Kacey Musgraves Says 'Songs Started Pouring Out' as Soon as She Met Her Husband

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Published: 8:48 AM PDT, March 28, 2019

"I started to see the world in a more fond, pretty light."

Much of the inspiration for Kacey Musgraves' GRAMMY-winning album Golden Hour can be attributed to her husband, Ruston Kelly.

Musgraves covers Glamour's latest digital issue and opens up about how meeting the 30-year-old singer-songwriter at a songwriters showcase led to her incredible songwriting, which, in turn, scored her four GRAMMY awards at the 2019 ceremony.

"His songs made me really emotional. I thought, 'This guy's really clever, whoever he is,'" she tells the magazine of hearing Kelly play for the first time at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville.

After some back and forth, Kelly came over to Musgraves' house to write. The rest was history, and the couple tied the knot in 2017.

"And then it was 'That’s all she wrote.' Pun intended. Everything was right," she says. "I didn't have to shift any part of my personality to make it fit together, which isn’t really something I've had before."

"That whole time period was a big opening of heart for me," Musgraves, 30, continues. "I started to see the world in a more fond, pretty light. After meeting this person who really allows me to just be myself, not have to walk on eggshells for any reason, songs started pouring out."

Musgraves happened upon Kelly by chance after giving herself time off to focus on writing and creating. She was initially unsure whether she should've gone straight back on the road and pushed a new album out, but now she realizes it all worked as it should.

"If I wouldn't have blocked off time to get off the road and try to create a new album and have the time to explore creatively, it makes me wonder if I would have met him," she ponders. "It was perfect timing."

When Musgraves, with her husband by her side, heard her name as the GRAMMY winner for Album of the Year -- after already taking home three trophies that night -- she describes it as "a moment of definite disbelief, but also openheartedness."

"I was flashing back through writing all the songs, meeting my husband, recording everything, and all the positivity that's come my way through all of this. It was this overwhelming sense of gratitude," she says. "I love these songs so much. I have a man that loves me so much and inspired a lot of it. I have a team that works hard... I was trying to think, 'OK, don't forget anybody.'"

When ET's Kevin Frazier caught up with Musgraves immediately following her big win, she called the whole thing "really just unbelievable."

"This record is so personal to me," she said at the time. "It means so much to me, and I played outside my own lines a little bit and you know, I wanted to make something that felt really good and I wanted to take my time and do it, and I don’t know, I just feel like I’m just thankful I got the chance to make music.”

Golden Hour's success, while certainly exciting and a giant accomplishment, does leave Musgraves wondering what's next.

"Golden Hour really resonated with a lot of people and reached far beyond what I ever thought it could do, so there can be a worry inside your mind a little bit, as a creative person, thinking about the fact that there's no way to bank on the muse coming and visiting you again,” she tells the magazine.

"It's not certain," she adds of creative inspiration. "I'm not owed anything by it. It just comes when it comes. It’s exciting but also a little daunting."

With her Golden Hour era over, Musgraves says that "it's always a little bit sad" to put that piece of her life behind her.

"This thing that you've spent so much time with and whittled until you have it just perfectly right. You have all these good memories creating it, and then you turn it out in the world and there it is," she explains.

Looking to the future, Musgraves is eager about the opportunities ahead, but plans to be choosy with what she does next.

"When you're younger and have opportunities knocking at your door, you think, 'I have to say yes; what if they don't knock again?' But that's just not how it really works," she says. "Opportunities will knock as long as you feel like you have enough of yourself to keep giving. That's been a good part of hitting 30 and getting older -- the power of saying no is a beautiful thing, and it can actually bring a lot more yeses into your life."

Watch the video below for more on Musgraves.