Kacey Musgraves Slams Taylor Swift And Carrie Underwood In ‘Fader’ Interview

Kacey Musgraves is a new singer on the country scene, but that doesn’t mean she’s afraid to be a little outspoken. She also became the first country singer to be featured on the cover of Fader magazine. Kacey graces the magazine’s June/July 2015 Summer Music Issue.

There’s been speculation that Musgraves is throwing shade at her famous contemporaries like Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood. Musgraves says that she doesn’t intend to build her career off of breakup songs. She also hinted that she doesn’t want to go the “modern country” or pop-country route.

“There was this cycle in Nashville where if you were a girl, you had to be really sassy. You cheated on me, so I’m going to burn your house down. I’ve never felt a kinship to those kind of songs. I love John Prine, his witty turns of phrase. I love Glenn Campbell, Marty Robbins, Loretta Lynn. There was this really imaginative and whimsical period of country music where instead of trying to match a trend, people became popular because they were unique. There wasn’t a basket of four subject matters. The more country that my music gets, the less it fits into the country world today. It’s almost like there needs to be two genres, modern country and… country?”

Is she talking about Swift’s infamous discography or Underwood’s hit song “Before He Cheats”?

There was another time when Kacey reportedly slammed Taylor on her upcoming album titled Pageant Material. On one of her tracks, she sings the line, “Another gear in a big machine doesn’t sound like fun to me.”

In the interview, Musgraves doesn’t shy away from the fact that the line is about Swift, but she doesn’t exactly admit to it either.

“I’m talking about a lot of different people. Any industry has its shoo-ins and people that get in because they know somebody, or their dad worked here, whatever. But, yeah, there is a wink.”

The country singer revealed that she doesn’t want to become a brand. She would rather focus on the music, unlike Swift, who has her name on every type of merchandise imaginable.

“The idea of massive amounts of fame—having my face on Walgreens end-caps and pizza boxes—I don’t fantasize about that… I’m happy with just being a songwriter. I’d rather have smaller numbers [of fans] that are really into what I’m doing than a massive amount of people that don’t really know what I’m about.”

Also unlike Swift, Musgraves doesn’t want to become “America’s Sweetheart.” In fact, she wants to keep it real when it comes to her image and her music. This is a girl who’s admitted that she ripped off her panties before accepting her award at the 2014 Country Music Awards. Musgraves doesn’t feel the need to keep up with appearances. It’s kind of refreshing in an industry that’s filled with mostly men and blonde country crooners.

“Especially for women, you need a certain face at award shows when you lose or you’re an a**hole. You can’t have a potty mouth or an opinion. In the South, getting judged on superficial stuff is a real thing. And I’m not attacking the people that might get something positive out of pageantry, I’m just not into being judged in that way. I’d rather lose for what I am than win for something that I’m not.”

In fact, Kacey’s new album is “a reference to criticism over a bored-looking frown she was caught making on camera” when the singer lost out to Miranda Lambert for Female Vocalist of the Year at the 2013 CMA Awards. However, there’s no bad blood between these singers. In fact, Kacey and Miranda are good friends and have worked together before.

You can read the “Biscuits” singer’s full interview at the Fader website. Kacey’s second album, Pageant Material, is set to release on June 23.

What are your thoughts on Kacey Musgraves’ Fader interview? Do you think she’s talking about Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood? Share your thoughts below in the comments section.

[Image: Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Stagecoach]