Kacey Musgraves and Miranda Lambert Release Duet After Years of Confirmed Feud

Country music's long-rumored feud between Kacey Musgraves and Miranda Lambert has come to an end. The two GRAMMY-winning artists have teamed up for "Horses and Divorces," a new duet appearing on Musgraves' upcoming album, Middle of Nowhere, out today. The collaboration is the subject of a new Variety cover story published on Wednesday.

The two artists have orbited each other for years. At an awards show in 2013, Lambert shouted out Musgraves from the stage; a moment that fueled years of fan speculation about the nature of their relationship. The roots of their tension trace back to "Mama's Broken Heart," a song Musgraves co-wrote with Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally that Lambert recorded and released that same year.

Asked whether there was real tension between her and Lambert, Musgraves did not hedge.

"Oh, there was," Musgraves confirms. "It was grass-fed, grade A."

She pauses before continuing, "I mean, it's real, and that's why I love this song, because it's not coming from some contrived place in a writing room. We've come together after years of really, honestly, not being friends. I had this idea one day when I saw her on Instagram, riding one of her horses, and I thought, 'Well, I guess we have two things in common: horses and divorces.'"

She adds, "And I was like, 'Wait, that's a song.' Then I took it a step further: 'What if I write it with her? What if it's a duet? F*** it, I'm gonna reach out.' 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.' And she was like, 'I'm down.'"

The writing session for "Horses and Divorces" proved to be a turning point.

"In our writing session, Miranda said, 'Hey, I wouldn't have the career that I have without that song, and I'm really grateful for it,'" Musgraves recalls. "So it was very full circle" — after, admittedly, a pretty long frost. "It was a plot twist that even I did not see coming, so it really surprised me too. We talked about everything, and we're both older now and have less energy for d**b s**t. I don't love having weirdness with anyone out there."

Middle of Nowhere is a 13-track album also featuring collaborations with Gregory Alan Isakov, Billy Strings, and Willie Nelson. Lambert, meanwhile, has teased her own forthcoming project, launching a countdown on countryanddisco.com that ends May 15, with a pre-save option available to fans. She recently signed with MCA Nashville.

You can listen to the song on YouTube.