--- title: Kacey Musgraves and JD Vance: Small Towns, Big Success | TIME description: Country singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves and bestselling author JD Vance on the experiences that shaped their worldviews. canonical: https://time.com/video/gMJpuYLj/ og:title: Kacey Musgraves and JD Vance: Small Towns, Big Success og:description: Country singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves and bestselling author JD Vance on the experiences that shaped their worldviews. og:url: https://time.com/video/gMJpuYLj/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/gMJpuYLj/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kacey Musgraves and JD Vance: Small Towns, Big Success twitter:description: Country singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves and bestselling author JD Vance on the experiences that shaped their worldviews. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/gMJpuYLj/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Kacey Musgraves and JD Vance: Small Towns, Big Success > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Kacey Musgraves and JD Vance: Small Towns, Big Success [Watch (HLS stream): Kacey Musgraves and JD Vance: Small Towns, Big Success](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/gMJpuYLj.m3u8) (6:28)  _Published 2016-10-03. Country singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves and bestselling author JD Vance on the experiences that shaped their worldviews._ --- Jul 27, 2023 8:53 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [JD Vance Casts Election Day Ballot](/video/1UTcrqzw/) ### JD Vance Casts Election Day Ballot [Kacey Musgraves Casually Rolled Up to the 2019 Met Gala in a Barbie Convertible](/video/Bm6yRGP1/) ### Kacey Musgraves Casually Rolled Up to the 2019 Met Gala in a Barbie Convertible [Late-Night Highlight: Kacey Musgraves Lost Her Panties At The CMAs](/video/uoOjkoPx/) ### Late-Night Highlight: Kacey Musgraves Lost Her Panties At The CMAs --- ## Transcript [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ MUSIC ] [ SOUND ] [ MUSIC ] Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, too. [ MUSIC ] [ SOUND ] [ MUSIC ] [ INAUDIBLE ] So, since you have to sit here, can I ask a favor? Sure. So my cousin is your biggest fan. I love that. Can we call her right now? Sure. My god. [ LAUGH ] Wait, should we Facetime her? HI. [ LAUGH ] Your cousin said that you're a big fan. So I think that's really rad, and it cut off. [ LAUGH ] Crap is that okay you think? That's perfect, no that's totally perfect. Okay. So where you from. >< My town is actually called Golden, Texas. But it's about 80 miles east of Dallas. Where are you from? So I grew up in primarily southern Ohio. Okay. Sort of rust belt town, with a lot of Kentucky transplants Yes, I get it. I've definitely spent some time in that part of the world. It's a classic, kinda blue collar post- industrial town. You have a lot of broken families, a lot of divorce, even domestic violence and things like that. One of my favorite songs of yours is Merry Go 'Round. Thanks. And there's obviously a certain vibe about small town America, that's what you're singing about and that's what you're writing about. It's an interesting comparison to a lot of the folks I write about in my book, And I think it's at the end of Marry- go- round where you say something like the guy goes off and does booze and pills. [ LAUGH ] And Mary kinda stays there. I'm just curious kind of, how growing up in that golden area is [ UNKNOWN ] that song. I find inspiration in bringing light to the subjects that are maybe a little bit harder to talk about. And I kinda do it with a satirical edge sometimes, but, Sure. But I've always loved that about country music especially, is that it's a genre that started out just talking about real life, and real stories, and heartache, and divorce, and cheating, and losing my job. [ LAUGH ] Right. I mean, it's become a parody in a way, but I respect that about the roots of it. Mama's hooked on Mary Kay. [ MUSIC ] So like one of the things that interesting about, like you're a very successful musician at this point but you grew up in a very small Texas town. It reminds me a little bit of when like the first time I went to a very nice restaurant and this was when I I was in law school, and I remember I asked for some white wine. And the waitress was like, do you want Chardonnay or Sauvignon blanc? And I was like what is that? [ LAUGH ] What? [ LAUGH ] Nevermind. I'm just kidding. I'll have a Sprite. And I have all these experiences like that where I feel really out of place. I wonder if you have any experiences like that. I mean, I can remember being like 12 and performing for this really really wealthy family that had brought me in to do a private show. And I just remember. Being at this like, ten million dollar home, you know nestled in the mountains, and I remember asking, Nana, do you think they can tell we're not rich? She was like, well probably. Heh heh. But you know, it doesn't matter. You mentioned that your grandparents were a giant part of your life growing up. Yeah. So did you live with them or Yeah, yeah. So starting about 12, 13 I moved in with my grandparents full times just because they were able to provide a little bit more stability than my mom was. They were sort of these outsize personalities in my life. She was just this really awesome woman and she cussed like a sailor. She was just really really awesome. Like had a good heart? Yeah, had a great heart. And when she died we had to search through her house and Get all of our stuff and we found 19 handguns all loaded stationed in different parts of the house. She couldn't get around that well so she had placed these handguns in places so that if somebody came out they were within armed distance. This just goes to show she made sure she protected the people she cared about and that was a lot of ways. That's amazing. Man. What would your grandparents say if they knew you were saying cuss words onstage? Well, Nana, she goes, [ SOUND ]. [ LAUGH ] Every time. It took her so long to get used to Follow Your Arrow. She was like, Kasey please don't sing that weed song. [ LAUGH ] And I was like, Nana, this is not about you and your friends and what they think. This is about me, this is about my, what I need to tell my story. [ MUSIC ] When you write songs, do you think, am I gonna get some push- back for this one? Cuz I definitely thought about that when i was writing. You did? Yeah, I thought about it. I haven't gotten as much- But you still did it? Yeah, I still did it, [ LAUGH ]. And didn't get as much push- back as I thought I would. Mm- hm. But, your stuff's a lot more public than mine. I mean, I don't know if it is. [ LAUGH ] But yeah, I've definitely thought there's gonna be some people who really don't like this. But that would never stop me from doing that because if I did the opposite there would be people who don't like that. Absolutely. And then who are you? Right. So I just did it anyway. Growing up in east Texas, I was kind of cynical about my surroundings or just felt the need to like get out and break free and go see the world on my own. And then I go back to it and it has this bitter sweet like little, man that's so simple. Everyone lives at a different pace, I mean I don't know if I would get really bored with that, but how do you feel, do you ever think you would go back? Well I definitely feel the same way. Like, To be successful to me meant to get out in some way, I just wanted to get away from it, but now I definitely think the more time I spend away from home, the better home feels. It is very nice to have this sense of community and group of people you feel close to. I struggle with that a lot, it's like, I've got to see the world and travel a lot and that's really important, but it's like I love how my parents did it. And I guess I'm lucky that any success that I'm thankful to have kind of happened a little bit later on in my life, I don't know, I feel like I have a strong core. And I know where I stand and my family is definitely involved in everything and They won't let me get away with being a, Right. jerk. People in my family always say, don't get to big for your britches. And I like really appreciate that and I try to remind myself that like, this is where I came from. 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