Kacey Musgraves may have a relationship with her husband that’s so pure that they sing Johnny Cash poems together, but that doesn’t mean her romantic life was always so sweet. One of the first songs from her new album Golden Hour to be shared with the world was “Space Cowboy,” a sad ballad about letting go of a doomed relationship. Now she’s shared a melancholy video for the track that touches on that theme.
In the clip, Musgraves finds herself doing household chores and hanging out in a shadowy home, while singing about a cowboy who needs his space. The clips cuts back and forth between present day and flashbacks to happier times with the man in question, but it’s ultimately a fight between the two that’s a telling sign that this union wasn’t built to last.
Musgraves previously explained the song’s origin on Instagram, writing that it stemmed from a potentially dangerous situation with a horse:
“One day I was out at the barn watching this stallion charging powerfully from one end of the arena to the other, bucking and galloping at full speed all alone. Though I was ‘safe’ on the other side of the arena wall, it kinda scared me when he came flying toward me… barely stopping in time. My riding teacher saw him coming at me and yelled at me to move away. I said, ‘I’m fine! The gate is closed,’ to which she said, ‘Girl — when they wanna go they will go… there ain’t no point in even shuttin’ the gate.’ It really made a mark on me when she said that and I wrote it down. ‘Space Cowboy’ came a couple days after with [Shane McAnally] + [Luke Laird]. Make peace with what doesn’t belong. You’ll find something better.”
Watch the video for “Space Cowboy” above.
Golden Hour is out now via MCA Nashville. Get it here.
