Grammys 2019: Kacey Musgraves Reacts to Album of the Year Win With Disbelief

Kacey Musgraves had butterflies following Golden Hour‘s win for Album of the Year at Sunday night’s Grammy Awards.

“I’m just, it’s really just unbelievable. This record is so personal to me,” Musgraves told Entertainment Tonight backstage after taking home the coveted hardware.

“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,” she continued.

She added that while she’s “so proud” of her achievement, she doesn’t let accolades define her or her music — or anyone else’s, for that matter.

“Music to me isn’t about what’s better, who’s better, so it can feel funny. There’s so much contest involved sometimes,” she explained. “Don’t let that take away from the fact that I’m so proud right now. But it’s interesting, there’s so many different kinds of music out there, and to say that something is the best the whole year when art and music is — and shows even — it really seems like creative people are shining right now, so to be a part of any of that is insane.”

The 30-year-old said she’s inspired by all different types of music, which made it even more special that her country album took home the Grammy’s biggest prize.

“I’m inspired by a million different kinds of music,” she said. “I grew up singing down in Texas my whole childhood, traditional country and western, so it’s in my core. I can’t get rid of it. But there are so many other parts of music that inspire me — all over the map, Shade, the Bee Gees, Fleetwood Mac. I mean, it’s everything. It’s whatever feels good, and it was fun to play all those things.”

The “Space Cowboy” songstress said she planned on enlisting tequila and carbs to help her celebrate.

“I’m gonna hang out with my husband [singer-songwriter Ruston Kelly], my whole team, I don’t know, get some tequila hopefully. I need a carb in my life, actually,” she quipped.

“It was unbelievable to even be in a category with such gigantic albums,” Musgraves said in her acceptance speech. “Really brilliant works of art. It’s really crazy, but I’m very thankful. And I know that winning this doesn’t make my album any better than anybody else’s in that category. They’re all so good. Life is pretty tumultuous right now, I feel like for all of us, it can feel that way. And I feel like because of that, art is really thriving, and it’s really beautiful to see that.”

By the time Musgraves won Album of the Year at the end of the ceremony, she had already been onstage several times; not only did she take home four Grammys, but she was also involved in the star-studded tribute to MusiCares Person of the Year Dolly Parton — and before that, she took the stage for a solo performance of her hit “Rainbow,” which she released as a single Monday morning.

“Rainbow” is the fifth song released from Golden Hour, which also won Best Country Album.

“The song ‘Rainbow’ was actually written a handful of years ago as sort of a little bit of a memo to myself,” Musgraves said via her label, UMG Nashville. “I think we can all get stuck in a mindset that things are never gonna improve or you can easily focus on kind of the bad parts of whatever you’re going through and not really realize that if you pulled your head above the water you’d see that the sun is actually shining and that everything’s actually okay.

“I think one of the reasons that people may relate to the song a lot is because, though it was written to myself, I think that it can take the shape of like whatever someone’s going through,” she continued, “whether it’s coming out and not having the support or just any kind of a situation that they don’t feel like they may make it through.”

Watch the video for “Rainbow” written with frequent collaborators Shane McAnally and Natalie Hemby, here.

In addition to Album of the Year and Country Album of the Year, Musgraves also won a Grammy for Country Solo Performance (“Butterflies”) and Country Song (“Space Cowboy”).