Kacey Musgraves Reveals What She'll Miss "On the Other Side" in "Dinner With Friends" Lyrics

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When Kacey Musgraves announced that she was dropping her fifth album, Deeper Well, something seriously shifted. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter has spawned some of our favorite "yee-haw" hits over the years, from "Dime Store Cowgirl" to "High Horse." Now, she's gone through her Saturn return and recounts her reflective journey on her latest release, which she refers to as "a record of joy, hope, flaws and fears" and her thoughts as she "continues to search for what true intimacy means."

Co-written with her good friends and frequent collaborators Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk, the seventh track on the album "Dinner With Friends" is essentially a list of things she'd miss fondly after passing away.

"'Sit down and make a list. Well, actually, make two' — Things you’ll miss (when you die) and things you won't. This was mine," Kacey wrote of the track in the album's accompanying zine. The hitmaker also dished on the process of making the song on American Express'Story of My Song series, which brings fans deeper into her world through behind-the-scenes anecdotes. "The song is about what I would miss from the other side," Kacey shared.

Find Kacey's full deep dive on the meaning behind "Dinner With Friends" below.

Lyrics by Kacey Musgraves, Daniel Tashian, and Ian Fitchuk

[Verse 1]

Dinner with friends

In cities where none of us live

The face that somebody makes

When you give ‘em a gift

"Well, I knew I wanted to start the song off with the line, 'Dinner with friends in cities where none of us live,' which is such a specific feeling of being with familiar people that you love but you're in a place that's unfamiliar and exciting," Kacey told American Express in her Story of My Song series. She recounted on a time where she had "amazing food and wine" in Barcelona with friends, which initially inspired the first line.

Kacey also revealed that she swapped her original "cheesy" second line, which was "The face that somebody makes / When you find a good thrift." Okay, points were made, though!

Every once in a while

When I wake up early without trying

And catch a sunrise

There's a certain stillness and serenity that comes with watching a sunrise, and Kacey emphasizes that sentiment with the next group of lyrics. "The image hit me, of like, I'm not normally a morning person and you're randomly up early and you're like, 'Oh, there's the sunrise! I don't really see you that often, but here we are, and wow, what a glorious thing to see,'" she explained.

The imagery may also call back to her 2018 album, Golden Hour, and her 2021 track, "Camera Roll," where she scrolls through photos and memories from a past relationship. At the time, she told Apple Music's Zane Lowe, "What's crazy is that we never take pictures of the bad times. Lurking behind these sunset photos is the fight that you had before dinner where we were like, 'This is over.'"

The feeling you feel when you’re looking at something you made

The layers and ruffles in my favorite pink champagne cake

As she continues listing some of her favorite things, Kacey clarifies that the pink champagne cake in question is from the Madonna Inn's bakery in Los Angeles:

"It's this certain pink cake from this place called the Madonna Inn, and it's this layered pink '50s-looking cake. It's the best thing in the world," the singer explained in her Story of My Song video.

My home state of Texas

The sky there, the horses and dogs

But none of their laws

Kacey helms from Golden, Texas, and continues to show love to her home state—but she makes it clear that she's not aligned with the harmful legislation that's been passed over the years.

[Chorus]

The shape of his eyes

The shape of his nose

The cute way he mispronounces certain words

The smell of his clothes

"In the chorus, it was important for me to move to something more personal," Kacey shared. "I'm not singing this song to someone. I'm a narrator, you know? The focus didn't need to be shifted to singing to a person, so I just kept it away from that."

Important to note: she dated her ex-boyfriend Cole Schafer from 2021 to 2023, so perhaps he was the inspiration here. She confirmed their split in a March 2024 interview with The Cut, saying "I don't regret living and loving as hard as I do. Whenever I'm in a relationship, I’m all fucking in."

[Verse 2]

Things I would miss from the other side

Intimate convos that go way into the night

The way that the sun on my floor makes a pattern of light

And early in June when the fireflies first start to glow

It never gets old

"Early in June, that's when fireflies come out. I'm always mystified by fireflies—I'm like, 'Okay, we have bioluminescence and animals glow?' That's ridiculous, that's cool," Kacey explained, adding that Daniel threw in the line about patterns of light. All the sentiments in her second verse have been echoed in her 2018 song, "Oh, What a World":

[Chorus]

The shape of his heart

My shoes by his door

He loves me in all of the ways that I’ve never felt loved before

Things I would miss

From the other side

In the final chorus, Kacey reveals more quirks and characteristics she noticed about the person she sang about in the first chorus. "Shoes by his door—like, when you're kind of mingling lives with somebody and you're like, 'Oh, my stuff's mixing with theirs.' It's a happy thing. It should be, anyways," she said, noting that the song could possibly go on forever because of all the things she finds solace in.

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