Those Who Follow Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires Aren't Surprised by the Divorce

By Dustin Rowles | Celebrity | February 8, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | Celebrity | February 8, 2024 |

“If I could just quit drinking, I’d have everything I want,” Jason Isbell said in last year’s documentary Jason Isbell: Running with Our Eyes Closed. Isbell quit drinking well over a decade ago, but it wasn’t enough. Isbell filed for divorce from Amanda Shires in December, nearly 11 years into their marriage. The two have an eight-year-old daughter together.

No one who has seen Running with Our Eyes Closed will be surprised by the news. Isbell and Shires are royalty in the folk-rock/Americana scene, both for their work together and their solo work. She plays fiddle in his band, the 400 Unit. He plays guitar in her band, The Highwomen. That documentary, which was ostensibly about the writing of an album, was more a real-life Marriage Story about two people who really, really love each but really, really couldn’t continue to be together.

It wasn’t a toxic marriage. It was not an abusive marriage. And it certainly wasn’t a loveless marriage. Working together and being married was just too much for the couple. The strain was evident in the documentary, where the two would bicker, fight, and butt heads mostly over simple personality clashes. You could sense the marriage unraveling — Shires moved into a hotel for ten days in 2020 before they reconciled — but it was hard not to root for them anyway because they’re both good people.

They seem like the perfect couple, except for all the reasons they aren’t. This one hurts, not because it suggests that love is dead, but because it suggests that, sometimes, love isn’t enough.

Jason Isbell: Running with Our Eyes Closed is currently streaming on Max.