When the lights (very softly) came up in Studio 8H during Kacey Musgraves's performance of "justified" on Saturday night, she was wearing an outfit none of her fans had ever seen her in before: a guitar and a pair of boots. And that's it. For those who didn't clock the comparison immediately, Musgraves was channeling one of cinema's most well-known flower children with her wardrobe, or lack thereof.
For the season premiere hosted by Esquire cover star Owen Wilson, Musgraves opened up her two-song Saturday Night Live set with a stripped down, acoustic version of "justified," off her newest studio album, star-crossed. To match the folksy tone of the track, the country singer reached into her bag of pop culture references and came up with the perfect homage to Forrest Gump's Jenny, portrayed by Robin Wright. For those who might have not clocked the comparison, Musgraves later confirmed via uploading a video of the Forrest Gump scene to her Instagram story as well as a screen shot of the scene on Twitter.
In the scene from the film, Forrest (Tom Hanks) stops into a night club to see his childhood friend and forever love Jenny (Wright) performing her folk music at a show. He's surprised to find that while Jenny is crooning her singer-songwriter favorites to the crowd, she's doing so wearing nothing but an acoustic guitar and a pair of nude heels.
A couple of front row hecklers accost Jenny, which makes Forrest lose his damn mind. He marches to the front of the stage, fights them off, and carries a naked Jenny off the stage. No word on exactly how close Musgraves's current boyfriend Cole Schafer was to the front of the stage, but thankfully, there were no hecklers on sight. Be cool, everyone.
Musgraves finished the night with a performance of "camera roll," also off star-crossed. Shoutout to the naked folk singers who will never see the Saturday Night Live stage, let alone be naked on it. This one was for you.
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