Listen to “Never Really Mine” HERE
Release Offers Fans First Taste of New Music Following a Breakout Year of Features, Festival Appearances and a Headlining European Tour
Boundary-pushing Tulsa-born fiery artist Kaitlin Butts continues her breakout year with the release of her new song ‘Never Really Mine‘, available everywhere today via Republic Records. Listen to ‘Never Really Mine’ HERE.
“At a festival in Austin, my husband and I were walking through the crowd to get backstage, and someone essentially catcalled my husband as I was holding his hand. It actually made me laugh out loud because she was right – he is ‘foiinneeee,'” said Butts.
“When we got backstage, my friend Fernando asked me if that ever bothered me, and I said, ‘a man that can be taken from me was never really mine.’ I thought about how much I wish other women felt that way and that they had that same security as I do. He doesn’t have a wandering eye, and if someone ever took his attention away, I wouldn’t be tugging at him to stay with me. I would want him to go on and get her.”
Written by Butts alongside Maggie Antone and Lola Kirke, the track captures the sharp-witted humour and fearless honesty that have become signatures of Butts’ songwriting.
“I brought the song to my friends Lola Kirke and Maggie Antone on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Nashville,” shares Butts. “I had the first couple lines to the song and that hook, and I just knew they were the perfect women to write it with. I can feel their wisdom and their heartbreak alongside mine weaved in every line.”
Built around a devastatingly simple realisation, ‘Never Really Mine’ delivers one of Butts’ most cutting choruses to date:
“I’ve got your hand, but she caught your eye
If you say hello, then I’ll say goodbye
So go on and get her, yeah, I’ll be just fine
If she can take you that easy
You were never really mine”
The release follows a whirlwind 2026 for Butts, who joins on Willow Avalon’s new song ‘Hypothetically Speaking’ and its official video and she’s continued expanding her own creative footprint both onstage and behind the camera. Earlier this spring, Butts starred in Ella Langley’s music video for the award-winning hit ‘Choosin’ Texas’ and co-directed and wrote the treatment for Flatland Cavalry’s ‘Unglued’.
The release arrives as Butts wraps her sold out headlining European Cowgirl Experience and an appearance at Highways Festival at London’s legendary Royal Albert Hall as well as stops across the UK including Leeds, Manchester, Glasgow, Belfast and Dublin, bringing her captivating live show overseas once again.
The new track is Butts’ first new music since the release of The Yeehaw Sessions last year, her first project since signing with Republic Records in October 2025. The fan-favourite EP featured her genre-bending takes on songs including Chappell Roan’s ‘Red Wine Supernova’, Jimmy Eat World’s ‘The Middle’, The Chicks’ ‘Sin Wagon’ and Don Williams’ ‘Tulsa Time’, alongside her viral anthem ‘You Ain’t Gotta Die (To Be Dead To Me)‘, which has amassed more than 157 million TikTok views and 67 million global streams.
In 2024, Butts earned widespread critical acclaim for her album Roadrunner!, a bold reimagining inspired by Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! that landed on numerous year-end best-of lists. She also recently joined Lainey Wilson on her Whirlwind Tour, was featured in the Country Music Hall of Fame’s latest American Currents exhibition for the second year in a row. She was named to both the 2025 Opry NextStage class and the CMT Next Women of Country class.
KEEP UP WITH KAITLIN BUTTS