ACM Awards: Kacey Musgraves Hopes Double Wins Inspire Other Female Artists

Kacey Musgraves took home two trophies at the 2019 ACM Awards, for both Album of the Year, for Golden Hour, and Female Artist of the Year, the latter ending Miranda Lambert‘s nine-year reign in the category. As Musgraves continues to push the boundaries of country music, especially with the success of Golden Hour, her biggest goal is to inspire other female artists to stay true to themselves, even if that means bucking a few trends along the way.

“I would just say that if you do have a unique sound or a unique style or perspective to offer, you’re going to be told that it’s too different or that it’s not going to work or it doesn’t make sense,” Musgraves told PopCulture.com and other media backstage at the ACM Awards. “That’s truthfully just the industry being lazy because money does drive a lot of things in this industry. Sometimes the focus can be too much on what is easy, what has worked before, but that’s not how we got all of our icons that we know and love today.

“At one point, they were pushing a lot of buttons; they were very inflammatory,” she added. “Then they eventually created the new normal. It’s going to take labels and radio being more fearless and taking a creative chance that are worth being heard. It pays off.”

Golden Hour, which also won both Album of the Year and Country Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards, was the record that Musgraves hoped would be accepted within the country music genre, although she knew it was a risk.

“When I was making this record, in my mind’s eye I was just kind of envisioning a world way outside of country, but it was really important for me to not leave country music behind,” Musgraves explained. “I wanted to take it with me to new places because I love country music so much. It’s stitched in my roots and I don’t want to ever get rid of it. I’m also inspired to grow and experiment and just be a creative person.

“To be able to walk on both sides of the fence and get to have a home in country music but get to explore creative wins in other areas of the world is amazing,” she continued. “It’s just music. I think that no matter where you are and no matter what genre it is, if you connect with it that’s all that really matters.”

Golden Hour definitely crossed a few lines in country music, both in song style and message, a fact Musgraves doesn’t dispute.

“I feel like I’ve been pushing buttons since 1988. I’ve never gratuitously pushed buttons. Pushing a button for the sake of pushing a button, I’ve never been into that,” explained the singer. “This album, I think, is more special to me and has resonated with more people because I had the courage and the confidence to share more of my personal feelings on this record. I think in other albums I was more focused on observing the world around me. On this one, I felt like I wanted to share a little bit more of me and how I feel.

“I was really inspired to make an album kind of celebrating this really beautiful side of life that I feel it can get lost in the shuffle these days with all that’s going online,” she remarked. “Right now, we need music more than ever. This album was a little bit of a hiding place for me and a little bit of a bright spot, reflecting on all the wonderful changes that happened in my life. It’s really exciting that other people feel the same way and have shared it.”

Photo Credit: Getty/ Jeff Kravitz/ACMA2019