Kacey Musgraves and Miranda Lambert have buried the hatchet with their new song "Horses and Divorces," a candid duet that addresses their years-long feud. The track appears on Musgraves' album Middle of Nowhere, released May 1.
In the song, Musgraves opens with, "You know that I've said some things about you," to which Lambert responds, "And I've done my fair share of s--t talkin' too." The duo reflects on their past disagreements, singing, "There's always two sides of the truth." The chorus finds them joking that "hell just froze over" as they discover common ground: "We're both at the bottom of the bottle / and we're findin' we've got a few things in common / Like horses and divorces and we both like to drink / Maybe we're more alike than we think."
Both artists have experienced divorce—Lambert from Blake Shelton in 2015 and Musgraves from Ruston Kelly in 2020—and they trade verses about past conflicts. Lambert sings, "I'd ride in on my high horse, you'd still be higher," while Musgraves adds, "And a few years ago, you'd have set me on fire." They conclude, "There were chips on our shoulders / but now that we're older / It's all whiskey under the bridge."
The track also highlights their unexpected similarities. "I can't believe we don't share any exes / 'Cause we both love cowboys and we're both from Texas," they sing together, followed by a nod to Willie Nelson: "We both love Willie, but I mean really / What a--hole doesn't like Willie?"
Musgraves, 37, revealed she initiated the collaboration after years of silence. "I hadn't spoken to her in years and was like, 'Hey, I have this idea. If anybody would get it, it would be you. We've had our s--t over the years, but this would be really funny,'" she told Variety. "And she was like, 'I'm down.'"
The feud reportedly began early in their careers over the song "Mama's Broken Heart," which Musgraves wrote and Lambert later recorded as a single. Musgraves had intended it for her debut EP but said it was pitched to Lambert without her "consent or knowledge." She explained to NPR, "She ended up loving the song and she really wanted it, and I had other co-writers to consider. That ended up going No. 1 for her. So in the end, everyone won because I was able to let go of something."