Nobody but the chickens are getting laid,” she sings on “Dry Spell,” Middle of Nowhere’s lead single. “In a lot of songs you hear someone talking about how they are getting some, and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’ve heard someone talk about how they’re not.’ It’s relatable, right? I mean, it’s hard out there!” Musgraves quips. She’s mum on her current relationship status, but she adds with an enthusiastic thumbs-up, “The dry spell did end, thank God — it took a long time.”
Now on break from her tour, Musgraves can take a breath. When she’s not in Nashville or Golden, she lives part-time in Mexico with her Australian cattle dog Pepper. And she doesn’t take her hard-won contentment for granted.
“I’ve noticed a lot of people saying, ‘Wow, you look so happy in this chapter.’ And it’s because I really am,” says Musgraves, who got here by following her heart—and her gut. “I really do think your mistakes are your teachers. I wouldn’t be the same person without some of the mistakes. I would do it again. At the time, I was doing exactly what I thought was right in that moment. Can you really call it a mistake?”
Kacey Musgraves on the cover of the Nov. 23, 2026 issue of PEOPLECredit:Greg Swales
PEOPLE VIPs can read our full conversation with Kacey Musgraves in this week’s issue, available right now in the app.
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