Kacey Musgraves’s 2018 song is about a “Space Cowboy.”
The title plays on a deliberate double meaning. Musgraves is not describing a science-fiction cowboy or a literal astronaut; she is addressing a former partner who wants freedom and emotional distance. The song’s central idea is that she will not try to fence him in or force him to stay.
“Space Cowboy” was released on February 23, 2018, as a single from Musgraves’s fourth studio album, Golden Hour. She co-wrote it with Shane McAnally and Luke Laird. Its polished country production contrasts with lyrics about accepting the end of a relationship, giving the song a spacious, bittersweet mood.
Listeners sometimes miss the punctuation implied by the title: it can be heard as “You can have your space, cowboy,” rather than as a description of a cowboy who travels through space. The song also uses familiar Western imagery, including a horse, a gate, boots and a Silverado, to make the breakup metaphor feel distinctly country.