I have some new tour dates to tell you about.This week I'll be in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, La Crosse. Wisconsin, Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Moline, Illinois.
Colorado Springs, Casper, Wyoming, Billings, Montana, Missoula, Montana, Bloomington, Indiana, Columbus, Ohio, Champaign, Grand Rapids, Lafayette, Louisiana, and Beaumont, Texas.
All tickets through theovon.com slash T-O-U-R, and thank you for your support. Today's guest is a Grammy award-winning country musician.She has a new album called Postcards from Texas.
And you know her songs, The House That Built Me, Drunk, January Heart, the list goes on, Red Wagon.I'm really grateful today to get to spend time with one of the queens of the country music industry, Miss Miranda Lambert.
I'll sit and tell you my stories.
Shine on me, and I will find a song.
Nice to see you today, Miranda Lambert.
It's a cozy little place.
It's a pleasure.Yeah, yeah.We, we, uh, yeah, we try to keep it cozy.It's nice.Kind of get to, you know, just catch up with folks and see what's going on.I've met your husband a couple times.
Yeah.He said that y'all randomly on like two or three planes together.
Yeah.We've been, we're like kind of, I guess, air buddies or whatever.I don't know if there's a term for it or whatever.
Well he's just dang handsome too.That's a thing.I see that guy and I'm like, God, I got to get some conditioner or whatever.
He is.He is a, he's a pretty one.
God.He is.He's like a, um, and he used to be a cop, right?
Yep.He's a retired NYPD officer.
And did you, you guys ever play cops and robbers or anything like that?
No, but last year or two years ago for Halloween, I got, I wore his uniform and I made him be a donut.And it was awesome.He, cause he's super fit and doesn't even eat donuts.And I was like, I'm going to be a cop and you're going to be a donut.
And he was like, that's just cliche.That's stupid.I was like, no, it's awesome. That's a great idea.He was pouting the whole time.He was like, I don't want to be a donut.
Dude, everybody wants to be a donut, bro.Yeah, exactly.I can't even imagine not wanting to be a donut.I think everybody's always just wanted to sit in a box with 11 of their buddies, you know?
Well, it's funny because that whole like cliche or whatever, but I was like, oh, yeah, and I was worried I wouldn't fit this uniform, but I did.Oh, yeah This uniform we have bigger issues like it's gonna be a problem Yeah, it was fun.
My dad's my whole family is first responders.And so it's his family.So we had that in common right away
Oh sweet.Yeah, do you guys ever has he ever like tased you or anything like that?Or is that a crazy thing?
No, no, and he has handcuffs and I'm like That that would be the one time that the key was gone.Yeah, like we're not ever doing that Never it's not it's not gonna happen
Yeah, we got tased one time.Oh, if you're ever in Shreveport or whatever and you're, I guess, have some free time or whatever, they'll tase you there.The officer's there.For fun?Yeah.There's not a lot to do there, I guess.But yeah, they'll do it.
I grew up like an hour from Shreveport.Oh, you did?Yeah, I used to play over there in little bars and casinos coming up.I actually had my 21st birthday in Shreveport.No.That's pretty red.
Where did you guys go?Were you at a casino?
Yeah, we were at Sam's Town, I think.My grandma was a VIP there because she spends a lot of money on the slots.So she got the limo and all that.And I went with my grandma and her friends for my 21st birthday.
Her friends.They're wild though.
Oh yeah, a lot of these seniors now, you can't, well you see them in the pools and everything and they have those weights and they're just doing it all.Every time I see seniors, they're just getting crazier and crazier.
Do they have a senior citizen dating website, I wonder?
I don't know, but my grandma's, my granddad would just give her like allowance, like stay out of my hair money, and so she would just go blow it at the casino, it was the best.
Was she one of those grandmas that like at the end of the year they buy all the Christmas gifts and they all say like Sam's Town or whatever on the back?
Yeah, and she would always like buy and then wrap them and forget that she did it.You know what I mean?And she would be like, we'd open the presents, she'd be like, I don't know when I bought that or what it is.
Oh yeah, dude.Yeah, they used to tase us over there, man.That's real weird.Yeah, it was kind of crazy.But I think you can get a taser now.You can even get one on Teemu that also beats eggs and stuff.They just have everything now, you know?
I don't think I want to be tased.
You know, I'll say this.Honestly, it was way easier than I thought.
Well, I'm glad you took one for the team.I'm glad that's over with.Settled.
So your 21st birthday, you guys went over there.Was that like the biggest city close to you guys?
We're right between Dallas and Shreveport.So like I-20, my little hometown, Lindale, Texas, is like the halfway point where you like stop for gas and Burger King.You know what I mean?
So I was there a lot.And Dallas was our like city.
Oh, yeah.What was your first job over there?
I worked at Bell's.Oh, my first singing gig?
No, your first like human job, like a job.
My first big girl job.Well, I started, I worked at this little department store called Bell's for like the Christmas season.They hired me to wrap presents, which I'm terrible at.So then they were like, these presents are terrible.
So they put me in the back room to like sort things.And I only lasted two weeks.I was like, I just started singing and playing.I was 17, but I needed like, I was not making any money.I was like starving musician.
And so I tried for that, like, you know, that holiday season extra money and realized quickly, I've got to make the music business work, because this is not for me.
No, it was just not, I wasn't good at anything else, so I was like.
Yeah, if they put you in the back to sort, that's not even.
Yeah, I know I couldn't even use, well, because someone lady asked me, does this look good on me?And I told her my truth.I was like, not really.They're like, that's not how it works, you kind of have to lie.I'm like, oh.
Yeah, I'm trying to think if I well I used to work at a pizza parlor for a while and we got late with there were Cutbacks there or whatever and I don't know how there could be cut back It's like there was four of us working there But I guess they had like cutbacks or whatever.
So a couple of us got laid off, but um, I Wonder if I ever worked at a department store
I couldn't work around pizza.I just, I love it too much.
We had the pizza in.In your town?Yep.And had the salad bar and had little corn dogs on it.And I was really happy about that.
They put corn dogs on the salad bar?
That's unprecedented.Oh, I love a salad bar.Pete's Hut used to have a great one.You remember when- Pete's Hut.
It was like Pizza Hut but like small town brand Pizza Inn.
Oh yeah, Pizza Inn.Same thing.Did they throw the pizza in the air or not?
Nobody knows how to do that.Now I know.I've actually seen it in real time now because my husband is from New York City.
So I've had like legit pizza now.Yeah.Not Pizza Inn.
Oh, we had a place, I'm trying to think of what it was called, but they had a big window there, and some dude, I think he was a magician, but they gave him daytime work throwing those pizzas in the air, because I think it just fit in people's heads, like, oh, that's magic.
That's hard.Oh, I think he really got the hang of it, and it was awesome.People would come from miles around to watch him, you know?You'd see kids just out there just licking lollipops, just staring at him, looking at this dough wizard.
Small town entertainment is pretty simple.It's easy to come up with.
Oh yeah, when the fair came to town, that was always exciting.
We could go to the fair a day before and for 50 cents you could, you were kind of a guinea pig, they didn't tell you that, but it was like, come on over and you can do a ride for 50 cents.
So we lived right down the street from the fairgrounds, so we'd walk down there, dude, and you would just get rattled, electrocuted.
Yeah, I don't trust small town fair rides.I just don't.
And I think that's probably a wise choice for you.
Right, yeah.You seem like a thrill chaser because you got tazed and you ride the 50 cent ride.You're just going for it.
I've been in some bad relationships.Yeah, maybe I'm a thrill chaser.I think, yeah, if you stack all those things up.How does a guy... This is news.So how does... Because your husband was just like a regular police officer, right?
How does a regular police officer meet a celebrity comfortably?Is that a weird thing to ask kind of?
So I mean, honestly, we're kind of from the same fabric, so it was, the weirdest part of it all is the language barrier at first, honestly, because he has a New York accent, and you hear mine, so it was like, any of my southern phrases, any of the redneck stuff I say, he's like, well, I don't understand what you're saying.
So, but we just met, we met by chance, literally on the street, and six years later, it worked out.
But was there moments where he was like, you know, this is like, because I feel like if I'm a regular guy, say if I met, you know, Julia Roberts or I'm trying to think of somebody else, Queen Elizabeth or something, and I'm trying to date them, I wonder if there'll be moments in my head where I'm like, how do I do this?
Like, you know, do I put on a special cologne?Like, how do I, just because there's some- Well, Brandon does wear the polo, like the old school one.Oh, he does?
That green bottle with the little gold cap?
I don't know if I've seen that one.That might be the sport.
Remember when sport came out?
Did you ever wear cool water?
No, I didn't.Yes, you did.Some of the fancier kids kind of did.Guys that had game with women wore it.
That's why I was like, are you lying?
Did you hear the quarter say it?I didn't have game of women.I was always the guy who would help my buddy open all the valentines.
Like on valentines in school, they would have the key club or whatever would come in and if somebody bought you a valentine, they'd give them all out in the room at the same time.
So my buddy would get like 11 of them and I wouldn't get any, but he'd let me like hold a couple of them on my desk or whatever.Make you feel good?
Yeah, and it's like, hey, hold- And isn't it like, wasn't it like the one where you give everybody in the class one so everybody feels love?
Oh, when we were kids, but when it got into junior high, it got like, okay, somebody had to go- Got real, yeah.Yeah, and you would get them and he would just have a stack of them.He looked like the damn bachelor.
You're gonna get so many Valentines now, it's gonna be weird, because you talked about it.
That's a good point, huh? Yeah, Valentine's were nice.My mom wouldn't get us like something that she would like leave by our like bed or something in the morning.Like, that was pretty sweet though.
But yeah, was there ever a moment where he was just like, where it just seemed like nerd, like, he's like, I'm a regular guy and you're a regular person.
But then there's always like a, I think there's a fear in like a regular guy's head of like how you would behave around a celebrity, I guess.
I think... Does it make any sense at all?Yeah, and it definitely is an adjustment to just jump into country music world and move to Nashville.I mean, he...
like retired, you know, he was eight years on the department and he like sort of made the choice.We made the choice together of like, we gotta be together, you know, and- Yeah, to trade your gun in for a harmonica or whatever is a big deal.
I think, well, thank God he didn't, because I don't know if he's, he loves music.He's not necessarily musical.He did write a song on my new record.Really?He's a co-writer on a song on my new record, yeah.I had him write in Darren 2020.
We were all doing anything during 2020, just like bake, yeah.
Oh, if cops are writing songs, yeah.
I was like, let's write songs.And so we did, and he was pretty good.And I guess because, I mean, growing up in New York City and like being a cop on the street in Times Square, like you have a lot of life lived, you know?
And so this record, he has a co-write on my song called Dammit Randy.And he had some of the best lines in the song.
Oh wait, I've heard that one like in a hurricane.
That was his line.Flying a kite in a hurricane.I was like, dang it.
Yeah, it is a good line.But yeah, you know, I think that like all the celebrity part out of it, I don't care about that stuff, you know?So it just made it, we're just real and regular.
And like I said, both being from first responder families, like we kind of grew up the same.
There was some glue there.
Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do.I'm just trying to inspire regular men out there to think that they could handle it if they met a celebrity person in that world, that everything could be cool.
They can.And you know what?It's like, I'm such a big stickler of don't surround yourself with yes people.And so having a husband that's just a regular guy, just
Being a cop in New York City and like he come he comes into my world, but he tells me the truth He like calls me on my shit.He tells me the truth.He doesn't sugarcoat He sees everything for what it is.
And I really appreciate that like there's The fact he's not in my industry at all and just really kind of it's a straight shooter it's like it's such a blessing to have in my life and so I'm glad that I married somebody that just like
is that way, that is just a regular blue collar guy that sort of comes in and enhances my world and speaks a lot of truth into my life.So y'all go, all y'all regular dudes, go, go get it.We need you.
Yeah, we need you.That's a great call.
He also married like a country singer and a horse girl.And so, I mean, he signed up for a lot.
Horse girls are like, we're a different breed.
Oh yeah, dude, I just met, I went to a therapy place for like a week and they had horses out there. And one of the therapists worked with the horses.She was like the horse therapist lady or whatever.
Yeah.And so she had met there hugging this big old horse.I don't know what his name was.
I've done that too, the equine therapy.It's amazing.
I thought it was crazy, but it's really neat.
It teaches you so much. where they're like, put your hand where you feel most drawn to the horse and immediately put my hand on its heart.
I didn't even know where a horse heart was.
Now that I think about it, I was like, I don't know where it is in that huge shot chest.It's pretty cool.
Oh, I had to take the horse.I was trying to take his pulse and I had to do it with both of my hands like that.Horses are crazy.They just got like 60 inches of neck on them.
But yeah, it was kind of wild because at first she's like, okay, approach the horse and let it know you're okay.And so then I'm like four feet from this horse.I think his name was Knuckles or like Mitten or something.
And, um, and I'm like, Hey horse, I'm just letting you know, I'm here.Like it was almost like meeting an alien.Cause I just never even been around a horse, like in that much, like proximity, like just being a horse in a pen.
And, but by the end I got to take the horse for a walk and stuff.And I felt like it was cool because at first I was super nervous.And as I went along, it kind of like, Yeah, I kind of like, my idol came down.
And that, they're so therapeutic just being around them in general.But like, they're just majestic creatures.And I heard, I think they can hear your heartbeat from like five miles away or something.
Oh my God, perverts.Isn't that crazy? I mean that's eavesdropping.
I know, but they could sense everything.It's like they tell you the truth about you before you even know your own truth.You're like, ah.I didn't grow up around horses.
I didn't start till I was 30 and I just wanted to do something that scared me a little and I always wanted to be with that cowgirl.
I used to play all the rodeos back in the day and like sing the national anthem and small town rodeos when I was first getting started.
all those like flag girls and the barrel racers with all the glitter and fringe I wanted to be that so bad and I chose country music and so I was like at 30 I was like I'm gonna be a cowgirl damn it I'm gonna do this and so I started riding for the first time at 30 and now I'm really super into it I love it I but I was I mean I'm still like
I'm green.I don't know what I'm doing, but I just love like having a hobby completely outside of what I do that's challenging and physically challenging and also it's like not up to you.It's up to them, you know?
Oh yeah, dude, it is like, that's the dang Lord's Uber, dude, being on a horseback.
Bro, you get on a horse, it is not, it's like kind of up to you because they give you these little strings, you're like, these strings are not going to do anything against this horse, you know?
No, like I just saw that pull up on the screen, my horse, cool, I started mounted shooting.
His name's Cool.And I started mounted shooting last December.
And what does that mean?Mounted shooting?
So like shooting a revolver with black powder off the back of the horse at a balloon.It's super fun.It's spectator safe and the horses wear earplugs, just FYI.
They do.They wear earplugs and the gun has black powder in it.And so you do these patterns and you go like 100 miles an hour.I don't yet.I'm trying to get there.And you shoot at balloons.
My friend, Kenda Lonsane, she's the world champion, and she... Kenda Lonsane?
Lonsane, she's a badass.She has taken me under her wing and taught me so much about it.
I've never even heard of this.So it's called mounted shooting.So you start at... There she is.Let's see that beauty.That's her.She's a beauty.God, hey.I'll let her shoot me, that's for sure.
She'd probably tase you if you wanted her to.
Look, she can shoot me in the belt buckle and see if my pants drop.You know what I'm saying, baby?That's where I'm at with her.
But she's really great at it.So wait, explain it to me.I've never even heard of this.
It's so fun.So you have two revolvers, and you have five shots in each.
It's a gun belt.You're on a horse, and it's timed event. and come out of the gate, and she does it in 7.5 seconds, which I'm still learning to ride good enough, so I'm a lot slower.
Oh, she's used to a quick shot, I'm in again.
Yeah, see, so you're shooting at a pattern of balloons, and you're timed on the event, and you do five shots and a gun change.
So while you're riding 100 miles an hour, you're having to shoot, aim, switch your gun, go around a barrel, go around a pattern.It's very challenging.Super fun, though.It's the most adrenaline rush.
It sounds like ADHD meets Yellowstone.
But it sounds beautiful.Wow.It is called mounted shooting?
That's fascinating.And so do you get to try that?So you have your own horse.That was nice to get, wasn't it?
Yeah.I bought a horse.I was one of those, like, I did it once and loved it so much.I was like, I'm going to Winter in Arizona, I'm buying the horse, I'm buying the guns, like I fully got into it.
But I just, you know, I feel like at 30, I started riding.
And then I turned 40 in November, last November, and I was like, all right, now's a new season to keep pushing myself and try something that's a little scary, but new and outside of my wheelhouse.
Well, you look beautiful for 40.
Yeah, I don't mean that in a flirtatious way, I just mean that in a complimentary way.
I'll send you a Valentine.
Okay, please do, yeah.Actually, your husband will get them all, sit there and hold some for him.He will.Yeah, he'll be like, hold these for me, dude.
You're gonna get so many, watch and see, it's gonna be great.
All my friends have a crush on you, by the way.Really?Yes, all my Nashville, my gal pals.
I'd love to meet any nice gal.
I've been trying to be more brave about just dating and stuff, you know?Because I start to get turned into a little bit of a homebody sometimes.
It is cozy.But they say it's cozier with somebody, but then you're like, who is that person though?
It has to be the right person or you'd rather be by yourself.
Oh yeah, dude, I don't want somebody just fricking bugging me and bothering me and wanting pancakes or whatever.
Well, you should learn, because they're going to want pancakes.
Yeah, you're right.Yeah, okay.Let me practice a little.
They're like the little cute ones, like my mom used to do, like the Mickey Mouse one, where she would like pour the batter in the shape of Mickey Mouse.
And it was just epic, right?
I don't know what, oh, our mom had like one of those things and it would sit on the table and it had a little dial on it and it would heat the skillet like that and you plugged it in, right?
Yeah, it's like a, what do you call those things?Like a little, aren't, like a little skillet.
Yeah, it's kind of like a skillet, yeah, but you don't have to put it on the oven, the oven's built into it.And she, one time she did it though on like her wood table and it roasted like a little hole in it and she got,
We all got in, we got in trouble for it.We didn't do shit.
How dare y'all want pancakes and make me burn my table?
How dare you want pancakes in my house?
Yeah.Well, that's why you went to the horse therapy.
Yeah.And it really is full circle.Today's podcast is sponsored by Boot Barn, America's largest Western retailer supporting the cowboy and country lifestyles.
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What's one of your favorite songs off of your new album that you like performing?Because as a comedian, there's jokes you like telling, and then there's some jokes you're performing, and it feels even more vibrant.
Is there a song off of it that you really like performing?
I mean, I just started doing some of them because we did a little thing at my bar, Casa Rosso, which I think is the first time I met you.Yeah, it's the first time I met you there.Yeah.At the opening.Yeah.
We did the whole record, which was like, it's always fun to do.I've only done that one other time with My Record Revolution a long time ago. So it was fun to actually learn every song.I didn't really know them that well.I had lyrics up there.
I had a little notebook, old school.It's my first time to play these, you know what I mean?But I think, I don't know, there's one on there called Armadillo.It's the first song on the record.And my friend Aaron Retier, I don't know if you know him.
He's a Nashville songwriter and y'all should be friends because he's funny as hell and the funnest.
Aaron Ray tear right here right here.
Yeah, and he sent me this song and it's just funny and quirky and So, I don't know that one's been fun to do live.I've only done a couple times, but it's fun.There is right there He's Kentucky boy Aaron right here.
That's a cool name.Um You got to tour with Toby Keith before
What was he like?What's Toby Keith like?
That was one of my earliest tours.I was lucky enough, like I went on so many, well, there weren't hardly any women touring back then.Like, well, like in country, there wasn't that many touring that much.
I mean, in the early days, you got to play like 100, 200 shows a year, you know.So I went out with all men for a long time.I learned so much from all of them.Like Keith Urban was my first one, 2005.
And then because I just played honky tonks until then.And then Dierks Bentley and George Tobey, I think was like my fourth big like major country tour.And I learned a lot.I mean, oh gosh, old school.Look at that hair.That is like Mendel Tex's hair.
Oh my gosh.Yeah, little old school, tease it to Jesus.That's what we say.
Oh, the Lord does my hair while I sleep.
Yeah.Wow.That's cool.What was Toby like?Like, what was he like?I just never got to meet him.I've gotten to meet some different artists that I'm a big fan of.Um, but what was he like as a person?
He was really, he was like, he was himself.You know what I mean?Like he was his like authentically himself, kind of did everything his own way and outlaw in his own way.Prolific songwriter and
He was kind of a tough love at first out on the road, but I guess I needed that because I was a baby and didn't know what was going on yet.I was learning all the ropes of everything.I learned so much from every tour I was on.
I would say Toby was just like, Like his fans taught me a lot too because they were really about Toby only.Like you had to work to get them to care.
You know, because they were like, we're here to see Toby and he's his like outlaw kind of I am who I am mentality.They kind of adopted that.And I felt like it made me work for it in a good way.Like I had to really
figure out my set list, and figure out, like, I'm just some little gal.They're not here to see me, and if they're here early, I really need to, I'm here to gain fans.I gotta work on this.
Did you get to interact with him before he passed away?
I haven't.I did see him at the BMI Awards when he got the Songwriter Legend Award a couple years ago, so it was right before he passed away, yeah.
And could you tell he was sick then?I just, cause it was, I knew people knew he was sick for a long time.He just didn't like put much out there about it.It seemed like it seemed like it was very private, but I guess who would want to, right?
Yeah.Well, and I was, I mean, when he was there, he sounded great and he looked great.So, I mean, you know, that, that journey is like, everybody's got to take that journey and however they feel comfortable in their family and all that stuff.
But I know that. he was, even at the end, like really about the music, you know?Because the last big thing I saw him at was the BMI's and it was all about his catalog.
And I did not realize how many, he wrote like 150 songs a year or something like crazy, like just prolific.And I also didn't realize how many outside songs he cut, or that he had other artists cut of his until that ceremony.
Is there ever a song where you write it and you think it's good but it's not for you?A lot.Oh really?
A lot of times. Yeah, and I, you know, it's, I'm thankful that some artists are still willing to cut outside songs.I'm one of those artists, you know?What does that mean, that they're willing to cut outside songs?
Like, you can't cut every song you ever write, you know?And so for instance, Aaron sent me Armadillo, and I was like, I love this, I'm cutting it.So, you know, I think it's important if you're a songwriter to have a balance of
We live in Nashville, like there's amazing songs written all day, every day in this town for years.And I think it's cool when artists are not trying to write every song on their records.
Oh, I see what you're saying, because at a certain point, it almost you're just able to help out more people by picking up songs that they've written, really.
Yeah, and you know, for my career, I mean, my biggest songs, I wouldn't have if I would have tried to write everything.I mean, like, House That Built Me is a staple in my career, and that's, I didn't write that.
And Mama's Broken Heart, and Little Red Wagon.Like, I have some of the staples drunk, some of the staples in my set that are my career staple songs, or not songs I wrote.So I think it's good to keep the door open to like,
you know, look around town, look where we live.This is amazing.
Right.Yeah.So many people.Yeah.And you can't do things alone too.That's one thing I realized, like kind of like as I get older, it's like I used to want to do everything by myself.
It was just like how I was wired and it still is a lot of times, but it's certainly, it started to alleviate some where it's like, I got, I need help.I need people to do, and I need people to help me do things and, and I can help people do things.
And then it's more fun to do something with somebody sometimes.
Yeah and it's like when you celebrate the highs with your friends because you all did it together like a co-write you know it's fun like collaborating is great.
Nashville's such a good community for that like everybody's I mean you know you live here like everybody's so um country music community is very Collaborative and we lift each other up.We kind of stick together, you know, you don't think that's true.
I do think it's true for me It has been for 20 years and not that you have to love every single person you ever work with or in the business But oh, yeah, I feel like everybody's kind of in it for the same reason and there's a mutual respect there most times.
Yeah Yeah, I guess but it's also competitive, right?
Yeah, but I think that's also good.
You gotta compete, but I think there's a difference in, my manager, we've been together 21 years, and I just recently went on a birthday trip with her, and one of her really good friends who's born and raised in Belle Mead, her name's Elizabeth, and she said, there's a difference in wanting to win and wanting to beat everybody.
And I thought that was really poignant.I was like, that, because that's a different mindset.Like, it's okay to want to win, and compete and be on top, but I don't think you have to wanna go into it going, I'm gonna beat everybody.
I'm just gonna win my race.
Yeah, because it's almost, it's not vindictive, but it's almost, yeah, I'm trying to think of the word, it really almost adds a negative edge to it.It does, and I don't feel like- Because I want somebody to lose then.
Right, we can all win, we just gotta run our own race.
Yeah, interesting. Yeah, thanks for thinking about that kind of stuff with me.Yeah, because I love songwriting.Oh, in Nashville, anything can happen.
You'll drop a tomato at Trader Joe's and somebody will come up and have half a stanza written about it.It's great.Yeah, you get in a car accident and the guy gets out of the vehicle and he's already written a couple bars about the accident.
And he's like, what do you think of these?And I'm like, what do you think about giving me your insurance papers?
Well, that's his title, insurance papers.
But it really is, that's how- What's in your glove box?
That's a good song, Donald.
Yeah, dude.Yeah, what's in your glove box?Dude, it better just be gloves, buddy.
Yeah, if there's gloves, that's weird.Why is it called a glove box?
Now that we talked about it, it's even weirder if there's gloves in there.
It is weirder now, isn't it?
And it started off by- It's only supposed to be your insurance.
Because people used to put, the name is derived from the compartment's original purpose, storing driving gloves.Initially, the glove compartment was a box near the driver on the floorboard.
Driving gloves were worn to keep hands clean and considered essential equipment in early vehicles.
Driving gloves are important for women now too, because our hands, they keep you from aging, because your hands are on the wheel.And I didn't know that, but driving gloves are a thing.
But why does it keep you from aging?
Because the sun, coming through the windshield, you wear gloves while you drive so that the sun's not getting on your hands.
Honey, you're only driving a Smyrna.That ain't a lot of sunshine on them.
I don't know, but I ride in gloves now because of that.I have my little gloves.I'm like, I don't want sun damage.
Oh, I thought you ride a shotgun in a car.
I ride my horse with gloves on now because I'm like, oh God, I don't want aging hands.There's so much to think about.It's a full-time job.
Oh yeah, you don't want aging hands though.
Because you can hide everything else, but you can't just show up to something with mittens on for no reason.
No, but Dolly does wear those sheer gloves with the rhinestones, and I'm kind of like really into that, so that's a vibe.
Somebody said she's full body tatted up.
I heard that too, but whoever really knows the answer.
I don't know, a couple men have to.
I mean, I don't know how many, I mean, I know, is she still married or not?
Yeah, Carl.Somebody knows, and we're gonna have to get to the bottom of this.Somebody knows.Does Dolly have the tattoos or not?Somebody tell us.
Somebody's seen that artwork, brother.It ain't me, you know?I ain't no peeping Tom.I hope she does.
That would even make her, if it's possible for her to be more badass, that makes it more badass.
Oh, if she, if they, if she came out with like in one of those ESPN where they do like the nude, like they're pushing a baby carriage, like, but they're naked or whatever.If she came out and she was full body tatted, dude, it would be crazy.
Like Kat Von D just totally.That'd be insane.
Yeah, I got tats.I'm not like sleeved or anything.Cause I don't know about the top, like the top of your arm, like as you age, like, does it get weird?I don't know.So I just have them down here where they can't like swing at some point in my life.
I have them on my forearms.I don't want like mama tattoo arm.Don't need that.
You get a chair and then years later, it's a swing set.You're like, oh, that's a damn porch swing right there.
Exactly.Gotta be strategic.
Is there an artist that passed away that like you really miss their music you miss Them is that a weird question.
There's a bunch Like when you knew maybe even Haggard like he's such a like my number one hero and I was really sad the day he died and Like it I guess it was like the first kind of oh my god.
One of my heroes is gone, you know feelings I was lucky enough to get to sing with him and meet him and Know his family.And so that was awesome.In fact, I just saw his family this past summer the Play State Fair and been Haggard and the family opened
But I just I don't know that was Merle's my like number one, you know Yeah, would you admire about him?
I think that, you know, one of my favorite quotes is from Johnny Cash and he said, I sing about the things that Merle Haggard actually lived.Because he literally turned 21 in prison.Like he told his truth.
Like he didn't have a glamorous childhood or upbringing and he took his outlaw and sort of the troubled times of his life, turned them into songs and turned it into a beautiful career.
And every time I was ever around him, he's one of those heroes that like is exactly what you hope he would be, like a little mysterious, but super kind, you know?
And it's always like, meet your heroes or not, it's scary, because what if they let you down?But he never did.Look, all these pictures they're bringing up, like tease it to Jesus.I mean, look at the hair.That is Texas hair, y'all.
That's definitely a full crop.I mean, they got a lot of rain that summer, I'll say that. That is for sure.Um, what's a song that you put on, like, say like everybody has songs when they want to feel something.Right.
So like you have like, man, I really want to feel something right now.Like, or I don't know.I do.I'm kind of an emo kind of dude.So I'll put on like, um, like I used to put on like trace Adkins, uh,
every light in the house is on, you know what I'm talking about?Is that Trace Atkins?
You're gonna say Trace Atkins, yeah.
Oh, I told you, that guy, yeah.
Yeah, you want the big deep voice, like you wanna feel it.
Oh, I went through a breakup, yeah, and I would sit on my porch and just smoke cigarettes, I don't even smoke.
Well, everybody smokes when they break up.
Yeah, dude, I would just smoke and I'd play that on repeat till my neighbors were like, what, turn off the light or whatever, we can't handle it anymore.
I think Nobody in His Right Mind by George Strait.
It's so good.It's one of my favorite George Strait songs, but it's just like a heartbreaker or like, I don't know.I love country.Like I truly, like my go-to is country.Old country is like my jam.
Um, and George Strait, we call him the king for a reason.So it's a great song.Nobody in his right mind would have left or even my heart was smart enough to stay behind.Come on.
God, put my fucking feelings in a wheelbarrow.
We need to go to that horse therapy place immediately.
Yeah, what else would I listen to?Oh, Lee Bryce's I Drive Your Truck.That one's a heartbreaker.
Oh, man, my friend Jessie Alexander wrote that song.
Yes, she did.And she's amazing.She wrote it.I don't know who she wrote it with, but I know she wrote it.That's a great song.Yeah, oh, it's so good.And Lee's delivery is like insane. See, but that's a song that he didn't write.Right?
And that's why it takes a group.It's like, but you also, if he doesn't perform it, if somebody else does, who knows if it works the same.It could.
It all has to land in the right basket, right?Like the right song finds the right artist at the right time.
Yeah, the house that built me too, I had, I saw some, the writers of that song, It took them like, they wrote that song for like seven years.
Alan Shamblin and Tom Douglas, yes.They rewrote it and rewrote it.It's seven years of writing it. But that is such a lesson, like, I'm not good at that at all.
Like, I'm kind of millennial about my, like, I know, I wanna come into this co-write today and then I'm gonna leave with a song.Like, in, you know, four hours, you get a song, or two hours, or whatever it is.
I don't know that I could have stuck with it for seven years.It's a lesson to all of us to, like, be patient till it's right.Because that song is, like, perfectly written.
Yeah.Yeah, they made, like, a real Sistine Chapel with that one. Dude, I remember it's kind of weird maybe but like I grew up in like a pretty traumatic youth, you know, and uh, and I heard that song This a couple years ago, maybe two years ago.
It was like Christmas time.I was in my town where I grew up and I
I went and got like an orchid or whatever from a flower place and I took it back to the place that I grew up at and I went, this sounds really bizarre now, I wasn't doing peeping Tom or anything, it was like I knocked on the door and I gave him that and I was like,
I think that's really cool.
Yeah, I said, something nice should grow here.That's what I said.Wow.And I gave him that.
That's a song.You said that to the songwriter, so... It was interesting.You'll have to write it down.
But honestly, I... But it's funny that what a song can do to somebody, you know?
Yes, because that's... I didn't write that song, but I was like, how did they know my story?
But my guitar player that was with me for forever, since I was 17, we lost him two years ago. But he said, that song hits me because it's what I wish I had. And that sounds like what you're talking about.
And I never thought about it from that perspective.
Oh, he wished he'd had those things at his home.
He wished he would have had the house that built him.
But he didn't have a healthy childhood.But I love a song like that.And the fact that they waited it out and just stayed with it is like goals.I gotta work on it.I gotta work on it.
Yeah, that is.Yeah.Yeah.Who knows like what things and that's what's thing.
The one thing that's nice about life, it's like you don't know the little things you're doing now, how they'll merge with like the things you're doing later on and how to help you form like wherever you're supposed to be.
Like sometimes it's so hard to get through. Just the moment, you know, but you don't realize that the moment are the stairs that are gonna get you To the place you're supposed to stand, you know, yeah Anyway, sorry, but yeah.Yeah.Yeah.
I don't know and those people must have thought I was batshit crazy No, but it's not like the house I grew up in was an old tobacco farm and it was a house built in 1905 and it was just a farmhouse no central heat and air one bathroom like
not like a farmhouse, like we didn't have a lot growing up, but people constantly stopped by there, specifically older people, seniors, and were like, You know, they would cry.They would just be standing on the front porch crying.
And I was like 10, hiding behind my mom, going like, trying to eavesdrop.I'm like, what are they saying?You know, that they had so many memories there.And those handprints were there.
That's why I thought when I heard the song, I was like, have they been eavesdropping on my whole life?Because it was such an old farmhouse.It had so many stories in it.And it touched so many people's lives, you know?
Oh, yeah.Yeah, I think that's one thing that's amazing about art is that it can do that.I mean, I think you could, it's just powerful, you know, that the beats and the words and you put it all together the right way and it unlocks something.
It does.And it's like, everybody feels like, okay, I'm not alone in this world.And this is this whatever's happening to me, good, bad or ugly.I'm not the only one.Yeah, that's the beauty of a song or any art really, truly, but especially songs.
I love, I'm in awe of songs.I'm a songwriter, I'm a song lover, a music lover, especially country ones, because we just tell the sad truths no matter what.You get in your feels, you know?
So what do you listen to when you're wanting to rage or rock out?
I mean, before I go on stage, I listen to FGL Dirt.It's a little up-tempo for me, but it's also kind of chill.
Yeah, and like down-home and grounding.
And then I'll put on a little bit of Boosie Badass and listen to him, so I'll turn it the other way, you know?I might even go some Sexy Red or something like that.I don't go anything too crazy.
I mean, sometimes I'll put on maybe like Soundgarden or like I've been listening to Steven Wilson Jr.recently.
I'm obsessed with that record.
Golly, it's great.I actually have a rack coming up with him.
Yeah!Oh my God, what are you going to wear?We wrote this song.I know.I wrote with him and Natalie Hemby recently and we wrote this song called, well the hook is, I don't want to see the movie if the dog dies. Like, all of us sitting there crying.
It was just like the most magical ride.And it was Stephen's idea, obviously, shows up with that.And my dogs were there, and they're seniors.I was like, oh God.
And they're scared.They're like, hey, let's go and finish the song.
No, he's so great.I love him.But I also love that he said Soundgarden, because mine is Audioslave.Like, that's my... Really?Yeah.
Girl, what do you wear while you listen to it?
People are like, what would people be surprised to know about you?I'm like, huge Audioslave fan.I just like... I just get all ragey.Female rage is a thing, you know.It's like my bread and butter.
Yeah, no, I definitely notice that some of it's in you, you know.And yeah, I've been victim of it for sure, dude.I've got a couple angry women in my texts, in my DMs.
In my ding-dang DMs, yeah. Yeah it is, it's just interesting how a song will get you activated or get you ready for like a certain moment or something.Did you ever have to play at a funeral or anything?
Did you ever get asked to do something like that?
Oh God, I can't.Like I'm not good at it at all.I just, I get too emotional.
Did you ever have to or not?
Yeah, I had to sing at my grandma's and I had to sing at a friend that was like my age.That was the worst one.Oh God.Was that the first one you ever went to?It was the first like,
like reality check, like teen years, high school friend, you know what I mean?And her family asked me to sing and I did, but it was, it was just one of the hardest things I've ever done.I really, I know, I know.
So I, but you know, when you're given a gift, like, what are you going to say?I'm not going to use it to celebrate someone that was amazing.You have to do it.
Hey, get on up there, Miranda.
Yeah, man.Oh, one time I was at a funeral and some, uh, the person that sang, it was a girl and she was so nervous.She started singing the Star Spangled Banner.
Oh, man.Well, you shouldn't sing that.
Somebody had to go and kind of grab her.
Hardly anyone should sing that.Let's just talk about it.It's time to talk about it.
Especially if Kenny's right there in the casket, and she's just like, who's... People were like, we can't even be here right now.
Honestly, there's like four people on earth that should sing that song, and that's it.
And she made it to like that and people wait and some people started going like this.
Cause part of it is, I just feel so comfortable right now.
I'm going to go down those spiral stairs and leave forever right now thinking about it.
Oh, and they only go up.A lot of us were like, what? I thought, what happened?He wasn't even in the service.The whole thing got really confusing, man.I've been at some weird funerals.My dad was 70 when I was born.He was an older man.
And so he had to get me a suit for a funeral one time, right?And it was around Halloween.He got me a Beetlejuice costume.
And like a costume version though, like not even, I don't even know if it was real textiles.
Did they just think you were like stylish?
I don't even know if it was real textiles or whatever.But anyway, so I go to this funeral, dude, in a dang Beetlejuice costume, bro.And I guess it was kind of hip.
So like already awkward years, so that didn't help?
But I guess that's what happens when you send a senior citizen to the... It wasn't Rite Aid back then, it was called K&B, was the store they had.That had them a couple of costumes over there, but God, it was... Yeah, that was too much.
But yeah, anyway, funerals are a lot.
I'm so sorry I brought that up.
I was like, I don't have anything to say to that.I'm sorry about that.It seems terrible.
I heard a rumor that you got to meet Gypsy Rose when she was a Make-A-Wish kid.Is that true?I did.
Yep.There's a lot.Look at that hair, that crunchy hair.I got that Aussie scrunch spray going in my hair.
The hair's coming along as these photos go forward.
I've met her several times.Super, super sweet girl.
And what was her mother like?
I mean, I did.Like, when all that came out, I was freaking out.
That's what I was wondering.How did you feel?Did somebody just tell you, oh my God, do you see what just happened?
Yeah, like somebody texted me and was like, have you seen this documentary?I'm like, what?What's happening?And I'm now, I've been down all the rabbit holes of it.I'm like in it.I'm 100% now she's pregnant.I watched all the things.
Well, she seems to be thriving.So.
Yeah, I mean, she's had a crazy childhood.
The whole thing was crazy.
That's what I'm just saying.
I can't even imagine how crazy it was, like, if something like that would... because you have these moments in your life, you're being supportive of somebody, they're dealing with a disease, a syndrome, and then... But it was real to her.
So she was a child, you know?
But then suddenly it'd be like a national thing and you're like, what is going on?
I can't believe I was part of that, but I'm, you know, you don't know at the time and neither did she.
So it was just like, you know, her, I mean, her mom worked the system and it worked because we have all met her, like the whole country music community.Like ask any of us.She was part of it.She was in it.Yeah.
She was hobnobbing.Oh, that's interesting.
That gets kind of crazy too sometimes, you know?But if that's what the child loves or something.
But she did and Gypsy was very genuine.
That's just such a, I heard that and I was like, this can't be true.It's just so crazy.Yeah.Yeah.Did, um, has she, have you reached out, have you guys, has she reached out to you since?
No.I mean, that was so long ago.She might just put all that behind her, which I would if I were her, you know, the whole thing.I don't know.
Some of y'all songs are so good.I don't know how you could put it all behind you.
Well, we'll see if she comes to a show.
Yeah, that's just a crazy thing that I heard.So I was like, is this the truth or not?
It's on Google.It's gotta be true.
Well, now, you know, chat GPT is kind of getting better than Google because there's not advertising on it.
Oh yeah, my brother's like super smart, like really a techie, and he's telling me all about this stuff.When we first met, I was like, who's Chad?He kept talking about Chad, and I was like, who's Chad?And then he asked it to write a song.
At Father's Day, we had Father's Day in New York with my husband's family.We're sitting around, you know, with like forced family fun, you have to like think of things to do.
And so my brother's like, I'm gonna ask Chad to write a Miranda Lambert song.And I was like, okay.And it did. And it didn't have a melody, but it's just the lyrics.And it was called, Whiskey and Wildflowers.And it was kind of good.
I was like, oh God, oh God, my career's over.It's happening.Do I get a royalty?Will it go on tour?Tell me all the answers.
Chad GBT.There it is, dude.That's definitely the redneck version of Chad GBT is Chad GBT.That's what I thought.
I was like, who's Chad?He was like, I'm saying chat.And I was like, oh.
And it's like, how do you get to New York City?You put it in there and it's like, how much gas money you got?You know what I'm saying?
I know, like it has a different voice.Like it has like a, like a Hick voice.
That'd be funny.That'd be great.Having Chad GPT.That'd be so good.Hey, Chad. How do I fix this two-stroke motor, bub?That'd be so good, dude.Somebody has to come up with that.
Yeah, whiskey and wildflowers sitting on the porch, sun sinking low, memories of you like a river flow.Your laugh still lingers in the evening air, but love's a wild ride.
Why does it talk about drinking when it's my song?
And I'm holding on the camera.They're judgy.
And then the pre-chorus, got a bottle in my hand and a heart full of scars.
That sounds like Trace Atkinson.
Well, it also sounds like you're a pirate.So that's the crazy part of it.
But this is also like, Chad GPT is a newborn.You have to think in a few years if it starts to really get like the ability to do some stuff.
But I don't know if it'd ever take over like the human ability to feel and stuff and actually create music that's based on real feelings.I don't think it could do it.
No, and that's the, you know, it's all weird.Whatever, I'm trying to stay hip and cool.But it's weird.
But I'm not gonna be that hip and cool.
Where I don't even have feelings anymore.
Like if you go to a museum to see feelings, like somebody's smiling behind a piece of glass, you're like, oh, remember that?Remember that?
Oh, there's a tear.This is a fossilized tear that you're looking at.
Oh, wow.We don't even have those anymore.Yeah, I'm on the pill that makes us, you can't cry.Remember when people had those?But that could be a real thing one day.
I know.But maybe it'll be, we'll be long gone and doing something else by then, hopefully.
I hope I'm in the dang stars or definitely just, I don't know.I hope something happens to me.I hope I'm in a dang time capsule.Well, you live in Nashville and Texas for a bit.How has Nashville changed over the years to you?
It's popular now.Everybody wants to come here.It's the city, which is awesome. The fact that country music is thriving right now and our town is a destination, I love that.
Because these honky tonks have been here for ages and kind of like, it's the music of our lives, you know, of my life.And so people are wanting to get a little glimpse of it.I love that.
I don't love that the roads aren't really made for all these people yet, but we'll get there.
Yeah.Some of these roads are damn homemade too.I'm like, what is somebody?You see somebody just put a damn cake batter in a pothole out there, you know?
It's just people are filling with anything.I drove through something the other day.
Oh, I drove, people are using anything to fill them now.There's so many potholes, especially in January around that time.I drove through something the other day and had damn devil's food all over my tires.I was like, shit's getting weird out here.
Was it Dolly's brownie mix?
I don't know, is that a thing?
Those are good.Have you tried them, the Duncan Hines brownie mix?Dolly has everything.And I bought them, of course I bought them. And I was like, there it is.Of course I bought them.Because they don't have like oil in them.
You know how the box brownies have oil?Nope.She has milk and eggs and butter, like real ingredients.They're delicious.
I love that.Dude, what I used to love was whenever our mom would make something, dude, and she would let us lick those things that were in the fridge.
The raw egg, she let you lick the beaters.
The beaters.Now they're called kitchen mixers.But my mom had the Walmart brand beaters.
Yeah, kitchen mixers is a little bisexual for me, okay?
My husband has the KitchenAid and he's obsessed with it.He does all of the... He makes homemade pasta.He has all the...
the every accessory you can have for a kitchen aid he's like in it he's in there he's not doing like old school beaters not we don't even have those put them beaters on there honey and i was like your mom's like don't eat too much of it because it's raw eggs yeah and we'd be like
Bro, and the crazy thing was, some of the, whatever was in it, I mean, we'd eat them.
It's like that grainy stuff, granules.
Yeah, it had a little bit of, like, yeah, it had like, I don't know what it was, who cares, you didn't even give a damn.
But the crazy part was, some of it, if you started licking the beater at the top, then some of the stuff would flow down in your hand.So you'd get all the, then you're just licking your own hand with that, still holding on to that beater.
And then somebody would, like, accidentally put soapy dish water in the bowl, and you're like, no!
Oh yeah. Because, dude, if you could get even part of your head in that dang bowl, you know?I just wanted to grow longer.I would pray to God I'd make my tongue longer at night.
Well, that's a whole different episode.Okay, yeah, sorry.Well, that's for the Tracee Atkins episode.
I told you I'd leave.Yeah, you're right.Things have changed.What's a place that you miss in Nashville that's not here anymore?
I kind of miss old Losers.Like, old Losers was like, I love Losers still, but like Midtown, it was like just one little shitty dive bar with like darts in the back and smoke and like a great jukebox and popcorn, you know?
And now it's like three stories and the rooftop and all the things, but it's still great.But I kind of miss like the little, like the divier the better, you know?
Yeah, now they still have the back porch over there, you can go kick it at sometimes.
Yeah, that little deck.I have a little sign up there, it says Marine Lambert Way.It's hanging up there, yeah?
Have you been on that VIP deck?
Yeah, I have a couple times, exactly, ma'am.
John Daly's usually out there.I put in a lot of- He's usually out there waiting for an ambulance.I put in a lot of late-nighters to get that sign.
Oh, I bet you did.I didn't even think about that.
You have to drink a certain amount of Tito's out of a shitty plastic cup to get your sign up there, and I have one, so.
And at least it says way, it could have ended up being Miranda Lambert cul-de-sac.
Oh no, see, that wouldn't be as cool.No, but at least it's- Drive, way, road, I can deal with.Not cul-de-sac.
Yeah, cul-de-sac.Oh, I remember when somebody put a damn cul-de-sac, first time I ever saw one, I was like, what is this shit?What do you mean you can't keep going?Just fucking hurt my feelings, boy.I said, we'll see about that.
I'm gonna call the damn sheriff.We'll see about this.
I can't find a picture.I have one on my phone.
What else was I thinking about?
Oh, if you had to travel back in time, right, if you had a time warper, and it could have a hammy on it or whatever, I don't know how you like to travel, but if you had a time warper, what time back in your life would you go to, do you think?
Right now, I think I just stay right now.I feel like I've done it, but I'm still learning.Somebody asked me the other day, like, what's your most fun era?And I was like, right now.Like, still young, but like, not dumb, you know?
I mean, you know that whole vibe where you learn a lot.Early 30s were weird.Late 30s were... Fine, but now I'm like, we're doing right now.
We're here.Everybody's just like, 40s is the best decade.I'm like, let's roll.
Yeah.Tell me something else that you think about.Oh, one of the new songs, Dammit Randy, on your new album, who's it about, man?
Well, it's about Randy. Everybody has a Randy in their life and Everybody has one and it's about just a time where I was like, this is not good.It's not serving me anymore this is I gotta move on and
And was it a real, like, was it serious or was it just somebody that didn't install y'all's cable well or something like, you know?
Well, it depends on the person.Everybody's got a Randy.
Right?And I wrote it with John Randall, who's one of my besties, and his real name is Randy, so I always say that to him anyway, so it's kind of funny.And that's the one that Brendan's a rider on.
Oh, yeah.I was flying a kite in the middle of a hurricane.
There it is.That little songwriter.
What else was I thinking about? What drives you at this point in your career?
I know this is kind of a general question, but like you've gotten to have Notoriety you've had number ones you've won Grammys you've won You're a household name you have You can afford to pay your rent.You know it's like what?
What goals are there still for you or do things evolve from goals into Like just wanting to still do the job.I'm just curious and it's stuff I go through in my own life too with comedy, you know I'm just I'm just curious.
What do you think about that?I
You know, I am lucky enough to have reached a lot of the goals that I set when I started this journey.I mean, I was 17 when I was chasing music, that's what I'm doing.
And people were like, fuck, you'll be at a Dairy Queen in two months.
Yeah, and I was like, okay, see y'all next time.
Like, well, I'll be singing in the drive-thru, damn it.
I don't know.I feel like now I'm just like open.
I'm trying to be open to You know, I don't I'm not walking around saying I'm gonna do this and this and this I'm just like absorbing what's around me and being open to new opportunities and meeting new people and like Also saying no to the
say no to the right things.I think that's a big part of it because you can save your energy for the right things if you just say no to the things that are not right for you.
That's kind of where I'm headed and where I've been living in the past couple years.
because I realized if you put all your energy into the wrong people and the wrong things, then you don't have any openness or any time or energy left for the right things, and then it's too late.
So I think I'm just in this space right now where I'm like, what's next?I mean, this is new.I've just started doing podcasts.I've never done that before until this year.
You've done a good job.I've watched some of them.
Well, I'm new to it and I'm not great at talking like I'm a singer like I'm in front of people I'm actually an introverted extrovert.I have an extroverted job with an introvert personality.
And so I'm trying to I'm branching in that way You know, I always I'm fine to say my truths and songs.It's just harder to do just You know saying it out there, but I think it's important either way so, I don't know my goals are like What's next?
Let's do something that scares us.Let's do something that's, you know, makes you grow and makes you learn.
Yeah.Yeah, that's true, huh?Yeah, sometimes it's so weird.I feel like when you're involved in some part of the arts, kind of, you know, people call them and some people just call them music and comedy and painting or whatever.But, um,
It's weird to also kind of evolve, because it's like, you age, right?
We age, and you're like, well, if I, some songs I can't even really sing anymore, some jokes I can't even really, I could tell them still, but is it really gonna be true to where I'm at, you know?
I find that that's interesting about art itself, is you have to, and then you're, but then you're like, but if I change, will I still have the people who like this thing, you know?
Yeah, it's like, how do you keep the common thread and keep reinventing? it's a tiny little fine line you have to walk.
And it's scary because what we do is very public and what we signed up for and what we started saying or the jokes we told at 20 or the songs we wrote at 20, we're not in the same life space and we're not in the same lane anymore.
So it's like figuring out how to do that gracefully but still keep that common thread of like, where you've been and where you're going, but kind of walk this line of staying authentic to the true you that started this whole journey.
And comedy is the hardest thing in the world.I think that would be the literal hardest part of the arts, of any art.I really do.
Yeah, I just respect it because it's the most vulnerable.Like standing up there in front of people and just telling jokes and hoping that it lands. and there's no band, it's just you.That's scary.
Oh God, I wish somebody would pull up with a drum sometimes.
You start playing a drum solo immediately if you're like, no, this one didn't happen.
Take it away, Henry.You just turn it over to somebody.
You just don't have anybody to lean on, you're just up there by yourself, emotionally naked.It's scary.
In the beginning, it's so scary, I think.God, I can't even believe sometimes when you think back, and I don't mean it like I'm not trying to,
fill my own ego, but when you think back, I don't know if I'd go do it now, but yeah, you get up there that first time and you're just like, this is gonna be good.
You don't even believe yourself, you're just screaming that to yourself in a car, in a Ford Taurus, you're like, this is gonna be good.
Like in your best Chris Cornell voice, you're just beefing yourself up.I don't, the fact that you said you don't know if you'd do it now, I think about, I knew like three- Makes me nervous. I know, I just got anxiety.
I think about like, I knew three chords and I was like walking in these bars like, can I play at the set change?Like, I just, I gotta get some experience.And you know, it's that thing of like, how do I get experience if you don't let me play?
And then, but then you say I can't play because I don't have any experience.Just put me on set change then and I'll play my three songs that I just learned yesterday.Like not good, but just being brave anyway.I don't know.We did it.
That's a good point, yeah.I know the ones that hurt too, do you have a show you remember that really just kind of burned you when you were just like, God, this is hard?
Like a birthday or anything?Like you ever get played one of those Arab birthdays or something, you're like, would it?
Private parties.I'm so thankful for private parties.I love them.I would love to play your private party.But some of them can be hard.
You know, where it's like, I did, I played a, I played a sweet 16 one time. And this thing was the most extravagant party I've ever seen in my life.And it was a bunch of 16-year-olds.And they only wanted me to do four songs.
Michelle Branch was part of it, Leon Rimes, and me.And we each did four songs.And this thing was legit.It was in Washington, D.C.And these kids were dressed to the nines.They all had on everything designer.
And I was like, I was working at Bell's when I turned 16.We were dressed to the threes.
Okay.Exactly.The three of us combined, we was a nine.
I mean, that was one that sticks out in my mind.I'm like, oh Lord, this is bougie.
Oh yeah.We remember I had hand-me-downs from damn women and I was like, I don't have an older sister.I was wearing shit.I was like, whose shit is this?
Just stuff that whatever was around.My mom was like a big thrifter.So big thrifter.I'm like, I found, but this is awesome.So like it was in the Doc Martin like heyday and we couldn't afford those.
It was very- Those were very nice.They were very nice.God, that's where Mother Hubbard lived in one of those.I heard they were fancy.
We went to Goodwill a lot and like I found a pair of Doc Martins for $7 and they were like new. And I went to school, and my mom's like, just tell everybody you got them at GW's.And say it's like a nice store in Dallas.
So I forever was like, these are my Doc Martens I got at GW's.It's a nice store in Dallas.Just flat out lie, but I was like, $7 Doc Martens, that's a score.
That's $3.50 a foot, honey, let's party.
That's the rest of the threes.
Oh, that's like putting damn each foot into a damn Sheraton.That's really nice.
Sheratons have really good beds.
You know what I do notice after touring and going to hotels and stuff, one thing that bugs me now is if the mattress is too soft.
And I don't mean it in a negative way, but it's like your back starts to fall apart and you start to realize how many bones you have in your body as you get older. This is not a bad, this isn't holding anybody up.
You figure out like, what like, but is your continental like breakfast like just Fruit Loops or is it like hot breakfast?
It's those things you start to like really appreciate on the road.Like do y'all have real eggs or are they powdered eggs?Because you can't say hot breakfast if it's powdered eggs.That doesn't count.
Yeah, that's more MREs, like it's like MREs but with a television that's on ESPN, you know, like they'll have that set up.
Yeah, God, I think, yes, I remember we used to go to the Continental Breakfast, and we would pretend like the people that were waiters or whatever, we weren't even supposed to be there, we weren't staying there at the Holiday Inn, and we would go up there and eat up there, and my stepdad would take us up there.
But you're not staying there.
Huh?Uh-uh.And we'd go in that bitch and dine, honey.You know what I'm saying?
And when they have happy hour, and it's in a box, but I'll take it.It's fine, box wine, sounds great.Let's do it.
Um, do you have a favorite party like birthday party that you ever had so far?I know you just turned 40 you said?
Y'all go back to the casino?
No, we went to Billy Bob's on a Monday.Billy Bob's like the biggest in Fort Worth.Yeah, in the stockyards.My friend Gwen, she sings with me in my band for 13 years and she was like, where do you, cause I was like, I don't know what to do.
There's so much pressure on that birthday.You know, like the big, those zero ones, you're like, I don't, I just would rather do nothing.
Like I shut down and she was, we were getting our hair done and she was like, it was typical getting your hair done in the foils.So she's like, where do you want to turn 40?
And I was like, she was like, I feel like you want to turn 40 at home in Texas, go back to the root, full circle.And I was like, I do, I think.And so Billy Bob's gave me the bar on a Monday, cause they're closed.
And we had barbecue and a bunch of my Texas friends, Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen, Adam Hood played.And it was just a big ol' honky tonk night.And it was like, it felt like, man, this is like why I loved, why I started this in the first place.
Like, I just, I've been playing Billy Bobs for so long and going there to see shows.And so I think that was my favorite birthday so far.
That's perfect.Well, that's the most recent one, you know?What else was I thinking about?Anything in the news that we could think of?Let me just pull it.We'll get you out of here soon too, Miranda.I know you guys have a show.You have a show tonight.
Oh, tomorrow night.Yeah.Oh, lucky.
Tomorrow night, yep, for singing for the doggies.
Music for mutts, yeah.It's a benefit for Mutt Nation.
Music for mutts.And what qualifies a mutt, actually?
just us probably uh i don't know like i have just rescue animals and like they're just all just mixed little puppers and I started a foundation in 2009 called Mutt Nation Foundation with my mom.
Yep, that's her.And we've raised over $10 million since then.
$10 million.Wow.Yeah, we raise awareness for adoption, for spay-neuter, for adopt-don't-shop, and like right now with the Hurricane Helene,
doing a lot of work with Tractor Supply Rescue Relief and with Greater Good to you know people are first obviously but there's tons of shelters down there that were already overcrowded and got hit and so just it's there's a lot of moving parts so really what our foundation does is kind of meet the need whatever the need is you know whether it's lifting up shelters giving them grants for renovations natural disasters we kind of run the gamut but our main focus is to encourage people to adopt
And once someone creates something like this, this foundation, right?
So this is a, um, nonprofit organization.How do you raise funds for it?Obviously you can do fundraiser shows, you can put your own money into it.And then how does, I'm just curious, how does a nonprofit even, Well, I guess those are the ways.
You put money into it or you do fundraisers.
Yeah, we've done fundraisers.I sing for the pups.I mean, we haven't done a music one, but like for my Vegas residency, we gave a dollar a ticket and I was there for two years.
So a dollar ticket, we've done that on tour where a dollar ticket goes to my nation.And then this is our first benefit show in a couple of years.So I'm excited.I got some friends coming out to sing, some surprises.
Can any of the animals ever tune in?Any of them ever hit a B-sharp or something?Have you ever trained any?
No.My mom has this terrible, shitty dog, though.His name is Rhodey, and he's just like my dad.
I know.My dad found him on the sidewalk.
Was he held back in school?
Yes. And he has an underbite and he's a Tweenie.It's like the worst of all the world.
And he's like my little shitty brother now.And that's what she calls him.Because me and my brother, my real brother, are like, God, sibling of ours is terrible.And he will sit there.My dad plays guitar and write songs.
It's specifically George Jones, He Stopped Loving Her Today.When dad starts singing that, that thing howls and it's like this screeching, awful noise.And you have to put it away.
Like you have to put the dog in the house and it's still, you could hear it howling.And then my dad, that part where they go.That thing howls and it's just like, and my parents think it's cute, which is even worse.I know it's the worst.
So yeah, they could be, some dogs sing.Do you want them to?Absolutely not.
But if you could organize them.
We could do like a family choir.Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.Get you a little batch of hounds in those church gowns or whatever.
Yeah, we could do it.I mean, anything can be done.We could ask Chad.Chad will do it.
Ask Chad GPT.Hey, organize these mutts, guys.Was there two pieces of news, anything else in the news?What were the top two news stories that we had in there? Oh yeah, and we don't have to talk about this either if you don't, if it's an awkward thing.
Yeah, Garth Brooks got accused of harassment.Did you ever know him as a bad guy?I always heard the nicest things about him.
I don't know him.I just heard this today, so I have not been down the news rabbit hole of this.So it's fresh off the press.I have nothing to say about it, but I'm gonna read it.I mean, I'm gonna read it like everybody else.I'm gonna read it.
Yeah, no, I've always heard the nice things about him.But he's always seemed kind of mysterious to me in a way.Like he always has seemed like he's done his own thing, I guess.He was the biggest artist when I was a kid.
Yep, when I was 10 years old, night two at Texas Stadium.
and he flew in, he like dropped out of a helicopter, and they, when he did standing outside the fire, and they lit the whole stage on fire, and I was like, and I, okay, this is bad, but I had braces, but only two because I had a gap, so I had to do the gap, close the gap on the front two teeth.
So just those two?Yeah.Who, hey, I haven't even heard of that.
Well, this was a while ago, and they should never do this to a child ever again.
Now they have like Invisalign, it's not, it's not fair, kids these days don't have to be ugly, like we were ugly, like we had to just,
I had scrunchy hair, and Jesus, and braces, and all things, but I had the two braces when I saw that Garth Brooks show, and I had on my Rockies.
Do you remember those jeans that were like real high-waisted with no back pockets, and so everybody's butt looked real long?
And it had a... The label was black and white lettering?
Uh-huh, Rockies, yeah.And I had on those, and they were red, and I had on my roper boots, and I was so excited.My flame shirt, I was like my brush popper, and he came in and dropped out of that helicopter, and I was just like, Garth's
I was like screaming and I was like waving but I only had the two and I had like pink rubber bands on them.
So just like totally and it was in that area where you would like curl one bang up and one down and tease it and it would look like a big cloud.
Oh that was never an era but tell me more about it.
It was so bad.It was so bad and I just was so excited and I was like I'm gonna be a country singer. Oh, I was just singing all of it.And I would get so excited when I could say, damned old rodeo.My mom would be like, that's cuss word.
And I'd be like, well Gar said it.That's how I get to say it.
Dude, the beaches of Cheyenne, so many good songs.
So many, yep.That No Fences record, I bought the tape.I'm older than you, but I had the cassette tape.
I don't know if you are, and we used to play that tape together.Oh, we used to play, we used to, they used to have this thing called cryin', lovin', or leavin' on the radio, do you remember that?
Yes, I loved that.Did you record the countdown?Yeah.Lux, same.And you had to push the button at the exact right time.
Yeah, but for two years, the number one song was Whitney Houston, I was always like, gee, can we just do something?Can't red hot chili peppers do something?Like we just had, it was this.
Why can't we do scar tissue?
It was a number one song for so long.I was like, something's got to happen, man.We need a war in this country.You know, I was just like, we got it.We needed something new in there.
But yeah, that was, and that's when all the music, some of the channels, even it was all of the, it was all one that top 40 was anything was in there.
Yeah, everything, because it was Casey Kasem.So it was like all of the songs.It wasn't just one genre.
Crying, Loving, or Leaving was it, though.Hey, Ernie, where are you?And he's like, yeah, I'm over here in Davenport, Iowa.First time caller.He'd be like, you crying, loving, or leaving, Ernie?And he'd be like, I'm loving.
I want to see if we could find that and listen to it.I wonder if it exists somewhere on YouTube or something.I would totally listen to that.
Yeah.Oh, I called in.I called in two times. Got through.I called him 60, 75 times.
What were you doing?Crying, loving, or leaving?
I was loving one time, and then I was leaving one time.I was gonna leave home.I was gonna go to the post office and mail myself somewhere else.That was my goal.And they're like, you can't do that, buddy.
You're gonna mail yourself somewhere else?
That'd be kind of cool.I'm here.
Oh, I bird rode my bike all the way over there.And it was closed.I thought it was open 24 hours a day.I'm like, what the hell?You guys can't even.But I just learned a lot that year. But yeah, Crying, Loving, and Living.
Play one of them real quick for us if you can.
Perfect one to pick, by the way.Perfect.
Perfect.There's no way we did not know that.That is so perfect.
Brandon, I swear to God.That was one of them, uh... We did not pick that on purpose.I had no idea we were talking about that.
That was actually perfect.My first wedding song, guys.Let's play that.Was it really?
I'm sorry. You believe me though that we did not do that on purpose?
We did not do that on purpose.
We just manifested all of that.
I would never do that on purpose.We're crying love and ain't leaving now, bye.Leaving, okay, that's what it is.Done left.Yeah, all three.
We need to do a new spinoff of it that's
They should have it.I wonder if Kix Brooks does something like that, because I know he has a weekly show or something.But that was it, man.When you were a kid, waiting to hear if somebody was crying, loving, or leaving, you didn't even know.
I want to listen to these, not that one in particular.
Where people were.If they did that on purpose, I'm sorry.That's pretty funny.I don't think they would do that.
They're too nice of guys to actually do that.About the new album, what else, like what's new about it?What feels new to you about it?Obviously, you have new tunes and that sort of thing.
But yeah, like what feels like exciting to you about it or anything different?
Well, I made it in Texas.It's the first time I've recorded in Texas since I was 18.
Okay, so we're back to your roots roots.
Yeah, I wanted to go to Austin and just like really it's really honky-tonk record I mean, it sounds like my childhood It sounds like the music I grew up on and I think it's just because I have a new chapter a new label a new decade ahead of me of like whatever is gonna happen and I wanted to like
go back to the root of where the whole passion started to begin with, which was like playing those honky tonks in Texas.I think I had that sort of awakening when I had my birthday at Billy Bob's.
And I was like, I'm turning 40, one of my favorite places on earth, in my home state, at a honky tonk listening to country music.And that's just where my heart lives at the end of the day, is a honky tonk listening to country music.
So it felt right to make my own music that way this time.
Yeah, it's hard for your heart to kind of get back home when your life gets busy like that in a way, you know?
It is, and I have a house in Austin.I spend a lot of time in Austin.
Me too.My little brother lives there, and I just, I don't know.I always say I'm a TNT state girl because my heart's half in Tennessee, half in Texas.But both places that I live revolve around music, and I love that.
Yeah, it's like sometimes your life gets so busy, and then you're like, You're like, it stops at a certain point, there's a special day or a moment, you're like, okay, I can get a look at where I'm at.
Yeah, it's good to have enough time to stop and look at where you're at, because I didn't for so long.
I mean, when you're young and you start young, following your dream, and then you just sort of are a horse with blinders, then you stop and you go, okay, now what?I made it, now what?
It's kind of a weird spot to be, but then once you embrace it, which is where I feel like I am right now, just embracing, look what I've done so far, but like what else can we do, you know?I still feel really inspired and excited.
I mean, I definitely don't have the same energy for like long, you know, 150 days a year on the road or anything, but I'm still so inspired to like write songs and, you know, I love the music.I can't, it's my life.I dedicated my whole life to it.
It is funny, you kind of, yeah, you do when you get busy and your career gets busy, a lot of you gets dedicated to what it is.It's like, I spend most of my time, like, I have some close friends I don't even get to talk to that much.
And I know it's sad to say, people are like, well, you work instead of talk to them.But it's almost like you build up your dream, but then your dream takes a lot of responsibility.
Yeah.And nobody tells you what to do when you have done it.Like, there's not like a,
manual you can like there's not like a podcast you can like go back and look at and be like so now what happens at this point in my career at this age with this these accolades like what happens now you just figure it out as you go and you know um like working with younger artists now and like newer artists I have a label called Big Loud Texas.
In partnership with Big Loud and
Oh, that's your, so you guys have a branch there now.Yep.Oh, that's awesome, dude.
And it's, you know, keeping that, keeping that.
Steven Wilson Jr.on Big Loud too?
He's on Big Loud.Let's go.
So, he's playing in Nashville.
Patches on patches on patches.So good.Yeah.
Oh, when he said, is this song called Torn Cigarette?
Oh, that lyric that he said?
I'm a torn cigarette, my patches got patched.It's so good.But he is playing in Nashville.Everyone.December 4th.Tethered.So good.My father's son. Drain my blood.
It's one of the greatest records to come out in a decade.
That's our audio slave, man.
It's hillbilly, and it's rage, and it's sad, and it's funny.
And even as a Native American, some of the beats, some of the drums that he uses have a very like native sound to me.It's great.It blows me.I'm like, and I keep finding new songs on it that I like.That's what's always amazing.
Like you keep going back and re-hearing them?
Yeah.And you're like, oh, now this one I like.
Yeah, let's get fucking weird, buddy.Anyway.
I also like that he wears his little vest.He just wears his little vest in all his videos.He's just sitting there freaking slaying the guitar and he's just got his little puffy vest.Just cozy.I love it.There he is in his puffy vest.I love it.
He looks like a lifeguard at Woodstock kind of in a way.You know what I'm saying?He has a very safe but risque vibe, dude.
And he's so sweet, by the way.Like the sweetest.
You can tell, like, I've just listened to some interviews and stuff with him, and just listening to his music.I got to see him play one night at Whiskey Jam.At Whiskey Jam, and that was so cool.But yeah, it's amazing.
Him, Red Clay Strays, I've been listening to.So much good music out there.
So much, so many great.Lainey Wilson, I know you talk to her.I love her so much.
God, if they had 11 Lainey Wilsons.
Good gal pal.You'd be in there in the donut box with 11 Lainey Wilsons.
Yeah. Yeah, and you'd be the cop.
Well, no, well, look.Look what y'all doing.Hey, what are you doing in there, huh?
With a New York accent.I gotta work on that.
Hey, what are you doing in there?Anyway, Miranda Lambert, thank you so much for all the beautiful music.Thank you for spending time with us today and just sharing a little bit of your life.
And yeah, and thanks for just like the inspiration and just being a space of like, hey, this is where you are and now let's see where we are and let's make the best stuff yet to come. Yeah, I just really enjoyed my time.
Well, thank you.We got deep, and it was good.I liked it.Yeah.We talked about some good songs, too.
It's nice.Yep, we sure did.Your new album is out.
It is?It is.It's called Postcards from Texas.
Postcards from Texas.And yeah, we'll be listening to it.
And you gotta check out Aaron right here.
All right. I'm in.Thank you so much.
