Jason Isbell Opens Up About Filing For Divorce From Amanda Shires

Jason Isbell said his divorce from Amanda Shires has been “hard and sad,” but he’s “in a good place.”

Isbell, 45, and Shires, 41, married in February 2013. They share one child together, daughter Mercy, 8. Isbell reportedly filed for divorce in December, parting ways after nearly 11 years of marriage. He cited irreconcilable differences for the divorce. Previously, Isbell and Shires have worked with one another in music, including Shires singing and playing fiddle with Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, and Isbell playing guitar for The Highwomen, a supergroup that includes Natalie Hemby, Brandi Carlile and Maren Morris. 

“We’re all getting along right now. It’s hard and sad, and I don’t enjoy it, but ... I’m in a good place,” Isbell told PEOPLE of how the family’s handling the split and what’s next for them. “Mercy’s happy. She knows, no matter what, she’s going to be loved and safe and cared for.

“Once I was done writing those songs, they didn’t really belong to me anymore,” he added to PEOPLE of his love songs. “If I said I can’t sing [these songs] now because of what’s happened in my own personal life, then I would be discrediting the emotional experience other people have had with them. For me it’s a matter of honoring other people’s connections with that music and also my own past. Just because something ended doesn’t mean it failed.”

PEOPLE notes that Isbell indicated that he and Shires had gone their separate ways a week and a half before he filed for divorce on December 15 in Tennessee. Both Isbell and Shires have been open about struggles in their marriage before splitting up.