Kacey Musgraves has opened up about the inspiration for her new album, revealing she is ‘evaluating what love means to me’ – four months after her split from Cole Schafer.
The country singer, 35, who split from the poet in November 2023, will release Deeper Well on March 15 and said the music ‘sums up where I’m at in my mid-30s’ and how she has ‘removed obstacles for growth.’
The title track sees the star sing: ‘It’s been a real good time / But you got dark energy, something I can’t unsee / And I’ve got to take care of myself / I found a deeper well.’
She told People: ‘Ultimately, the song sums up where I’m at in my mid-30s and really evaluating what love means to me, what friendships mean to me, what are the things that I need, what is really serving me and not serving me.
‘It’s [about] taking stock and making room for the things that actually do really matter.”
Kacey Musgraves has opened up about the inspiration for her new album, revealing she is ‘evaluating what love means to me’ – four months after her split from Cole Schafer (pictured last month)
The country singer, 35, who split from the poet in November 2023, will release Deeper Well on March 15 and said the music ‘sums up where I’m at in my mid-30s’ and how she has ‘removed obstacles for growth (pictured 2022)
‘This life is so short. I think that you have to be a little bit ruthless in removing obstacles for growth. That could mean adjusting your expectations with family members. That could be putting a pause on a friendship.
‘It could be a breakup or dropping a habit that just doesn’t serve you well anymore. It’s being awake enough to be tuned in to paying attention to what the flow of nature is trying to tell you about what you need.’
Kacey and Cole were first linked in June 2021, nearly a year after Kacey and her songwriter husband Ruston Kelly announced their divorce.
Cole and Kacey were together for more than two years, but a source informed Page Six in November they split ‘at least a month’ ago.
Chatter about their breakup has allegedly been flying around the country music capital of Nashville, which both of them call home.
They also appear to have unfollowed one another on Instagram, though they have not deleted their pictures of each other.
DailyMail.com contacted representatives for Kacey for comment.
Shortly after their romance went public, Kacey told the New York Times they first met when they caught sight of each other across a packed restaurant.
She told People : ‘ Ultimately, the song sums up where I’m at in my mid-30s and really evaluating what love means to me, what friendships mean to me, what are the things that I need, what is really serving me and not serving me’
‘He did not know who I was, which I loved,’ said Kacey, a country star whose hit songs include Slow Burn and Merry Go ‘Round.
A few weeks later, Cole fired up his Instagram and treated Kacey to a glowing testimonial along with a romantic photo album for her birthday.
‘Here’s to you looking to your right when you stepped into F***. Here’s to you writing me back,’ he wrote in the post, which included a snap of them in bed together.
‘Here’s to your jawline that chaps my lips and your hair I can’t keep my hands out of. Here’s to your aesthetic and your art being a close second to your heart.’
Kacey was equally ebullient in her praise for Cole when she wished him a happy birthday on her Instagram page this January.
She gushed over ‘the laughs and adventures, deep talks, ego checks, wise advice, forehead kisses, the books you recommend, your late night “oh I just whipped this up” and somehow it’s extremely gourmet pasta (like, actually Michelin star) situations, the gorgeous way you observe the world and the words that follow.’
Kacey added for good measure: ‘And mostly your unabashed, full-throttle vulnerability which is easily the sexiest thing about you.’
Kacey first got involved with her ex-husband Ruston Kelly in 2018 after they met at the Bluebird Cafe, an iconic country music venue in Nashville.
Ruston is a singer-songwriter like Kacey, and the pair worked together during their romance including on a record of Johnny Cash’s poem To June This Morning.
The pair were first linked in June 2021, nearly a year after Kacey and her songwriter husband Ruston Kelly announced their divorce; Kacey and Ruston are pictured in 2019
The dynamic duo got married in 2017 and then jointly announced over the summer of 2020 that they had decided to split up.
In a profile with Rolling Stone the year after her divorce, she explained that her relationship ‘just simply didn’t work out’ with Ruston.
‘It’s nothing more than that. It’s two people who love each other so much, but for so many reasons, it just didn’t work. I mean, seasons change. Our season changed.’
She confessed: ‘Part of me questions marriage as a whole, in general. I mean, I was open to it when it came into my life. I embraced it. I just have to tell myself I was brave to follow through on those feelings.’
Kacey cited the example of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, who have been together since 1983 but never married, as ‘doing something right.’
The Texas-born crooner explained to the music magazine that ‘I think I live best by myself. I think it’s OK to realize that.’
