Kacey Musgraves isn’t afraid to speak her mind.
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Whether making a political statement or singing a song lyric, the 34-year-old country star is as powerful. Musgraves, who has won six Grammy Awards, broke onto the scene thanks to the USA television show, Nashville Star, in 2007. Her 2018 album, Golden Hour, won Album of the Year and Best Country Album.
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But what does the Golden, Texas-born Musgraves have to say outside of her popular songs? What are her thoughts, plain and simple, on her craft, on life and love, on the world around her?
That, dear reader, is the subject of today’s inquiry. Here are the best 20 Kacey Musgraves quotes.
1. “I think if you’re everyone’s cup of tea, that probably means you’re a little bit boring, or you’re not pushing yourself. Creativity happens where it’s dangerous and scary: where you’re not comfortable.”
2. “A label’s typical plan would be to put something out that’s safer and get fans, and then push buttons, but my idea is to push buttons first, scare off the people who are gonna be scared off, and then the right people will like you for who you really are, and stay with you.”
3. “Fame freaks me out. Do you just wake up different? I don’t know how to scale it back if it gets too crazy.”
4. “I’d rather have 100,000 people who really get what I’m doing and like it for what it is than a million who can take it or leave it.”
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5. “When something comes to my brain, I don’t ignore it. You never know what it’s going to turn into.”
6. “I love words. They’re fun. I don’t think any word can just be filler. There’s no room for it. It’s like a puzzle. Every song can be written a million times. How can you say it differently?”
7. “When I was nine, I was singing western swing: Roy Rogers and Patsy Cline. It got me noticed because no one my age was doing it, but it made me feel inferior because none of my friends could relate to it.”
8. “When I started out, I wanted to be the kind of artist who could play the CMA Music Festival and then turn around and play Bonnaroo, and I’ve managed to do both.”
9. “Loretta Lynn was one of those ladies a long time ago that opened a lot of doors and paved the way for a lot of ballsy singer-songwriters who weren’t just cute.”
10. “My parents aren’t crazy conservative. They’re actually pretty open-minded. But my grandparents are, and where I’m from, East Texas, is the Bible Belt.”
11. “I love Lee Ann Womack and John Prine. That’s kind of my ideal cross-point. If I can sing it like Lee Ann would and say it like John would, then I feel like I’ve gotten somewhere.”
12. “I write my songs and just play them, so there are not a whole lot of fireworks. As long as the music comes first, it’s OK to have some fireworks. But not the other way around.”
13. “I’m all about small towns. I think it’s a great place to grow up.”
14. “I love vintage cowboy boots, and some days I’m into platform stilettos encrusted in jewels. It’s really all over the place.”
15. “I’m thrilled that country music fans like my stuff, but so do a lot of people outside of country music, people who just love music. My goal is more to reach music lovers than to appeal to a genre. I love country music, and I’m proud to represent it, but I don’t obsess over it as a category.”
16. “I like to make people think a little bit.”
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17. “Certain kinds of people will always have an issue with my music. But that’s fine; it’s OK. I don’t want to be the McDonald’s of music. I don’t want to not turn anyone off. If you were everybody’s cup of tea, you’d probably be boring.”
18. “Of course I get angry, but I want to use my brain a little bit and not just smash things.”
19. “Too many people focus on writing what they think they should write, what should be in a song, what radio would want.”
20. “If the lyrics are something new, then maybe I want to give it a more traditional form, or the other way around, but not have all one or the other.”
Photo by Lorne Thomson/Redferns
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