Speaker 1: Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2: Hey besties, Today on the bright Side, what a show
Speaker 2: we have for you. We are joined by the most
Speaker 2: awarded artist in the history of the Academy of Country
Speaker 2: Music Awards, the three time Grammy winner Miranda Lambert. Her
Speaker 2: new album Postcards from Texas is out tomorrow, and she's
Speaker 2: here to talk about the power of going back to
Speaker 2: her roots, the magic in finding her voice, plus the
Speaker 2: craziest thing she's ever done for love. It's Thursday, September twelfth.
Speaker 2: I'm Simone Boyce.
Speaker 1: I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from
Speaker 1: Hello Sunshine, a daily show where we come together to
Speaker 1: share women's stories, laugh, learn and brighten your day.
Speaker 2: Okay, Danielle, you're an og Miranda Lambert fan, right, I
Speaker 2: actually am.
Speaker 1: You Know what's funny is I grew up in Chicago,
Speaker 1: and people don't think country music when they think Chicago,
Speaker 1: but there's a huge country fan base. I think maybe
Speaker 1: we get it from the surrounding areas, from Indiana, from Michigan,
Speaker 1: from Iowa, and so I grew up listening to country music,
Speaker 1: particularly in high school and became a Miranda fan. And
Speaker 1: then when I grew up, I became a Miranda Fan
Speaker 1: for a different reason.
Speaker 3: What was that reason?
Speaker 1: So we think of the women of country music, the
Speaker 1: legacy country artist being Shania Twain, Reba Dolly Parton, and
Speaker 1: I felt like they all kind of handed the keys
Speaker 1: to Miranda Lampert. So when you think of the country
Speaker 1: artists today that are all on our radar, like Casey Musgraves,
Speaker 1: Maren Morris, Kelsey Ballerini, Laney Wilson, Carly Pearce, you don't
Speaker 1: get any of these women without Miranda Lampert. She broke stereotypes.
Speaker 1: She had this fearless approach to songwriting, She embraced heartbreak,
Speaker 1: she talks about being a wild She expanded the genre's narrative.
Speaker 1: Like she just had so much cultural impact that I
Speaker 1: almost feel like it was this explosion of feminism in
Speaker 1: country and it happened because of Miranda.
Speaker 2: Miranda has this tattoo of the word wild on her foot,
Speaker 2: and I don't have any tattoos on my body, but
Speaker 2: if I did, it would be the word wild somewhere. Wait,
Speaker 2: why because wild is just how I want to approach life.
Speaker 2: I just I always want to be primed for an adventure.
Speaker 2: I've been that way ever since I was a little girl,
Speaker 2: and I just I'm a free spirit. That's that's where
Speaker 2: I feel most free is when I'm in my wild element.
Speaker 1: Hmmm, all right, well, you guys have something in common.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: To be honest, I'm really excited to get to know
Speaker 2: Miranda better in this interview because we all know her
Speaker 2: as this major force in country music for over twenty years.
Speaker 2: But I'm really curious to know how she did it.
Speaker 1: Well, let's give everyone a little background. So she burst
Speaker 1: onto the country music scene in two thousand and one
Speaker 1: when she released her Day You self titled, self financed
Speaker 1: album at eighteen years old, all right, and through her
Speaker 1: illustrious careers, she's been honored by the Grammy Awards, the
Speaker 1: Academy of Country Music Awards, the Country Music Association Awards,
Speaker 1: like there's no award in country music that this woman
Speaker 1: does not have, and NPR called her the most riveting
Speaker 1: country star of our generation.
Speaker 2: She truly is royalty at these Country Music Award shows too.
Speaker 2: I've covered a couple of them, and I always love
Speaker 2: doing it because everyone in country music is so nice.
Speaker 3: Sometimes when you're.
Speaker 2: Covering Hollywood events, like you never know what kind of
Speaker 2: attitudes you're gonna get I'm just keeping it hundred percent real.
Speaker 2: But everyone in country music there's this era of like
Speaker 2: just gratitude and realness and down to earthness, if that's
Speaker 2: a word. And I remember speaking to up and coming
Speaker 2: country music artists, especially women, and Miranda is just as
Speaker 2: much of a legend to them as all the other
Speaker 2: women you mentioned, like Shanaia and Reba and Leanne Rhymes.
Speaker 2: So she clearly carries such a presence in this genre
Speaker 2: and is an inspiration to so many emerging artists. And
Speaker 2: now Miranda's going back to her roots with her new album,
Speaker 2: Postcards from Texas that's out tomorrow, and get ready for
Speaker 2: the song titles, y'all. They're so candid and hilarious at
Speaker 2: the same time. We're talking songs like I Hate Love
Speaker 2: Songs and Bitch on the Sauce, which there's a lyric
Speaker 2: in that song that says the heart is a bitch
Speaker 2: on the sauce, meaning like the heart is just like
Speaker 2: a girl who's drunk, which I think is a really
Speaker 2: great way of looking at heartache and heartbreak. So from
Speaker 2: all this and so much more, it's clear that this
Speaker 2: is her truest and most real album yet. So let's
Speaker 2: bring her in, Miranda Lambert, Welcome to the bright side.
Speaker 3: Thank you. How are y'all doing.
Speaker 1: We're great, We're talking to you. We're so good.
Speaker 2: Yay, okay, good congratulations are in order for you, Miranda,
Speaker 2: because your new album, Postcards from Texas, comes out tomorrow.
Speaker 2: It's fourteen songs. You recorded the album in Austin, and
Speaker 2: Postcards from Texas is symbolically a bit of a homecoming
Speaker 2: for you. I read that this is actually your truest
Speaker 2: and most real album yet. Did you feel like you
Speaker 2: had kind of lost a part of yourself along the way.
Speaker 3: I never have lost myself.
Speaker 4: I think the reason I wanted to go home and
Speaker 4: record was because the first time I ever made a
Speaker 4: record was in Texas and Dallas, and since then, I've
Speaker 4: been on a label for twenty years and I've had
Speaker 4: this awesome journey, really long career, which is all I
Speaker 4: ever set out to do. But I signed with a
Speaker 4: new label, and the enthusiasm and inspiration of having new
Speaker 4: teams that lead with art made me want to really
Speaker 4: make sure that I just went straight back to the
Speaker 4: root of what started this whole thing. So it's just
Speaker 4: kind of a full circle twenty year sort of record
Speaker 4: that needed to be made.
Speaker 1: Speaking of what started the whole thing, what was the
Speaker 1: song that changed your career?
Speaker 3: House It Built Me?
Speaker 1: I just listened to that this morning.
Speaker 4: House It Built Me is a cornerstone of my career.
Speaker 4: It was at a time where I really was starting
Speaker 4: to get like backed in a corner a little bit, like, Oh,
Speaker 4: I'm a firebrand, I'm feisty, I'm fiery, all these words
Speaker 4: that were used to describe me. I'm a little pistol
Speaker 4: like it was. That is a huge part of who
Speaker 4: I am. But it was songs like Kerosene on my
Speaker 4: first record, and then Crazy Ex Girlfriend and Gunpowder and
Speaker 4: Lead and I just I had a lot more to
Speaker 4: say than that, but that was kind of what people
Speaker 4: were drawn to. And when House It Built Me came along,
Speaker 4: people started really pay attention to, like, oh, she has
Speaker 4: different parts of her personality. This is like a really
Speaker 4: touching story, and this is a vulnerable song, and that
Speaker 4: song is just it's still just such a huge, huge
Speaker 4: song for me every night. But I think it's everybody's
Speaker 4: story and that's why that song is what it is.
Speaker 1: I think that's why your music resonates with people, particularly women,
Speaker 1: so deeply. Your songs have been the soundtrack to so
Speaker 1: many of my breakups.
Speaker 4: I have to tell you that makes me happy. I mean,
Speaker 4: I'm glad I was there for your girl.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Without even knowing it, you know, I was
Speaker 1: reading that they call you and they meaning like the
Speaker 1: country music world, call you a wild card. Why do
Speaker 1: you think they say that?
Speaker 4: I don't know either, but I do have a wild
Speaker 4: card tattoo, wild card up my sleeve, so that could
Speaker 4: have something to do with it. It's probably right, I
Speaker 4: you know, I think I just am not afraid to
Speaker 4: take risks. And even if the choices I make musically
Speaker 4: or in my career or something that I stand for
Speaker 4: makes the road longer and harder, I'm still willing to
Speaker 4: do that.
Speaker 3: So I guess that's probably.
Speaker 1: What they mean when they say that, because I read
Speaker 1: that you said one time, I just rather would do
Speaker 1: it my way. And yeah, your songs have always been
Speaker 1: very woman coded, if I could put it that way,
Speaker 1: and you call out sexism in country music quite often.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a whole US Weekly article about throughout
Speaker 1: the years, every single time you've done it, and there.
Speaker 4: Is, yes, I know that I don't oh man, see
Speaker 4: I get myself in trouble.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's not trouble. I think you're speaking for us
Speaker 1: in so many ways. But there's a lot of sexism
Speaker 1: to me, even in the entertainment industry that feels obvious.
Speaker 1: I'm really curious about the more insidious kind, like what
Speaker 1: happened while you were coming up, or what happens now
Speaker 1: that we don't see or we don't hear about what
Speaker 1: do you deal with?
Speaker 4: I think all women deal with on some level the
Speaker 4: same problems, especially if you're really strong and you're really
Speaker 4: determined and are very confident. I think it can be
Speaker 4: intimidating to the wrong people, you know, but those are
Speaker 4: the wrong people.
Speaker 3: They're not your people.
Speaker 4: And I feel lucky because in country music, as far
Speaker 4: as the male artists go, like, they've been pretty amazing.
Speaker 3: I mean, they're usually lifting up.
Speaker 4: I've had a really good run with Like the first
Speaker 4: tours I ever was on with Keith Urban in two
Speaker 4: thousand and five.
Speaker 3: I learned so much from him.
Speaker 4: He was so kind to me and took me under
Speaker 4: his wing, and then Derek Spentley and Brad Paisley. I
Speaker 4: was on tour with Tobey Keith Door Straight Oh Royalty
Speaker 4: Kenny Chesney was such a huge supporter of mine and
Speaker 4: took me on tour tour three times and taught me
Speaker 4: a lot of great things. It was a very male
Speaker 4: dominated scene at that time, and there wasn't a lot
Speaker 4: of women touring, so it was a man's world. But
Speaker 4: I was lucky to have some of those artists really
Speaker 4: kind of show me the way or show me what
Speaker 4: not to do. I mean, there were those lessons too,
Speaker 4: so I am fortunate that in country music world I
Speaker 4: had that. But there's obviously, you know, I've been doing
Speaker 4: this for twenty years, There's been a lot of circumstances
Speaker 4: that were harder to deal with with, and we're obstacles
Speaker 4: and sometimes I feel like when you know exactly who
Speaker 4: you are, it scares people and they don't know how
Speaker 4: to move forward with you and how to deal with.
Speaker 3: Someone that's really headstrong.
Speaker 4: So that's why I say it made my road a
Speaker 4: little harder and longer sometimes, but it's the reward was
Speaker 4: worth it because I was authentic to me. And that's
Speaker 4: my biggest advice to like young artists is like know
Speaker 4: who you are, stick with it no matter what. Don't
Speaker 4: let anybody change you, even if it means, oh, well,
Speaker 4: I could have had a number one, or I could
Speaker 4: have skipped a few steps if I would have just
Speaker 4: kind of sold out.
Speaker 3: It's not worth it.
Speaker 2: We have to take a quick break, but we'll be
Speaker 2: right back with Miranda Lambert. And we're back with Miranda Lambert.
Speaker 1: There was a quote that stood out to me so
Speaker 1: much about your story. Early on, your mom would call
Speaker 1: and try and get you booked on gigs and people
Speaker 1: would say, we don't book girls.
Speaker 3: Yeah they would. I mean I heard that a lot,
Speaker 3: and that was that's wild.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: It's one of those situations where you're like you don't
Speaker 4: have any experience, Like, well, you're not giving me a
Speaker 4: chance to get any Like how do I get experience
Speaker 4: if you won't let me on the stage, you know.
Speaker 3: So I used to play there and set change.
Speaker 4: Like go to these clubs and like whatever first guy
Speaker 4: act was on, like while they were wrapping up their
Speaker 4: chords and cleaning up their stuff and the next guy
Speaker 4: was plugging in his guitar. I'd play like two or
Speaker 4: three songs and they would just be like winding chords
Speaker 4: or on my feet. But it was it was a
Speaker 4: way for me to get up there. And get some
Speaker 4: like experience under my belt and to start learning my
Speaker 4: chops and to see if I had what it took.
Speaker 4: I needed to see that for myself, and there was
Speaker 4: no other way to see it than go do it.
Speaker 2: How often do you think about those early days now?
Speaker 2: Do you find yourself like reflecting on that time?
Speaker 3: Ever?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I mean I just played Stubs in Austin, Texas, which
Speaker 4: is tiny little barbecue joint that's like legendary, and it
Speaker 4: was almost twenty years to the day that I had
Speaker 4: been on that same stage doing my first showcase for
Speaker 4: a major label, and that was a full circle moment.
Speaker 3: But I just loved it.
Speaker 4: So much, and it reminded me like, I still love
Speaker 4: this as much as I did then. I still have
Speaker 4: the same amount of passion for it. Yes, I don't
Speaker 4: have the same amount of energy and or patients that
Speaker 4: I used to have for the bullshit, but I definitely
Speaker 4: still have the passion and love for it.
Speaker 2: I want to talk about the bullshit a little bit
Speaker 2: because nobody brings honest I.
Speaker 3: Brought it up, so.
Speaker 2: Nobody brings honesty and humor the way that you do
Speaker 2: as you write your life experience into your lyrics. There's
Speaker 2: this one quote that I read of yours. You said
Speaker 2: there's a lot of bad decisions on this record, meaning
Speaker 2: Postcards from Texas. And you said that you don't learn
Speaker 2: from things going great. Yeah, what is a lesson you've
Speaker 2: learned from something not going great?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 3: So many?
Speaker 4: I mean, I you know, from heartbreak to divorce to like,
Speaker 4: you know, the music business. I mean, it'll break your
Speaker 4: heart in a hot minute. I learned from all the nose.
Speaker 4: I learned from all of the you know, anytime some
Speaker 4: of those people would be like, we don't book girls,
Speaker 4: it's like, well watch me, I'm gonna figure out a way.
Speaker 4: And I'm I wouldn't have learned If everyone was like, here,
Speaker 4: let's open the door and roll out the carpet for you,
Speaker 4: make your journey easy. I wouldn't have had the grit
Speaker 4: that I have now, or the try, or the hunger,
Speaker 4: because I think when you're hungry for something, that's what
Speaker 4: creates this passion and this drive.
Speaker 3: If it's just.
Speaker 4: Easy and it all comes easy and natural, it doesn't
Speaker 4: create like the work ethic that I think hunger and
Speaker 4: like somebody telling you you're not gonna make it.
Speaker 3: It's just like lots of fire, and.
Speaker 4: I can see in your eyes you're the same as me,
Speaker 4: Like most of y'all are like, oh yeah, tell me
Speaker 4: I can't and watch me do it twice.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Well, I think a lot of successful artists have that
Speaker 2: in common. There's this inner dialogue, inner monologue that you
Speaker 2: have to develop and you can't let the nose get
Speaker 2: to you. How did you process them in your mind?
Speaker 2: Like did you immediately think no, I can do this?
Speaker 2: What was that inner dialogue?
Speaker 4: Like I think it was, you know, I would study
Speaker 4: up to I study like all the artists that I'd
Speaker 4: ever loved, and like read articles about their journey, and
Speaker 4: I think that gave me encouragement that like everybody's road
Speaker 4: is different and so you can't let it like get
Speaker 4: you down. But I did instill to this day even
Speaker 4: more now, I think I'm learning. I'm I'm learning to
Speaker 4: feel it, just be in it and feel it. And
Speaker 4: when when something lets me down or I don't win
Speaker 4: the whatever, or I don't you know, have a great show,
Speaker 4: or my album doesn't do what I wanted or whatever
Speaker 4: the circumstance is, I'm like, Okay, well I'm gonna sit
Speaker 4: in this right now. Absorb it, figure out why it's
Speaker 4: happening and how it's making me feel, and process it
Speaker 4: and learn from it and do something different or change
Speaker 4: the trajectory of the next thing. So, you know, I
Speaker 4: think it's so important to like live in the life
Speaker 4: just as much as you live in the has we have.
Speaker 1: To Ooh, that's so good.
Speaker 3: I love that, and it's so harder. I'm just kidding it.
Speaker 1: Seriously, you were like fifteen thinking about your career having longevity,
Speaker 1: which is just so rare. I just imagine you, like fifteen,
Speaker 1: looking at the Grand Ole Opry or the Grammys or
Speaker 1: the Country Music Awards, being like, I'm going to be
Speaker 1: the Dolly, I'm going to be the Reba. Like you
Speaker 1: weren't thinking of your career in one album or a
Speaker 1: few hits. Is there a moment when you started feeling
Speaker 1: more comfortable and confident in the success, like, Okay, it
Speaker 1: wasn't going to go away.
Speaker 4: There is, But I don't take it for granted like
Speaker 4: I I did.
Speaker 3: That's all I set out to do. I wanted a
Speaker 3: long career.
Speaker 4: When I met my manager when I was nineteen, we're
Speaker 4: still together, Marion, and I said, she said, what do
Speaker 4: you want and I said, I want a long career.
Speaker 4: I wan want to make music that matters, music that
Speaker 4: most people want to lift up women saved, and be
Speaker 4: able to play music for as long as I physically can.
Speaker 4: I don't want to have to play. I want to
Speaker 4: want to and so I feel like I'm on that path,
Speaker 4: you know, and it I think setting myself up early going.
Speaker 4: These are the goals.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: We didn't have like vision boards back then. It was
Speaker 4: just like it just was in my head and I
Speaker 4: did work my ass off. But I have an amazing
Speaker 4: team around me that will not They're not yes people.
Speaker 3: That's huge, it's huge. It's it's my first.
Speaker 4: It's my like after I tell an artist, like a
Speaker 4: young artists and then they're like, what's your advice, I'm like,
Speaker 4: know who you are and stick with it. And secondly,
Speaker 4: do not surround yourself with people that are going to
Speaker 4: tell you everything you do is great, you're beautiful. You
Speaker 4: can go out there and be a shit show. That's
Speaker 4: not how this works. You need somebody to tell you
Speaker 4: the truth, especially the hard ones, the hard truths that
Speaker 4: are like you know, like the kind where my manager,
Speaker 4: for instance, takes me to this park. She drives a
Speaker 4: tiny car. She drives a Porsche, and she'll lock the
Speaker 4: doors and turn to me, and I'm like, oh no,
Speaker 4: here it goes. But it's usually something I really need
Speaker 4: to hear. And so I just feel like it's so
Speaker 4: important to surround yourself with people that will tell you
Speaker 4: the truth and that aren't wrapped up in all this.
Speaker 4: You know, it's like, who are you off camera? Who
Speaker 4: are you off stage? Who are you out of the studio?
Speaker 4: Like that really love you for you?
Speaker 1: Did she ever tell you one you didn't want to hear? Oh?
Speaker 4: Yeah, all the time, every day, really yeah, And I
Speaker 4: appreciate it. Some is my mom and some is my
Speaker 4: husband for that matter. I mean he's a New Yorker.
Speaker 4: They don't He does not mince word. He minces garlic,
Speaker 4: but not his words. So like, I'm surrounded by people
Speaker 4: who speak their truth and tell me when I need
Speaker 4: to hear something that might not be like my favorite
Speaker 4: news ever, And I'm one of those people that's a
Speaker 4: slow processor, so I might like buck the system at first,
Speaker 4: and then I live with it for a while.
Speaker 3: I'm like, y'all were right, y'are really right?
Speaker 2: Well, Miranda, you recently turned forty and said that this
Speaker 2: decade has been making you reconsider what your priorities are
Speaker 2: going forward. What kind of era are we manifesting for
Speaker 2: the forties.
Speaker 3: Man, I'm so excited about it.
Speaker 4: Besides like the stuff that's not fun, like girls stuff,
Speaker 4: you know, just getting I'm excited to everybody that I
Speaker 4: know that is a female that's in our forties's like, oh,
Speaker 4: it's the best decade ever. Like, I'm really excited about
Speaker 4: cutting out the noise, like I already kind of do,
Speaker 4: but something about turn of forty makes it that much more.
Speaker 4: Like I don't care what people that don't know me think,
Speaker 4: Like I've got to care about what the people that
Speaker 4: they have sewn into my life, fans and people in
Speaker 4: my life, my friends that have sewn in for years
Speaker 4: that they matter to me.
Speaker 3: I care about that.
Speaker 4: I don't care about some stranger that doesn't know the
Speaker 4: story making up a lie and you know it just
Speaker 4: it It kills my creativity if I let that in.
Speaker 4: So I'm excited about giving less of a shit about
Speaker 4: that even more than I do now.
Speaker 3: And I'm about staying inspired.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm getting to work with a lot of
Speaker 4: young artists and writers and I want to learn. Things
Speaker 4: are so different than when I started this business, and
Speaker 4: so I'm excited to learn how everything operates and what's
Speaker 4: inspiring these younger people and keep my fire. And you know,
Speaker 4: I've I've learned four chords when I was seventeen on
Speaker 4: the guitar. My dad taught me four. You only need
Speaker 4: three in country music, but he taught me an extra
Speaker 4: just in case.
Speaker 1: In case you ever want to go to pop music,
Speaker 1: you need four.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, like here's a four. It's just a case.
Speaker 4: And I just can't believe sometimes that those four chords
Speaker 4: have led me to where I am and that I
Speaker 4: get to talk on podcasts and you know, speak my
Speaker 4: truth not only through my music now, but through my brand.
Speaker 4: I'll win, through my charity, my nation, Big Loud Texas.
Speaker 4: I'm a founder of a new label for music out
Speaker 4: of my owne Star State, and I just feel really
Speaker 4: fortunate to have music be the platform because that's where
Speaker 4: it starts.
Speaker 3: It ends for me is the songs.
Speaker 4: And if I wouldn't have recorded the songs that I've recorded,
Speaker 4: I don't think that I would be able to speak
Speaker 4: to any of this like I can now because I
Speaker 4: signed up to tell the truth back then, and I'm
Speaker 4: still signed up to tell the truth.
Speaker 1: That is so great. I love that word truth.
Speaker 3: Well, it's important, you know.
Speaker 1: Don't go anywhere. We have to take another quick break,
Speaker 1: but we'll be right back with Miranda Lambert. And we're
Speaker 1: back with Miranda Lampert. I told you earlier you write
Speaker 1: one hell of a breakup song, but you also write
Speaker 1: one hell of a love song. And you've been candid
Speaker 1: about your love throughout your life. What is the wildest
Speaker 1: thing you've ever done in the name of love?
Speaker 4: Probably marry my husband, just I mean, we only dated
Speaker 4: three months and we just kind of were like, let's
Speaker 4: do it.
Speaker 3: And I, you know, my close friends were like.
Speaker 4: All right, we love you, we know you're crazy, but we.
Speaker 2: We need more details about this, Miranda. Do you gotta
Speaker 2: tell us everything.
Speaker 3: He's the best.
Speaker 4: We were almost six years in now to our marriage,
Speaker 4: but we met. He's a cop NYPD and he was
Speaker 4: working at GMA and I was doing Good Morning America
Speaker 4: with my girl band, Pistol Annie's and we were singing
Speaker 4: a song called I Got my Name Changed Back, which
Speaker 4: is very ironic because it took me a lot of
Speaker 4: effort to change my name back from my first marriage
Speaker 4: on my license and passport.
Speaker 3: It's a whole thing.
Speaker 4: So we wrote a funny song about it, and we
Speaker 4: were doing that on the show, and he was working
Speaker 4: Good Morning America out on the street. That was part
Speaker 4: of his sort of morning routine is to check on
Speaker 4: everybody there. And we invited him to our show that night,
Speaker 4: No plus one, just one ticket strategically, and we hung
Speaker 4: out afterwards. And you know, my whole family, I'm from
Speaker 4: a first responder family of four cops and eight firemen
Speaker 4: in my family, and his whole family cops and firemen,
Speaker 4: and so we kind of just had a lot of
Speaker 4: common ground. Even though I'm a East Texan and he's
Speaker 4: from Staten Island, New York.
Speaker 3: We just really hit it off.
Speaker 4: And you know, he's kind of a risk taker too,
Speaker 4: so we got married really quick. And I just feel like,
Speaker 4: you know, after you've been through pain, I've went through divorce,
Speaker 4: I've been through the music business, and I've done a
Speaker 4: lot and seen a lot, and I was like, you know,
Speaker 4: the reward of a big love, Yes, the other option
Speaker 4: is big pain, but I've done that, you know, so
Speaker 4: I'm going to take the risk for the big love
Speaker 4: and it's worked out so far.
Speaker 1: Have you had a country girl of our city boy
Speaker 1: moment yet?
Speaker 4: Oh gosh, every single day like there was a language barrier.
Speaker 3: He was like, I have no idea what you're talking about.
Speaker 3: I don't understand any of those words.
Speaker 1: That's hilarious.
Speaker 4: He has an accent. His family is a very thick
Speaker 4: New York accent. But I've really loved like getting to
Speaker 4: immerse myself. I'm an honorary New Yorker now, and I
Speaker 4: love that. But I've that's where I'm calling y'all from
Speaker 4: New York. But I feel like, you know, it's really
Speaker 4: fun to sort of mix the world. Our first Thanksgiving,
Speaker 4: we had my family and his family and there was
Speaker 4: and he's Dominican and Irish and we're Texan. So we
Speaker 4: had like we had like barbecue chicken and mashed potatoes
Speaker 4: and gravy, and we had penny vodka and chicken, palm
Speaker 4: and rice and beans. It was like a mixing of
Speaker 4: the world. But it's really fun. We get together a lot.
Speaker 4: It's a whole family, and it's really fun to like
Speaker 4: just see how different, but how how much the same
Speaker 4: we are. You know, we just we speak with a
Speaker 4: different draw that's really cool.
Speaker 2: You realize this is like every girl's dream when she
Speaker 2: moves to New York is find a hot NYPD cop
Speaker 2: and fall in love.
Speaker 3: With Well, I'll tell you what, I wasn't looking. I
Speaker 3: think that's the ticket.
Speaker 1: I'll stop, I'll stop looking.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was like, I'm doing me right now, and
Speaker 4: then here he comes out of nowhere.
Speaker 3: So I don't know.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's you know, it does sound like some
Speaker 4: kind of crazy little rom com, but it hasn't been
Speaker 4: Sunshine and Roses.
Speaker 3: Nothing is, you know, but it's.
Speaker 4: It's really I just I love big, I love my
Speaker 4: animals big, I love people big, I love music big,
Speaker 4: and I just think it's worth it to take a risk.
Speaker 2: Speaking of risks, your husband, Brendan is not a musician.
Speaker 2: He's former NYPD, but he actually co wrote one of
Speaker 2: the songs on this album he did. What was it
Speaker 2: like to create together? Was this an easy yes for him?
Speaker 2: Did you have to pressure him at all? Into day?
Speaker 4: During twenty twenty, we were living at my farm outside
Speaker 4: of Nashville's an hour outside of town, you know, like
Speaker 4: a one room cabin, so like we were doing everything,
Speaker 4: like everybody was like painting and baking, and I was like,
Speaker 4: let's write songs, and so we wrote a few during
Speaker 4: COVID and he was really pretty good, like he had
Speaker 4: some good lines and I was like, okay, and then
Speaker 4: he was joking around with our friend Jesse Frasier, who's
Speaker 4: a huge hit songwriter. Songwriting was easy, and so Jesse
Speaker 4: made him come in and actually do like o session
Speaker 4: with like He's like he sat there for four hours
Speaker 4: and his golf clothes and he was like, this is
Speaker 4: really hard. I was like, yes, it is, sir, thank you.
Speaker 4: We overnight success took ten years, remember that. So that
Speaker 4: was his first like official rite and we got a
Speaker 4: great song. And then John Raindel, my co producer and
Speaker 4: co writer and collaborator, were doing prep for this record
Speaker 4: and we were talking about just having a new family,
Speaker 4: having a new label, and getting out of something that
Speaker 4: didn't serve me.
Speaker 3: And we started writing.
Speaker 4: We had tequila and a guitar for sure going to
Speaker 4: write a song, and Brendan was sitting there watching the
Speaker 4: football game. He kept piping little words in and I
Speaker 4: was like, if you're gonna we're gonna do this, You're
Speaker 4: turn the game off, like we're gonna get in it,
Speaker 4: and he did.
Speaker 3: He had some of my favorite lines in the song.
Speaker 4: And nobody understands what you're going through more than a
Speaker 4: partner you live with that you're coming home to tell
Speaker 4: your story to every day. And this kind of was
Speaker 4: a story I needed to write. So he was a
Speaker 4: perfect co writer for that.
Speaker 2: What do you think makes a great songwriter? Because it's
Speaker 2: really interesting to me that he didn't have any experience,
Speaker 2: but he could just jump in to me. That speaks
Speaker 2: to someone's life experience as opposed to you know, resumes.
Speaker 4: I think, you know, being an NYPD officer for eight
Speaker 4: years and growing up in New York, you already see
Speaker 4: a lot more than someone that lived anywhere else, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean. So I think that plays into
Speaker 4: it a lot. But let me know if you figured
Speaker 4: it out. I'm still trying to be a.
Speaker 3: Great song rather.
Speaker 1: Oh please, that's the biggest, the perfect Oh my god,
Speaker 1: there are so many from you. I want to talk
Speaker 1: about you starting your own record label though, because I
Speaker 1: just want to give people context for what a record
Speaker 1: label entails like to launch and promote an artist. On average,
Speaker 1: for a label like Universal Music Group costs anywhere from
Speaker 1: five hundred thousand to two million dollars. You have recording costs,
Speaker 1: you have music videos, you have marketing and promotion, you
Speaker 1: have tour support. I'm not telling you anything you don't know. Uh,
Speaker 1: you are discovering and signing new artists and taking this on.
Speaker 1: Why is this so important to you? Because this is
Speaker 1: a huge undertaking.
Speaker 4: It is and I loved here in that list because
Speaker 4: it's a reminder there is so much that goes into it,
Speaker 4: and you have to deal with artists and we're a
Speaker 4: lot no I think you know, it's important to me
Speaker 4: because the music that built me and who I am
Speaker 4: is from my estate and a lot of it because
Speaker 4: there's so many kinds of music come out of Texas too.
Speaker 4: And you know, I've been able to have this amazing
Speaker 4: career that I really work so hard to get here.
Speaker 4: I want to use any experience that I can and
Speaker 4: knowledge that I've gained to help god somebody else's dream,
Speaker 4: you know, because it's not easy.
Speaker 3: And I had some.
Speaker 4: Really great people in my life, but I didn't have
Speaker 4: like a female artist really that I could just call
Speaker 4: up at three in the morning when everything was piled
Speaker 4: on me, you know.
Speaker 3: So I want to be that.
Speaker 4: Person, especially for the girls because we really got to
Speaker 4: stick together. You know, I want to win. I want
Speaker 4: you to win too, and we can all do that.
Speaker 4: But we're not going to do it by clonia each
Speaker 4: other's eyes out and step it on each other. We're
Speaker 4: going to do it by being authentic and lifting each
Speaker 4: other up. And that's that's the goal. And I want
Speaker 4: to be that for anyone in music that I can
Speaker 4: use some of my experience because I get to spend
Speaker 4: like five minutes with ree.
Speaker 3: Butt stagecoach, and I'm like, I have so many questions,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, And she's so great, She's.
Speaker 4: Done it so right in her way and she's still
Speaker 4: on top killing it. So like, if I can be
Speaker 4: that for somebody, I definitely want to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, in honor of your new record Postcards from Texas,
Speaker 2: if you could send a postcard to your younger self
Speaker 2: to fifteen year old Miranda, what would you say, Oh man.
Speaker 3: I would just say, stop, take a bread.
Speaker 4: You're going to be hurt, because that was the biggest
Speaker 4: thing at the beginning of like I have something to say.
Speaker 4: I write these songs and I know who I am,
Speaker 4: and I feel like I can help women in the
Speaker 4: world or you know, I have something to offer, and
Speaker 4: I just you know, I think when we're so young,
Speaker 4: we're just so like guns of blazing that we don't
Speaker 4: take a breath and enjoy the process as much. And
Speaker 4: so I would tell her to, like, look around, take
Speaker 4: a breath, and enjoy the rid more than lack so
Speaker 4: tunnel vision.
Speaker 1: Miranda. When I thought about interviewing you today, I thought
Speaker 1: about two words. It was reinvention and courage. I think
Speaker 1: there's so much of both of those words in your story,
Speaker 1: at least public facing what I see, and I think
Speaker 1: from time and time again, no matter what's going on
Speaker 1: in your life, you rise from the ashes with optimism.
Speaker 1: And I can't tell you how many times I listened
Speaker 1: to your song Blackbird when I was going through a
Speaker 1: hard time. For anyone who hasn't heard it, the lyrics are, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm a turner. I turn pages all the time. Don't
Speaker 1: like where I'm at. Thirty four was bad, So I
Speaker 1: just turned thirty five, and I love the idea of
Speaker 1: just turning the page, get all the emotion out, just
Speaker 1: turn the page. After all that, what do you know
Speaker 1: about walking on the bright side?
Speaker 3: That's really sweet. Thank you for saying that.
Speaker 4: I love those two words, and I do identify with
Speaker 4: them in my life, not just Miranda Lambert, but in
Speaker 4: my personal life. And I think the transition periods are
Speaker 4: those are the times where you really think, am I
Speaker 4: doing it right? Am I reinventing? Should I have It's
Speaker 4: it all been? Be okay on the other side of this,
Speaker 4: And whether that's career wise or personal whatever, there's a
Speaker 4: transition period for every amount, like every time you're growing,
Speaker 4: and it feels uncomfortable and scary sometimes, but what's the
Speaker 4: other option?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 3: For me, there's not.
Speaker 4: Another option than to try to do bigger and better
Speaker 4: things like reinvent create more things, and bring more awareness
Speaker 4: to creativity and to you know, with my charity and
Speaker 4: my nation, Like I'm always trying to think, like, what
Speaker 4: else can we do to you know, bring attention to
Speaker 4: this subject I'm so passionate about. I think it's learning
Speaker 4: the lessons in the quiet moments too, Like you know,
Speaker 4: it's sometimes you have to sit with yourself and wait
Speaker 4: it out for whatever the next wave is to come,
Speaker 4: and that's where you learn the lessons.
Speaker 3: That's where you hear yourself.
Speaker 4: And my friend Natalie Hemby, who's my co writer a
Speaker 4: lot for almost two decades. She was saying that in
Speaker 4: a songwriting masterclass about how you have to just sit
Speaker 4: with your thoughts because that's where your real truth comes out.
Speaker 4: And as a songwriter, that's an obligation we have. And
Speaker 4: so you know, I I've gotten way better at that.
Speaker 4: I was not good at it when I was young
Speaker 4: at all, and I think that comes with time and experience.
Speaker 4: But you know, that's another postcard I would send to
Speaker 4: my young self, like just sit in it, feel it,
Speaker 4: all of it. And that's part of the gross and
Speaker 4: so it's super important to go through those transition periods.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: Miranda, thank you so much for coming on the bride.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. All were great.
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed this. Thank you, Miranda.
Speaker 3: Thank you guys.
Speaker 1: Miranda Lampert is a three time Grammy Award winning country singer, guitarist,
Speaker 1: and songwriter. Her new album, Postcards from Texas, is out tomorrow.
Speaker 2: That's it for today's show. Tomorrow, we're popping off with comedian,
Speaker 2: actor and writer Sashir Zamida.
Speaker 1: Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm simone Boye.
Speaker 2: You can find me at Simone Voice on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1: I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok. That's ro b A.
Speaker 2: Y see you tomorrow, Folks, keep looking on the bright side.