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Kacey Musgraves blended heartfelt personal touches into her newly-released rendition of a country classic.
Musgraves, 36, recruited her “sweet grandpa” to lend his voice to the track. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, published on Wednesday morning (April 30), that she talked her grandfather into getting into the sound booth to play a radio DJ introducing her cover of “Lost Highway.” Country legend Hank Williams debuted the classic in 1949. Now, more then seven decades later, the traditional country ballad marks the start of a fresh era for Texas-born superstar Musgraves (with an added family tie).
“That’s my sweet grandpa bringing me onto like a country-music hour,” Musgraves said in her Hollywood Reporter interview. “He’s 88. He was visiting Nashville and I wanted his voice on this, so we convinced him to get in the vocal booth. He was always one of the biggest champions of my singing and learning traditional country music. It’s hard to put into words just how beautiful that is for me. I’ll have that forever, you know?
“Also, this is kind of interesting,” she added as she noted another unique touch. “When I was down in Texas, I was at this weird, little junk shop, and they had this rattlesnake tail for sale — a rattler from a real rattlesnake. It sounds like a shaker instrument. I bought it and thought, “I’m going to use this somehow, somewhere.” I’m playing the rattlesnake tail on “Lost Highway.” It’s just a little percussive part, but there’s a rattlesnake tail on there. Back in the era that this song was written, it was common for folk artists to have rattlesnake tails in their guitars because they thought it would bring good mojo.”
Musgraves also said she’s “written a ton of songs already” as she looks ahead to the next chapter in her career, following her last studio record, 2024’s Deeper Well. The trailblazing artist is returning to the revived Lost Highway records as the label’s first signed artist, marking a full circle comeback after she became the last artist signed to the label at the beginning of her career. Now, she’s looking ahead with “a balance between tradition and future.” Find Musgraves' full Hollywood Reporter interview here, and listen to her rendition of “Lost Highway,” featuring her grandfather, here.