Kacey Musgraves Unveiled New Lyrics That Capture Her Divorce Heartbreak

Over a year after announcing her “painful” divorce from husband Ruston Kelly, Kacey Musgraves teased a new song that seems to address the split. Musgraves posted lyrics from a single off her upcoming album in a series of short videos on Instagram on Saturday, Aug. 21, with the first posts offering a small glimpse at what the song will sound like. In a word: heartbreak.

“Let me set the scene / Two lovers ripped right at the seams / They woke up from the perfect dream / And then the darkness came,” the lyrics read in the series of videos. “I signed the papers yesterday / You came and took your things away / Moved out of the home we made / And gave you back your name." She added: “What have we done? / Did we fly too high? / Just to get burned by the sun?”

Many friends and fans commented on the posts, with some sharing their excitement for the album and others noting how the raw ballad made them feel. Musician Questlove commented, “It’s time?” while singer Maggie Rogers posted an emoji of a white dove. Other fans addressed the song’s sad content more explicitly, with one writing, “wow i can’t wait to cry my eyes out,” and another commenting, “we’re all here for you and can’t wait to go through this next part of your life!”

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Musgraves and Kelly, who met at Nashville’s legendary Bluebird Cafe, got engaged in 2016 and wed in 2017. In July 2020, the two country singers issued a statement revealing that they had decided to call it quits, writing, “We’ve made this painful decision together.” The couple acknowledged that divorce announcements are often met with “scrutiny and speculation” and made it clear that “the love we have for each other goes far beyond the relationship we’ve shared as husband and wife.”

In February, Musgraves reiterated during an interview with Rolling Stone that the marriage “just simply didn’t work out.” “I mean, seasons change,” she explained. “Our season changed.” She teased that the breakup would influence her upcoming music, saying that “this last chapter of my life and this whole last year and chapter for our country — at its most simple form, it’s a tragedy” and she “was inspired by that.” The Grammy winner told the magazine that the album will follow the classic three-act structure of a Greek tragedy and will group songs into acts.

Musgraves admitted she is nervous about sharing such candid songs during a May interview with Elle, saying that “it’s daunting to put your emotions about something really personal on display.” The country singer noted that while she doesn’t owe fans openness about the divorce, she did “owe it to myself as a creator to flesh out all these emotions that I’ve felt, and I do that through song.” She added that it was both cathartic and “scary to be like, ‘I’m about to share my most personal thoughts about me, about this other person, about a union that I had with someone.’”