Part of being a pop star these days is releasing all sorts of redundant alternate versions in order to boost sales — and, in the case of country songwriter Kacey Musgraves, this means shocking her own grandma by appearing nude on an alternate version of her new album, Deeper Well.
A limited-edition vinyl pressing of Deeper Well shows Musgraves naked in a field, curled up on the ground. "I just randomly had this idea," she told Today's Country Radio on Apple Music. "Because it was a big, wide open green space. And I was like, "What if I was just really small?" Like in the fetal position, sort of, into the earth… And it's just sort of vulnerable and almost like rebirth, I guess."
She continued to describe her family's reaction to the shot, which was taken by her sister, photographer Kelly Sutton. "I was showing my parents and my grandparents the photos that my sister had taken," Musgraves said. "And then the naked one came up and Nana was like, 'Gasp!' Like she just saw a car wreck, basically. And she was like, 'No!' She was like, 'That's not… that's a cover?' And I was like, 'Yeah, it's one of the covers.' And she was like, 'Kacey, you're a singer, not a stripper.' And I was like, 'Well, you know what? You can be both.'"
Deeper Well is out now. Fans who want the cover that scandalized Musgraves's granny can pick it up from her online store.