Kacey Musgraves Explains What Her 2013 Feud With Miranda Lambert Was Really About
on Mar 12, 2026
A Feud Between Miranda Lambert And Kacey Musgraves Surfaced After 13 Years
Over the first weekend in March, some drama that brewed between country singers Miranda Lambert and Kacey Musgraves resurfaced. Granted, the people who brought the feud back up was the singers themselves.
On March 8, Musgraves shared a clip of Lambert accepting a CMA Award for Female Vocalist of the Year in 2013, where she shouted out the “Merry Go Round” singer, who won Best New Artist earlier in the night, in her speech.
“Kacey, congratulations on New Artist, that was awesome. East Texas girls gotta stick together,” she said.
As the camera cut to Musgraves’ face, it was clear she didn’t appreciate the shoutout.
When sharing the clip, Musgraves explained her reaction, writing, “You knew that I’d said some things about you,” while tagging Lambert and using the eye-rolling emoji.
Shortly after this was posted, Lambert re-shared the story and added her own caption. She wrote, “Well I’ve done my fair share of shit talkin’ too.”
Since the singers were the ones who brought the drama forward, fans wondered what it meant. Many thought that it had to do with Lambert’s song “Mama’s Broken Heart”
And others thought it was promotion for a new song…and they were right!
Kacey Musgraves Announced A New Album On March 11
On Wednesday, March 11, Musgraves revealed her next project would be titled Middle of Nowhere and gave us the release date: May 1st!
She also revealed the track list, which includes collaborations with several notable artists, including “Horses And Divorces” featuring Miranda Lambert.
In a new interview with NPR, Musgraves opened up about her history with Lambert and the truth about their drama in 2013, and it did have to do with the song “Mama’s Broken Heart,” which Musgraves co-wrote with Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally.
Of the drama, Musgraves said, “It was two singers from two nearby, small Texas towns. There’s a lot that comes with that. Then we each take our own different paths, both leading us to Nashville at different times. There was all this excitement behind ‘Mama’s Broken Heart’ for me and it was gonna be my first single and I loved the song so much. I had been a staff writer for years at that point writing for other people and had finally felt like I was collecting songs that felt like me that I didn’t wanna pitch to anyone else.”
Musgraves revealed that the song was pitched to Lambert without her knowledge or consent and the latter fell in love with it. Musgraves revealed she had to let the song go because she had other co-writers to think about, and although she had to scrap it for her own album, it turned out to be the best thing.
“It forced me to write ‘Merry Go Round,’ which ended up making way more sense for me anyways, aesthetically and lyrically, to kick my whole thing off, versus ‘Mama’s Broken Heart,’” she said. “And that ended up going number one for her. So in the end, everyone won because I was able to let go of something.”
When talking about how a new collaboration came to light despite having gone through a semi-public feud, Musgraves said, “We’d lost touch for years and wouldn’t consider each other friends. I saw her on Instagram one day, riding one of her horses, and I was like, ‘Well, we ain’t friends, but I guess we have two things in common, horses and divorces, that’s for sure. Wait, that could be a really funny song. What if it’s a duet with her? What if I got her to write on it?'”
She continued, “I just randomly reached out to her and I was like, ‘I know we’ve had our s*** over the years, but listen, we’ve at least got two things in common. I’m not trying to be your friend. You got your life, I have mine. But I think this would be a pretty f****** funny song, and we should write it with Shane [McAnally].’ And she was like, ‘Hell yeah, I’m in, let’s do it.’ So it was very full circle in so many ways. We aired out any of the old past laundry. We had some laughs and wrote the song in a matter of a few hours.'”
We’re glad they have mended fences, and were able to put everything aside for the greater good: good music. We can’t wait to hear Kacey’s new album. For now, watch her music video for one of her new songs, “Dry Spell,” below.
