Maddie & Tae Want to Be Best Friends With Kacey Musgraves

Maddie & Tae, the duo made up of Madison Marlow and Taylor Dye, have a few goals they’d like to accomplish, including selling albums, having hit singles, and especially becoming closer – much closer – to Kacey Musgraves.

“I bought her first record and wore that thing out in high school,” Marlow told CMT. “And I have bought them all ever since. We are both such Kacey freaks. Tae and I have met her a couple times and she was like, ‘Hello.’ She was quiet. And we were like, ‘But I want you to be my best friend!’ A girl can dream.”

Maddie & Tae’s latest single, “Friends Don’t,” is climbing up the charts. The song is the debut single from their upcoming, still-untitled sophomore album, following their freshman Start Here, which was released in 2015. In the last few years, the young women have watched their first label, Dot Records, fold, and struggled to have a single succeed at radio.

But whatever discouragement they may have felt disappeared when they watched Musgraves take home four Grammy Awards, including for the all-genre Album of the Year, for Golden Hour.

“That whole category had other artists who probably had more streams and probably had more exposure,” Marlow conceded. “But this time, it was art that won. It wasn’t about politics or streams or No. 1 songs. It was truly about the art.

“And it inspired me to think, ‘You know what? Art is not dead,’” she continued. “You can make great art and people will appreciate it. So don’t sell yourself short. Don’t water yourself down. Because it does get noticed. It is appreciated. It IS the album of the year.”

Maddie & Tae will likely soon have a few more close female friends, when the pair serve as the opening act, along with Runaway June, on Carrie Underwood‘s Cry Pretty Tour 360.

“There’s so much to be excited about going on tour with Carrie, but I think I’m most excited about just really learning from one of the best artists in the industry and one of the best entertainers,” Marlow said of touring with Underwood. “Just seeing a woman we’ve both admired for so long do her thing and getting to celebrate all the women on the tour. I feel like we’re gonna learn a lot!”

“And I think we’re gonna have some really good hangs, write a couple of songs,” Dye added. “I feel like we might get on a bus or Runaway June’s bus and write a tune or two.”

Photo Credit: Getty images/Monica Schipper