Kacey Musgraves cracked jokes after fire broke out above her stage during a Boston concert on Friday.
The Grammy winner, 38, was performing “Golden Hour” at TD Garden when a shower of sparks at the song’s climax appeared to ignite a small blaze in the rafters overhead. She stopped the show to assess the situation, looking upward with a wry observation.
“That looks bad. Genuinely, something’s on fire,” she said.
Musgraves kept her humor intact as she sat on the edge of a platform, drawing laughs from the crowd with a self-deprecating warning about her own flammability. “I have way too much hairspray to be standing under that s–t,” she added.
She also called the fire “cute” but admitted it gave her “anxiety,” then pivoted to a complaint about unplanned pyrotechnics. “I only like pyro when I know what’s going to happen,” she said. “Does anybody have like a bedazzled fire extinguisher anywhere?”
The incident came just one week into her “Middle of Nowhere” tour, which launched at Chicago’s United Center last Friday. That opening night had already made headlines when Musgraves perched atop giant floating disco balls shaped like testicles, a staging choice that surprised attendees.
The tour launch had nearly been derailed weeks earlier when three dates, including originally scheduled opening night, were mysteriously canceled without explanation. The current run now includes 31 remaining shows scheduled to conclude in the UK in February.
Fans who posted footage on TikTok noted the small flame extinguished itself within about three minutes. Social media commenters seized on the irony, with one writing “you can say it is a slow burn,” another observing “The fact she just continued to stand directly under it,” and a third referencing her lyrics with “You set my world on fireeeeee.”
The fire marked another unexpected moment in a performance career that has seen its share of onstage drama. During a 2024 show in Florida, an overzealous fan grabbed at Musgraves as she moved through the audience, prompting an exasperated response captured in social media footage.
“Last night, this Tampa bitch…” she began, as the crowd booed the offender. “Y’all, I know, I know. She kinda ruined it. She kinda ruined it for everybody. I thought I was gonna have to get real east Texas on her.”
Pretending to remove her earrings, she added, “Florida goes hard. It felt a little bit like when you type your name and your birth date into the ‘Florida man’ thing and then the Tampa girl popped up.”
Musgraves’ representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday.
The “Middle of Nowhere” tour continues with upcoming North American dates before heading overseas.