Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires Split After 11 Years of Marriage and Music: What Went Wrong?
- According to court records, Jason Isbell filed for divorce from Amanda Shires on December 15, 2023, citing irreconcilable differences.
- Isbell and Shires are both acclaimed musicians who have won multiple awards, including two Grammys for their latest album Weathervanes in 2024.
- The couple met in 2004, when Shires was playing fiddle in Billy Joe Shaver’s band and Isbell was a member of Drive-By Truckers. They married in February 2013 and formed the 400 Unit, a band that also featured Shires as a fiddle player and vocalist.
- They have a daughter, Mercy Rose, born in 2015, and have lived separately for some time. Their last performance together was in February 2023.
- They have faced difficulties in their marriage due to Isbell’s drinking problem, which he overcame with Shires’ help in 2012, and their different creative visions, which led to Shires moving out for a week in 2020.
- They have written songs that hinted at their marital issues, such as Shires’ “Fault Lines” from her 2002 album Take It Like a Man.
- They have appeared in a documentary, Running With Your Eyes Closed, that showed their tensions in the studio and their attempts at marriage counseling.
Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires, two of the most prominent figures in the country and Americana music scenes, have decided to end their marriage after nearly 11 years. The couple, who have a daughter named Mercy Rose, have been open about the challenges of their relationship and their musical collaboration, which have been documented in their songs and a recent HBO documentary.
Isbell filed for divorce from Shires on December 15, 2023, because of irreconcilable differences, according to court records reviewed by Rolling Stone. The couple had lived separately for some time and had not performed together since February 2023, when they celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary with upbeat posts on social media.
Isbell and Shires first met in 2004, when Shires was playing fiddle in Billy Joe Shaver’s band and Isbell was a member of Drive-By Truckers.
They reconnected in 2009, after Isbell had left the Truckers and launched his solo career. They married in February 2013 and formed the 400 Unit, a band that also featured Shires as a fiddle player and vocalist. The band won four Grammys, including Best Americana Album for “Weathervanes” in 2024.
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Their marriage had typical challenges for two-career musician families, and Isbell’s early alcoholism made it worse. Shires helped him through rehab, but they still had problems, which showed in their music and words. Isbell’s 2020 album “Reunions” strained their relationship more, and Shires felt left out creatively. She told People magazine in 2020: “I felt like I wasn’t being heard. I felt like I wasn’t being valued. I felt like I wasn’t being respected. And I felt like I wasn’t being loved.”
Their marriage anniversary celebrations and the HBO documentary “Running With Your Eyes Closed” showed how complex their relationship was, with scenes of tension and talks about marriage counseling. In the documentary, Shires read aloud an email to Isbell about their therapy sessions: “I know we both want this to work. I know we both love each other. But we have to be honest and we have to try harder.”
Despite their public challenges, Isbell and Shires have yet to offer official comments on their divorce. The divorce comes as a surprise to many fans, who have praised Isbell and Shires for their musical collaboration and chemistry. They have also expressed their love and respect for each other in interviews and songs.
Isbell once sang in “Cover Me Up”, a song he wrote for Shires after getting sober: “But I sobered up and I swore off that stuff forever this time / And the old lovers sing ‘I thought it’d be me who helped him get home’ / But home was a dream, one I’d never seen till you came along.”
What do you think of the divorce of Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires? How do you think it will affect their music and their fans? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
