Jason Isbell Addresses Divorce From Amanda Shires: ‘Because Something Ended Doesn’t Mean It Failed’

Jason Isbell is opening up for the first time about his recent divorce from Amanda Shires after 10 years of marriage.

“I think we did a lot of really beautiful things together and I have really fond memories of all of that, and I don’t regret any of it, even the hard stuff,” Isbell, 45, said on the Tuesday, February 27, edition of the “Broken Record Podcast.”

The six-time Grammy winner married Shires, 41, in February 2013. Us Weekly confirmed earlier this month that Isbell had filed for divorce in December 2023.

The two singers began dating in 2011 and married two years later following Isbell’s decision to get sober and enter rehab. They’ve worked together for many years, and Isbell dedicated one of his most famous songs, “Cover Me Up,” in 2013, to Shires after she convinced him to seek help for his struggle with addiction.

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Shires could frequently be seen onstage with Isbell’s band, the 400 Unit, backing her husband on fiddle. He also supported her career, playing guitar for her country supergroup The Highwomen featuring Maren Morris, Brandi Carlile and Natalie Hemby.

However, signs of trouble in their marriage began surfacing last year when Shires and Isbell shared their relationship problems in the documentary Running With Our Eyes Closed in which they discussed marriage counseling.

Earlier on Wednesday, Isbell told People that he is doing his best to cope with the split and make sure their 8–year-old daughter, Mercy, is taken care of.

“We’re all getting along right now. It’s hard and sad, and I don’t enjoy it, but ... I’m in a good place,” Isbell told the outlet.“Mercy’s happy. She knows, no matter what, she’s going to be loved and safe and cared for.”

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Isbell and his band will be touring this spring on Zach Bryan’s The Quittin Time Tour. He said that even though his marriage ended, he will not avoid singing the many love songs in his catalog.

“Once I was done writing those songs, they didn’t really belong to me anymore,” he explained.

“If I said I can’t sing [these songs] now because of what’s happened in my own personal life, then I would be discrediting the emotional experience other people have had with them. For me it’s a matter of honoring other people’s connections with that music and also my own past. Just because something ended doesn’t mean it failed.”

Isbell recently made his feature film debut in the Academy Award-nominated Killers of the Flower Moon. Earlier this month, he won Grammy Awards for Best American Roots Song and Best Americana album.