Hello Sunshine.
Hey besties, Today on the bright Side, what a show we have for you. We are joined by the most awarded artist in the history of the Academy of Country Music Awards, the three time Grammy winner Miranda Lambert. Her new album Postcards from Texas is out tomorrow, and she's here to talk about the power of going back to her roots, the magic in finding her voice, plus the craziest thing she's ever done for love. It's Thursday, September twelfth. I'm Simone Boyce.
I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from Hello Sunshine, a daily show where we come together to share women's stories, laugh, learn and brighten your day.
Okay, Danielle, you're an og Miranda Lambert fan, right, I actually am.
You Know what's funny is I grew up in Chicago, and people don't think country music when they think Chicago, but there's a huge country fan base. I think maybe we get it from the surrounding areas, from Indiana, from Michigan, from Iowa, and so I grew up listening to country music, particularly in high school and became a Miranda fan. And then when I grew up, I became a Miranda Fan for a different reason.
What was that reason?
So we think of the women of country music, the legacy country artist being Shania Twain, Reba Dolly Parton, and I felt like they all kind of handed the keys to Miranda Lampert. So when you think of the country artists today that are all on our radar, like Casey Musgraves, Maren Morris, Kelsey Ballerini, Laney Wilson, Carly Pearce, you don't get any of these women without Miranda Lampert. She broke stereotypes.
She had this fearless approach to songwriting, She embraced heartbreak, she talks about being a wild She expanded the genre's narrative. Like she just had so much cultural impact that I almost feel like it was this explosion of feminism in country and it happened because of Miranda.
Miranda has this tattoo of the word wild on her foot, and I don't have any tattoos on my body, but if I did, it would be the word wild somewhere. Wait, why because wild is just how I want to approach life. I just I always want to be primed for an adventure. I've been that way ever since I was a little girl, and I just I'm a free spirit. That's that's where I feel most free is when I'm in my wild element.
Hmmm, all right, well, you guys have something in common.
Yeah.
To be honest, I'm really excited to get to know Miranda better in this interview because we all know her as this major force in country music for over twenty years. But I'm really curious to know how she did it.
Well, let's give everyone a little background. So she burst onto the country music scene in two thousand and one when she released her Day You self titled, self financed album at eighteen years old, all right, and through her illustrious careers, she's been honored by the Grammy Awards, the Academy of Country Music Awards, the Country Music Association Awards, like there's no award in country music that this woman does not have, and NPR called her the most riveting
country star of our generation.
She truly is royalty at these Country Music Award shows too. I've covered a couple of them, and I always love doing it because everyone in country music is so nice.
Sometimes when you're.
Covering Hollywood events, like you never know what kind of attitudes you're gonna get I'm just keeping it hundred percent real. But everyone in country music there's this era of like just gratitude and realness and down to earthness, if that's a word. And I remember speaking to up and coming country music artists, especially women, and Miranda is just as much of a legend to them as all the other women you mentioned, like Shanaia and Reba and Leanne Rhymes.
So she clearly carries such a presence in this genre and is an inspiration to so many emerging artists. And now Miranda's going back to her roots with her new album, Postcards from Texas that's out tomorrow, and get ready for the song titles, y'all. They're so candid and hilarious at
the same time. We're talking songs like I Hate Love Songs and Bitch on the Sauce, which there's a lyric in that song that says the heart is a bitch on the sauce, meaning like the heart is just like a girl who's drunk, which I think is a really great way of looking at heartache and heartbreak. So from all this and so much more, it's clear that this is her truest and most real album yet. So let's bring her in, Miranda Lambert, Welcome to the bright side.
Thank you. How are y'all doing.
We're great, We're talking to you. We're so good.
Yay, okay, good congratulations are in order for you, Miranda, because your new album, Postcards from Texas, comes out tomorrow. It's fourteen songs. You recorded the album in Austin, and Postcards from Texas is symbolically a bit of a homecoming for you. I read that this is actually your truest and most real album yet. Did you feel like you had kind of lost a part of yourself along the way.
I never have lost myself.
I think the reason I wanted to go home and record was because the first time I ever made a record was in Texas and Dallas, and since then, I've been on a label for twenty years and I've had this awesome journey, really long career, which is all I ever set out to do. But I signed with a new label, and the enthusiasm and inspiration of having new teams that lead with art made me want to really make sure that I just went straight back to the
root of what started this whole thing. So it's just kind of a full circle twenty year sort of record that needed to be made.
Speaking of what started the whole thing, what was the song that changed your career?
House It Built Me?
I just listened to that this morning.
House It Built Me is a cornerstone of my career. It was at a time where I really was starting to get like backed in a corner a little bit, like, Oh, I'm a firebrand, I'm feisty, I'm fiery, all these words that were used to describe me. I'm a little pistol like it was. That is a huge part of who I am. But it was songs like Kerosene on my first record, and then Crazy Ex Girlfriend and Gunpowder and Lead and I just I had a lot more to say than that, but that was kind of what people
were drawn to. And when House It Built Me came along, people started really pay attention to, like, oh, she has different parts of her personality. This is like a really touching story, and this is a vulnerable song, and that song is just it's still just such a huge, huge song for me every night. But I think it's everybody's story and that's why that song is what it is.
I think that's why your music resonates with people, particularly women, so deeply. Your songs have been the soundtrack to so many of my breakups.
I have to tell you that makes me happy. I mean, I'm glad I was there for your girl.
Thank you. Without even knowing it, you know, I was reading that they call you and they meaning like the country music world, call you a wild card. Why do you think they say that?
I don't know either, but I do have a wild card tattoo, wild card up my sleeve, so that could have something to do with it. It's probably right, I you know, I think I just am not afraid to take risks. And even if the choices I make musically or in my career or something that I stand for makes the road longer and harder, I'm still willing to do that.
So I guess that's probably.
What they mean when they say that, because I read that you said one time, I just rather would do it my way. And yeah, your songs have always been very woman coded, if I could put it that way, and you call out sexism in country music quite often. I mean, there's a whole US Weekly article about throughout the years, every single time you've done it, and there.
Is, yes, I know that I don't oh man, see I get myself in trouble.
Sometimes it's not trouble. I think you're speaking for us in so many ways. But there's a lot of sexism to me, even in the entertainment industry that feels obvious. I'm really curious about the more insidious kind, like what happened while you were coming up, or what happens now that we don't see or we don't hear about what do you deal with?
I think all women deal with on some level the same problems, especially if you're really strong and you're really determined and are very confident. I think it can be intimidating to the wrong people, you know, but those are the wrong people.
They're not your people.
And I feel lucky because in country music, as far as the male artists go, like, they've been pretty amazing.
I mean, they're usually lifting up.
I've had a really good run with Like the first tours I ever was on with Keith Urban in two thousand and five.
I learned so much from him.
He was so kind to me and took me under his wing, and then Derek Spentley and Brad Paisley. I was on tour with Tobey Keith Door Straight Oh Royalty Kenny Chesney was such a huge supporter of mine and took me on tour tour three times and taught me a lot of great things. It was a very male dominated scene at that time, and there wasn't a lot of women touring, so it was a man's world. But I was lucky to have some of those artists really kind of show me the way or show me what
not to do. I mean, there were those lessons too, so I am fortunate that in country music world I had that. But there's obviously, you know, I've been doing this for twenty years, There's been a lot of circumstances that were harder to deal with with, and we're obstacles and sometimes I feel like when you know exactly who you are, it scares people and they don't know how to move forward with you and how to deal with.
Someone that's really headstrong.
So that's why I say it made my road a little harder and longer sometimes, but it's the reward was worth it because I was authentic to me. And that's my biggest advice to like young artists is like know who you are, stick with it no matter what. Don't let anybody change you, even if it means, oh, well, I could have had a number one, or I could have skipped a few steps if I would have just kind of sold out.
It's not worth it.
We have to take a quick break, but we'll be right back with Miranda Lambert. And we're back with Miranda Lambert.
There was a quote that stood out to me so much about your story. Early on, your mom would call and try and get you booked on gigs and people would say, we don't book girls.
Yeah they would. I mean I heard that a lot, and that was that's wild.
You know.
It's one of those situations where you're like you don't have any experience, Like, well, you're not giving me a chance to get any Like how do I get experience if you won't let me on the stage, you know.
So I used to play there and set change.
Like go to these clubs and like whatever first guy act was on, like while they were wrapping up their chords and cleaning up their stuff and the next guy was plugging in his guitar. I'd play like two or three songs and they would just be like winding chords or on my feet. But it was it was a way for me to get up there. And get some like experience under my belt and to start learning my chops and to see if I had what it took.
I needed to see that for myself, and there was no other way to see it than go do it.
How often do you think about those early days now? Do you find yourself like reflecting on that time?
Ever?
Yeah?
I mean I just played Stubs in Austin, Texas, which is tiny little barbecue joint that's like legendary, and it was almost twenty years to the day that I had been on that same stage doing my first showcase for a major label, and that was a full circle moment.
But I just loved it.
So much, and it reminded me like, I still love this as much as I did then. I still have the same amount of passion for it. Yes, I don't have the same amount of energy and or patients that I used to have for the bullshit, but I definitely still have the passion and love for it.
I want to talk about the bullshit a little bit because nobody brings honest I.
Brought it up, so.
Nobody brings honesty and humor the way that you do as you write your life experience into your lyrics. There's this one quote that I read of yours. You said there's a lot of bad decisions on this record, meaning Postcards from Texas. And you said that you don't learn from things going great. Yeah, what is a lesson you've learned from something not going great?
Oh?
Man?
So many?
I mean, I you know, from heartbreak to divorce to like, you know, the music business. I mean, it'll break your heart in a hot minute. I learned from all the nose. I learned from all of the you know, anytime some of those people would be like, we don't book girls, it's like, well watch me, I'm gonna figure out a way. And I'm I wouldn't have learned If everyone was like, here, let's open the door and roll out the carpet for you,
make your journey easy. I wouldn't have had the grit that I have now, or the try, or the hunger, because I think when you're hungry for something, that's what creates this passion and this drive.
If it's just.
Easy and it all comes easy and natural, it doesn't create like the work ethic that I think hunger and like somebody telling you you're not gonna make it.
It's just like lots of fire, and.
I can see in your eyes you're the same as me, Like most of y'all are like, oh yeah, tell me I can't and watch me do it twice.
You know.
Well, I think a lot of successful artists have that in common. There's this inner dialogue, inner monologue that you have to develop and you can't let the nose get to you. How did you process them in your mind? Like did you immediately think no, I can do this? What was that inner dialogue?
Like I think it was, you know, I would study up to I study like all the artists that I'd ever loved, and like read articles about their journey, and I think that gave me encouragement that like everybody's road is different and so you can't let it like get you down. But I did instill to this day even more now, I think I'm learning. I'm I'm learning to
feel it, just be in it and feel it. And when when something lets me down or I don't win the whatever, or I don't you know, have a great show, or my album doesn't do what I wanted or whatever the circumstance is, I'm like, Okay, well I'm gonna sit in this right now. Absorb it, figure out why it's happening and how it's making me feel, and process it and learn from it and do something different or change
the trajectory of the next thing. So, you know, I think it's so important to like live in the life just as much as you live in the has we have.
To Ooh, that's so good.
I love that, and it's so harder. I'm just kidding it.
Seriously, you were like fifteen thinking about your career having longevity, which is just so rare. I just imagine you, like fifteen, looking at the Grand Ole Opry or the Grammys or the Country Music Awards, being like, I'm going to be the Dolly, I'm going to be the Reba. Like you weren't thinking of your career in one album or a few hits. Is there a moment when you started feeling more comfortable and confident in the success, like, Okay, it wasn't going to go away.
There is, But I don't take it for granted like I I did.
That's all I set out to do. I wanted a long career.
When I met my manager when I was nineteen, we're still together, Marion, and I said, she said, what do you want and I said, I want a long career. I wan want to make music that matters, music that most people want to lift up women saved, and be able to play music for as long as I physically can. I don't want to have to play. I want to want to and so I feel like I'm on that path, you know, and it I think setting myself up early going. These are the goals.
You know.
We didn't have like vision boards back then. It was just like it just was in my head and I did work my ass off. But I have an amazing team around me that will not They're not yes people.
That's huge, it's huge. It's it's my first.
It's my like after I tell an artist, like a young artists and then they're like, what's your advice, I'm like, know who you are and stick with it. And secondly, do not surround yourself with people that are going to tell you everything you do is great, you're beautiful. You can go out there and be a shit show. That's not how this works. You need somebody to tell you the truth, especially the hard ones, the hard truths that are like you know, like the kind where my manager,
for instance, takes me to this park. She drives a tiny car. She drives a Porsche, and she'll lock the doors and turn to me, and I'm like, oh no, here it goes. But it's usually something I really need to hear. And so I just feel like it's so important to surround yourself with people that will tell you the truth and that aren't wrapped up in all this. You know, it's like, who are you off camera? Who are you off stage? Who are you out of the studio? Like that really love you for you?
Did she ever tell you one you didn't want to hear? Oh?
Yeah, all the time, every day, really yeah, And I appreciate it. Some is my mom and some is my husband for that matter. I mean he's a New Yorker. They don't He does not mince word. He minces garlic, but not his words. So like, I'm surrounded by people who speak their truth and tell me when I need to hear something that might not be like my favorite news ever, And I'm one of those people that's a slow processor, so I might like buck the system at first, and then I live with it for a while.
I'm like, y'all were right, y'are really right?
Well, Miranda, you recently turned forty and said that this decade has been making you reconsider what your priorities are going forward. What kind of era are we manifesting for the forties.
Man, I'm so excited about it.
Besides like the stuff that's not fun, like girls stuff, you know, just getting I'm excited to everybody that I know that is a female that's in our forties's like, oh, it's the best decade ever. Like, I'm really excited about cutting out the noise, like I already kind of do, but something about turn of forty makes it that much more.
Like I don't care what people that don't know me think, Like I've got to care about what the people that they have sewn into my life, fans and people in my life, my friends that have sewn in for years that they matter to me.
I care about that.
I don't care about some stranger that doesn't know the story making up a lie and you know it just it It kills my creativity if I let that in. So I'm excited about giving less of a shit about that even more than I do now.
And I'm about staying inspired.
You know, I'm getting to work with a lot of young artists and writers and I want to learn. Things are so different than when I started this business, and so I'm excited to learn how everything operates and what's inspiring these younger people and keep my fire. And you know, I've I've learned four chords when I was seventeen on the guitar. My dad taught me four. You only need three in country music, but he taught me an extra just in case.
In case you ever want to go to pop music, you need four.
Yeah, exactly, like here's a four. It's just a case.
And I just can't believe sometimes that those four chords have led me to where I am and that I get to talk on podcasts and you know, speak my truth not only through my music now, but through my brand. I'll win, through my charity, my nation, Big Loud Texas. I'm a founder of a new label for music out of my owne Star State, and I just feel really fortunate to have music be the platform because that's where it starts.
It ends for me is the songs.
And if I wouldn't have recorded the songs that I've recorded, I don't think that I would be able to speak to any of this like I can now because I signed up to tell the truth back then, and I'm still signed up to tell the truth.
That is so great. I love that word truth.
Well, it's important, you know.
Don't go anywhere. We have to take another quick break, but we'll be right back with Miranda Lambert. And we're back with Miranda Lampert. I told you earlier you write one hell of a breakup song, but you also write one hell of a love song. And you've been candid about your love throughout your life. What is the wildest thing you've ever done in the name of love?
Probably marry my husband, just I mean, we only dated three months and we just kind of were like, let's do it.
And I, you know, my close friends were like.
All right, we love you, we know you're crazy, but we.
We need more details about this, Miranda. Do you gotta tell us everything.
He's the best.
We were almost six years in now to our marriage, but we met. He's a cop NYPD and he was working at GMA and I was doing Good Morning America with my girl band, Pistol Annie's and we were singing a song called I Got my Name Changed Back, which is very ironic because it took me a lot of effort to change my name back from my first marriage on my license and passport.
It's a whole thing.
So we wrote a funny song about it, and we were doing that on the show, and he was working Good Morning America out on the street. That was part of his sort of morning routine is to check on everybody there. And we invited him to our show that night, No plus one, just one ticket strategically, and we hung
out afterwards. And you know, my whole family, I'm from a first responder family of four cops and eight firemen in my family, and his whole family cops and firemen, and so we kind of just had a lot of common ground. Even though I'm a East Texan and he's from Staten Island, New York.
We just really hit it off.
And you know, he's kind of a risk taker too, so we got married really quick. And I just feel like, you know, after you've been through pain, I've went through divorce, I've been through the music business, and I've done a lot and seen a lot, and I was like, you know, the reward of a big love, Yes, the other option is big pain, but I've done that, you know, so I'm going to take the risk for the big love and it's worked out so far.
Have you had a country girl of our city boy moment yet?
Oh gosh, every single day like there was a language barrier.
He was like, I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't understand any of those words.
That's hilarious.
He has an accent. His family is a very thick New York accent. But I've really loved like getting to immerse myself. I'm an honorary New Yorker now, and I love that. But I've that's where I'm calling y'all from New York. But I feel like, you know, it's really fun to sort of mix the world. Our first Thanksgiving, we had my family and his family and there was
and he's Dominican and Irish and we're Texan. So we had like we had like barbecue chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy, and we had penny vodka and chicken, palm and rice and beans. It was like a mixing of the world. But it's really fun. We get together a lot. It's a whole family, and it's really fun to like just see how different, but how how much the same we are. You know, we just we speak with a different draw that's really cool.
You realize this is like every girl's dream when she moves to New York is find a hot NYPD cop and fall in love.
With Well, I'll tell you what, I wasn't looking. I think that's the ticket.
I'll stop, I'll stop looking.
Yeah, I was like, I'm doing me right now, and then here he comes out of nowhere.
So I don't know.
I mean, it's you know, it does sound like some kind of crazy little rom com, but it hasn't been Sunshine and Roses.
Nothing is, you know, but it's.
It's really I just I love big, I love my animals big, I love people big, I love music big, and I just think it's worth it to take a risk.
Speaking of risks, your husband, Brendan is not a musician. He's former NYPD, but he actually co wrote one of the songs on this album he did. What was it like to create together? Was this an easy yes for him? Did you have to pressure him at all? Into day?
During twenty twenty, we were living at my farm outside of Nashville's an hour outside of town, you know, like a one room cabin, so like we were doing everything, like everybody was like painting and baking, and I was like, let's write songs, and so we wrote a few during COVID and he was really pretty good, like he had some good lines and I was like, okay, and then he was joking around with our friend Jesse Frasier, who's
a huge hit songwriter. Songwriting was easy, and so Jesse made him come in and actually do like o session with like He's like he sat there for four hours and his golf clothes and he was like, this is really hard. I was like, yes, it is, sir, thank you. We overnight success took ten years, remember that. So that was his first like official rite and we got a
great song. And then John Raindel, my co producer and co writer and collaborator, were doing prep for this record and we were talking about just having a new family, having a new label, and getting out of something that didn't serve me.
And we started writing.
We had tequila and a guitar for sure going to write a song, and Brendan was sitting there watching the football game. He kept piping little words in and I was like, if you're gonna we're gonna do this, You're turn the game off, like we're gonna get in it, and he did.
He had some of my favorite lines in the song.
And nobody understands what you're going through more than a partner you live with that you're coming home to tell your story to every day. And this kind of was a story I needed to write. So he was a perfect co writer for that.
What do you think makes a great songwriter? Because it's really interesting to me that he didn't have any experience, but he could just jump in to me. That speaks to someone's life experience as opposed to you know, resumes.
I think, you know, being an NYPD officer for eight years and growing up in New York, you already see a lot more than someone that lived anywhere else, you know what I mean. So I think that plays into it a lot. But let me know if you figured it out. I'm still trying to be a.
Great song rather.
Oh please, that's the biggest, the perfect Oh my god, there are so many from you. I want to talk about you starting your own record label though, because I just want to give people context for what a record label entails like to launch and promote an artist. On average, for a label like Universal Music Group costs anywhere from five hundred thousand to two million dollars. You have recording costs, you have music videos, you have marketing and promotion, you
have tour support. I'm not telling you anything you don't know. Uh, you are discovering and signing new artists and taking this on. Why is this so important to you? Because this is a huge undertaking.
It is and I loved here in that list because it's a reminder there is so much that goes into it, and you have to deal with artists and we're a lot no I think you know, it's important to me because the music that built me and who I am is from my estate and a lot of it because there's so many kinds of music come out of Texas too. And you know, I've been able to have this amazing career that I really work so hard to get here.
I want to use any experience that I can and knowledge that I've gained to help god somebody else's dream, you know, because it's not easy.
And I had some.
Really great people in my life, but I didn't have like a female artist really that I could just call up at three in the morning when everything was piled on me, you know.
So I want to be that.
Person, especially for the girls because we really got to stick together. You know, I want to win. I want you to win too, and we can all do that. But we're not going to do it by clonia each other's eyes out and step it on each other. We're going to do it by being authentic and lifting each other up. And that's that's the goal. And I want to be that for anyone in music that I can use some of my experience because I get to spend like five minutes with ree.
Butt stagecoach, and I'm like, I have so many questions, you know what I mean, And she's so great, She's.
Done it so right in her way and she's still on top killing it. So like, if I can be that for somebody, I definitely want to.
Yeah, in honor of your new record Postcards from Texas, if you could send a postcard to your younger self to fifteen year old Miranda, what would you say, Oh man.
I would just say, stop, take a bread.
You're going to be hurt, because that was the biggest thing at the beginning of like I have something to say. I write these songs and I know who I am, and I feel like I can help women in the world or you know, I have something to offer, and I just you know, I think when we're so young, we're just so like guns of blazing that we don't take a breath and enjoy the process as much. And so I would tell her to, like, look around, take a breath, and enjoy the rid more than lack so tunnel vision.
Miranda. When I thought about interviewing you today, I thought about two words. It was reinvention and courage. I think there's so much of both of those words in your story, at least public facing what I see, and I think from time and time again, no matter what's going on in your life, you rise from the ashes with optimism. And I can't tell you how many times I listened to your song Blackbird when I was going through a hard time. For anyone who hasn't heard it, the lyrics are, Yeah,
I'm a turner. I turn pages all the time. Don't like where I'm at. Thirty four was bad, So I just turned thirty five, and I love the idea of just turning the page, get all the emotion out, just turn the page. After all that, what do you know about walking on the bright side?
That's really sweet. Thank you for saying that.
I love those two words, and I do identify with them in my life, not just Miranda Lambert, but in my personal life. And I think the transition periods are those are the times where you really think, am I doing it right? Am I reinventing? Should I have It's
it all been? Be okay on the other side of this, And whether that's career wise or personal whatever, there's a transition period for every amount, like every time you're growing, and it feels uncomfortable and scary sometimes, but what's the other option?
You know?
For me, there's not.
Another option than to try to do bigger and better things like reinvent create more things, and bring more awareness to creativity and to you know, with my charity and my nation, Like I'm always trying to think, like, what else can we do to you know, bring attention to
this subject I'm so passionate about. I think it's learning the lessons in the quiet moments too, Like you know, it's sometimes you have to sit with yourself and wait it out for whatever the next wave is to come, and that's where you learn the lessons.
That's where you hear yourself.
And my friend Natalie Hemby, who's my co writer a lot for almost two decades. She was saying that in a songwriting masterclass about how you have to just sit with your thoughts because that's where your real truth comes out. And as a songwriter, that's an obligation we have. And so you know, I I've gotten way better at that. I was not good at it when I was young at all, and I think that comes with time and experience.
But you know, that's another postcard I would send to my young self, like just sit in it, feel it, all of it. And that's part of the gross and so it's super important to go through those transition periods.
You know.
Miranda, thank you so much for coming on the bride.
Thank you so much. All were great.
I really enjoyed this. Thank you, Miranda.
Thank you guys.
Miranda Lampert is a three time Grammy Award winning country singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Her new album, Postcards from Texas, is out tomorrow.
That's it for today's show. Tomorrow, we're popping off with comedian, actor and writer Sashir Zamida.
Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm simone Boye.
You can find me at Simone Voice on Instagram and TikTok.
I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok. That's ro b A.
Y see you tomorrow, Folks, keep looking on the bright side.