Biscuits

Album: Pageant Material (2015)
Charted: 121
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Written by Kacey Musgraves with Shane McAnally and Brandy Clark (the trio behind the singer's hit song "Follow Your Arrow"), this peppy tune encourages listeners to live and let live. The anti-negativity theme that's prevalent in many of Musgraves' tunes is conveyed through playful metaphors accompanied by a whistle and a banjo"

    Mind your own biscuits, and life will be gravy

    Musgraves has been performing the love-thy-neighbor anthem since late 2013.
  • The first single from Kacey Musgraves' sophomore album, the jangly song was released to country radio on March 16, 2015 and made available for download the following day. "I'm very proud to be kickin' things off with "Biscuits!" I think it's the perfect preview to the record we had SO much fun making," Musgraves said. "The sound of this song represents so many of the things I love about country music. And be warned — it may inspire a square dance."
  • The inspiration for the song dates back to before Musgraves' previous album, Same Trailer Different Park, hit the shelves. "One day, we were out, somewhere outside of Nashville," Musgraves recalled during an appearance at Tin Pan South 2015. "It was last July. It was me, Shane, Josh (Osborne), Brandy and Luke Laird. We all traded off writing with different [people]... we'd draw names out of a hat."

    "Here's what happened: We had started this song when we wrote 'Follow Your Arrow,'" McAnally added. "'[Mind your own biscuits]' was something we had said in another songwriting thing, and you brought it."

    "We were like, 'That has to be a song, the whole idea,' and so we saved it," Musgraves continued. "I feel like it was Brandy, because she's like, if there's a puzzle piece missing in a song, she's just, like, infamous for [saying], 'You know, this may not work, but what about this?' And it always works. It's mind blowing. You're like, 'Oh, you just pulled this out of your little pocket there?'"

    "[McAnally] said, 'Mind your own biscuits,' and [Clark] said, 'And life will be gravy,'" she added. "And I was like, 'I quit. Bye. Brandy, get out. You're too good.'"

    "So a lot of people ask about the inspiration behind it," Musgraves concluded, "and all I have to say is, it's just good ol' plum country fun."
  • The goofy, brightly-colored video finds Musgraves channeling classics like Laugh In and The Lawrence Welk Show among a backdrop of dancing friends, horses, hay and Cledus Guthrie, a fiddle-playing Muppet. The singer told Buzzfeed that she wanted the clip to look like "Hee Haw meets Pee Wee's Playhouse meets Wes Anderson."

    The clip was directed by Marc Klasfeld and nominated for a CMA Award for Music Video of the Year; it lost to "Girl in a Country Song" by Maddie & Tae.

Comments: 1

  • AnonymousI love that song! It's a great way to tell someone to mind thier own business and just get along with one another.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Gavin Rossdale On Lyric Inspirations and Bush's Album The Kingdom

Gavin Rossdale On Lyric Inspirations and Bush's Album The KingdomSongwriter Interviews

The Bush frontman on where he finds inspiration for lyrics, if his "machine head" is a guitar tuner, and the stories behind songs from the album The Kingdom.

Alan Merrill of The Arrows

Alan Merrill of The ArrowsSongwriter Interviews

In her days with The Runaways, Joan Jett saw The Arrows perform "I Love Rock And Roll," which Alan Merrill co-wrote - that story and much more from this glam rock pioneer.

George Harrison

George HarrisonFact or Fiction

Did Eric Clapton really steal George's wife? What's the George Harrison-Monty Python connection? Set the record straight with our Fact or Fiction quiz.

Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear: Teddy Bears and Teddy Boys in Songs

Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear: Teddy Bears and Teddy Boys in SongsSong Writing

Elvis, Little Richard and Cheryl Cole have all sung about Teddy Bears, but there is also a terrifying Teddy song from 1932 and a touching trucker Teddy tune from 1976.

Kip Winger

Kip WingerSongwriter Interviews

The Winger frontman reveals the Led Zeppelin song he cribbed for "Seventeen," and explains how his passion for orchestra music informs his songwriting.

Ben Kowalewicz of Billy Talent

Ben Kowalewicz of Billy TalentSongwriter Interviews

The frontman for one of Canada's most well-known punk rock bands talks about his Eddie Vedder encounter, Billy Talent's new album, and the importance of rock and roll.