“Some Hazy, Sparkly, Pipe Dream” – Kacey Musgraves Recalls Willie Nelson Offering To Record “Are You Sure” With Her

The best dream ever... because it actually happened. On Sunday, Kacey Musgraves celebrated the nine-year anniversary of her iconic 2015 Pageant Material album, which is one of my all-time favorite records and never, ever got the credit it deserved. Seriously, it's a masterpiece, and if you haven't ever given it a good listen stop reading this right now and go download it. Included on that spectacular, perfect 14-song tracklist is a cut with country legend Willie Nelson , who is one of Kacey's musical heroes, in a gorgeous duet of Willie's "Are You Sure." Kacey and the red headed stranger go way back, and around 2014, she went on tour with him, which was one of her first too… not too shabby. And in a recent Instagram post, Kacey shared some of her memories from almost a decade ago of how that recording with Willie came to be, and it's an amazing story. Of course, it starts off with the two of them getting high on his tour bus 10 years ago... "In honor of 'Pageant Material': It was 2014 and the first time I ever smoked with Willie. I was on the road opening for he and Alison Krauss (what a f*cking tour) and he had us up on his bus for some coffee and smoke before he started his set. We talked about all kinds of things.. our light-up western suits, conspiracy theories, aliens, his early job of cuttin’ trees down in East Texas, the history of hemp growth in the United States, and old songs. I asked him 'Hey, do you ever play 'Are You Sure'? He exhaled a big puff and blinked and said 'Are you sure this is where you wanna be?', looking surprised I knew such a deep cut then pulled his guitar from magically out of nowhere." She explained that she was already on another planet thanks to the help of Willie's strongest stuff, barely "hanging onto the fabric of time," but when they started singing, it struck Willie that they should cut it together, since it was an otherwise very unknown deep cut from the mid-1960's and he was obviously impressed that she knew that song. And in what I'm sure was a completely surreal moment, Willie offered to record it with Kacey, and that's exactly what they did: "I was officially on another planet at this point, hanging onto the fabric of time, barely able to cognize reality and form words but I managed to eek out a 'yes'. He started strumming. We started singing. And he said 'I’ll record this one with ya if you want..' Next thing I know we’re in Austin and filming the video. (with Reid Long + Kelly) and he’s wearing a western suit I picked out and obliging me with a tequila shot." I don't have an official bucket list, but I can promise you that taking a shot of tequila with Willie Nelson is right there at the top of anything I could ever dream of doing. Kacey ended the post by saying that she's happy there is a visual record of this entire circumstance in the form of a music video, because if there wasn't, she'd think it was some sort of "hazy, sparkly, pipe dream that never actually happened." And that's partially because Willie has the strongest weed known to man, and also because it was a dream come true to sing one of Willie's own songs with him for what was such an incredible album as a whole: "It’s a good thing there is visual record of this moment in my life - otherwise I wouldn’t believe that it wasn’t just some hazy, sparkly, pipe dream that never actually happened. Cheers, Willie." I would never get over it, either... https://www.instagram.com/p/C8nTqYapD_6/?img_index=10 Willie wrote "Are You Sure" with Buddy Emmons, and it was first released by Ray Price in 1963. Needless to say, these two created a modern classic when they put out this duet, and I can't recommend enough that you give it a listen. It's pure and simple perfection in every way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDCFjYVKAkY And since we're talking about Pageant Material , do yourself a favor and check these out... "Pageant Material" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uN5Ge-ICDM "Good 'Ol Boys Club" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ917vR9QiA "Dime Store Cowgirl" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sboLUpMqgpg