Kacey Musgraves Receives Surprise From ‘Hannah Montana’ On ‘Ellen’

Kacey Musgraves fell victim to one of Ellen DeGeneres’ classic jump-scare pranks while revealing that years ago she made a few bucks impersonating Hannah Montana, E! News is reporting.

On Monday the country music star stopped by The Ellen DeGeneres Show to promote her latest album Golden Hour. The album, which has earned Kacey two nominations for the 2018 CMA Awards, has been playing nonstop in Ellen and wife Portia de Rossi’s home, says the host.

“We were obsessed. We listened to that album all summer long. We listened to it in the car. We listened to it in the house. We just love your voice and love your music.”

However, Musgraves hasn’t always been an award-nominated, successful country musician. In fact, if you’ve listened to her 2012 album Same Trailer Different Park, you know that Kacey knows all too well what it means to be poor. And of course, like all musicians, she paid her dues before she hit it big, working odd jobs to get by while waiting for her big break.

One of those jobs was as a Hannah Montana impersonator at children’s birthday parties. So low-paying was the job that she sometimes got paid in change, she says. And of course, it was demeaning.

“A kid tried to rip my wig off. He said, ‘You’re not the real Hannah Montana.’ I was supposed to walk in with a boombox, ready to go with her theme song. I practiced all night. I had a wig. I was like, ‘God, this looks terrible. It’s like straw.'”

As Kacey was telling her story, an Ellen stagehand dressed in a Hannah Montana wig popped out of a prop desk next to Musgraves, startling her.

If you’re a longtime fan of Ellen’s show, you know that scaring her guests is one of her classic bits. She also tries to make it a point to have the scarer dress in a costume that in some way references the guest – so it would only make sense that the scarer dressed as Hannah Montana while Kacey was talking about her days as an impersonator.

There are other parts of her pre-fame life that Kacey would like you to forget, she tells Ellen. In 2007, she competed in the fifth season of Nashville Star, which helped her career pretty much not at all, she says.

“I don’t know if I would say that I got known for it. Most people hopefully just kind of forget I was part of that.”