Kacey Musgraves Shares Story Behind ‘A Willie Nice Christmas’

This year, Kacey Musgraves released her very first Christmas album featuring her spin on eight classic holiday hits and created four of her very own. Among the four original tracks is one featuring the legendary Willie Nelson, called “A Willie Nice Christmas.” The idea for the song came as Musgraves made her way to a writing session with a couple of her familiar co-writers.

“I started writing for this Christmas album in May, which is something I’ve never experienced before, but I do love a theme and I can easily jump into one when I get inspired by something,” Musgraves explained to Sounds LIke Nashville and other reporters backstage at the CMA Country Christmas taping. “One day, just the idea of telling somebody ‘Have a Willie Nice Christmas’ hit me and I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to work with Willie before and I really look up to him as a musician and songwriter, so I thought that he would think it was funny and light-hearted. I was writing with Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne that day and I brought the idea. We actually started working on another Christmas idea, ‘Make the Yuletide Gay,’ and then halfway through that song, I said ‘Well I also have this other idea called Have a Willie Nice Christmas,’ and they loved it.”

The idea for the track came quickly afterwards and eventually, Musgraves sent it off to Nelson to hear his thoughts.

“We finished it and I sent it to Willie and I said, ‘look, I don’t know what you think about this, but I think it could be really fun if you sang this with me,’ and he got a kick out of it and came and sang and played on the track,” she added.

The “fun, reggae Christmas jam” eventually made its way to A Very Kacey Christmas, which is available for purchase now.