It’s been a busy year for this Grammy Award winning artist. She is releasing new music, a new album, music video’s, planning a new tour and got married. Despite her busy schedule, I had the pleasure of interviewing Miranda Lambert prior to her upcoming tour, Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars, and got to chat with her about her new album set to be released Nov 1st called, Wildcard, and her incredible charity foundation, Mutt Nation and all things Miranda!
I ask Miranda what inspired the video, “It Comes Out In The Wash” and she said, “Well, the label decided on that song for the first single and I thought it was a good choice because it’s fun and catchy and sarcastic, but also truthful. We wanted something different and a little more fun. And so Tre thought on it and I called her and she’s like, “Give me a week or so to think about it. She came up with this awesome idea of these girls in the mud and trucks in the car wash and I was like, “That’s so perfect!” It’s actually more perfect than anything I could ever have dreamed of. So, I had the best time doing the video. It was so much fun!”
Miranda tells me how she came up with the title of her new album, “Wild Card.” She says, “I just got a tattoo in like October and it’s a card, it’s a queen of hearts and I kind of was inspired by one of my favorite lyrics. My favorite lyric, it’s from a song called “Easy From Now On.” My favorite lyric from the song is, “When the morning comes and it’s time for me to leave, don’t worry about me I’ve got a wild card up my sleeve.” And I just loved the connotation of what that is, like I’ve been through a lot in my life and I feel like there’s always, even my family, my mom or dad going through hardships growing up. What I always just told them then out of their hat and make it ok, you know? And so when I got the tattoo it was just a reminder of that and then, the record started coming together and I ended up getting married and then right into this record. I started writing for the record before I got married and then finished writing for it after. I kind of felt like that whole journey was me pulling up my wild card and then starting again. And this record’s got a pretty hopeful tone to it and some fun. I kind of feel like I’m back as far as that goes and so “Wild Card” just felt right.”
On this album, Miranda did a collaboration with Maren Morris and I asked how that came about and she said, “I’ve always been a fan of her. I’ve known about Maren and kind of knew her and her family for a really long time since she was a little girl. We were both from East Texas area, so we sort of were on the same circuit when you’re trying to start our careers. But, she sent me her EP before her last record came out, which was her first record, and I just thought, “Man, she’s really found who she is and she’s this really confident woman and willing to take risks.” And I’m just a huge fan of her. I was writing a song, “Too Pretty For Prison,” I knew instantly when we were writing it, this has to be a duet with Maren. She’s so funky and fun and Texas girls stick together!” It’s a pretty safe bet that fans will see them perform together on this tour and Miranda says, “That’s the plan. It kind of works out perfect. The timing of finishing a record and getting a song out and us on tour, couldn’t have worked out any better and we’re really excited.”
Miranda picked all women for her Roadside Bars and Pink Guitar Tour and she tells me, “It wasn’t what I set out to do. When we first started talking about the tour, it wasn’t like, “We’re going to do an all girls tour.” It was just what’s inspiring you, start listening to things, and looking around at who’s available and, honestly, just all these girls are great. And I was saying, what’s getting me excited about music these days and Maren and Elle King or two of those people. And then Ashley McBryde is great and Caylee Hammack is new. But this little red head fireball and then Tenille Townes was on our last tour for a few dates and she’s just a sweetheart and has such good work ethic. So, I’m like maybe it’s just an all girls tour on accident
and then you put up with the ladies in there and it’s like a dream. So, I feel like it was organic, but it was meant to be.”
Having seen Miranda myself several times, one of her best performances was at CMA earlier this year. I asked Miranda why she chose to perform “Locomotive” as her first new song and she said, “I had to perform at CMA fest and I wanted to put something new, it’s been awhile since I had anything new and I thought, “Let’s just rock,” and “Locomotive” rocks so I was like, ‘That’ll be fun, let’s do that one!’ It was a really easy choice for me
just because I thought we’re at a stadium, in the summer, at a country festival, like I want to do something fun.”
Miranda tells me that one of her favorite songs to perform live is “Mama’s Broken Heart.” She says, “I’m always still a fan of it. I love to sing that song. I’ve been singing it for a long time, but it always gets everybody all pumped up.” One of her favorite songs on her new album, “Wild Card” is “Tequila Does.” she said, “It’s so Texas. I mean it’s Texas-country at its finest. I wrote it with two Texas artists and singer-songwriters, John Randall and Jack Ingram. So, I just always gravitate towards that one.”
Miranda has found love and got married earlier this year and I asked her how he is adjusting to being in the spotlight and adjusting with all the animals. She states, “He’s doing really well. I think he’s just so friendly and kind of up for anything, that taking on eight dogs, five horses, three cats and two bunnies was not the easiest thing to do, but he loves animals and the farm and loving the road so far. I think that’s what you do when you get married; people have to compromise and luckily his compromise is in the form of eight cute dog faces. So he’s taken to it pretty nicely.”
Speaking of dogs, Miranda and her mom started MuttNation in 2009. Besides her love of dogs, I asked her why she decided to start the foundation and she said, “My manager asked me what I would like to do that’s charitable and I said, “I kind of want to start my own because I’ve been rescuing dogs my whole life. I mean, living in the country, that’s kind of part of it.
People don’t know or whatever, but I kind of felt like it was my calling and it’s the thing I’m most passionate about, besides music. So, I started MuttNation and we’ve grown so much, we’re still on tract to like, I want to do so much more, but we’ve been able to raise over $4 million and save thousands of dogs, or find thousands of dogs home.
So, it’s so rewarding and it’s one of those things that you can’t ever feel like you’ve ever can get there or do it all, but you’ll die trying.”
Miranda says, “My husband won’t let me go anywhere near a shelter anymore because the last time I went, I brought home two bunnies. But hey, it’s not a dog!”
I asked Miranda how did she pick the songs that went on the album and she replied, “For the record, it kind of chose itself. I didn’t overthink it. My last record was a double album so I feel like with that I needed to do it at the time. With this record, While I was at the studio, I was like, ‘Whatever song comes to mind today.’ I didn’t overthink it or write lists after list, didn’t kind of sit down and go, “I guess whatever day I went in studio, if I felt that song that day, did that song.” I feel like the ones that made the record are perfect. It just all came together perfectly.” Miranda tells me what she is looking forward to most on this tour is, “I’m looking forward to just being on the road in general. I have had to adjust to being off the road, which is more foreign to me than being on the road. I call it reentry. It’s like a month to get used to it, because I’ve been on a bus or in a moving vehicle to play music since i was 17 and so I do better when I have a routine. Writing for the record was amazing. I love that part of it. I love making records. I love being off and being a wife and a friend and hanging out, but I’m meant to play music with my band and so I feel like there’s always a piece of me missing when I’m not doing that.”
The process for writing songs, Miranda says, “Most of the writers are friends I’ve known forever and so kind of go in a room and somebody brings an idea and we, depending on who you’re writing with, sometimes it’s the day. I’m a night-write kind of gal, so I kind of rather sit down with a bottle of wine or cocktails and play guitar and kind of explore. Sometimes it takes all day and sometimes you don’t finish one or sometimes you’re at three. It just depends on what’s happened. Natalie Hemby is a great friend of mine and she and I have been writing together since “Revolution” and we had our first number one together. So, we kind of have a chemistry that we never really get that stuck. We always kind of find some common ground and get the song written.”
Miranda says her greatest musical acccomplishment to date is, “I’d have to say singing at the Kennedy Center honors for Merle Haggard and I got to see him with Kris Kristoferson and Willie Nelson, so I really don’t know how you top that! That was the biggest thing ever and I thing that will be on my
headstone some day. I sang with Willie and Kris y’all, bye!
Don’t miss Miranda Lambert on her Roadside Bars and Pink Guitars and don’t forget to pick up a copy of her new album, “Wild Card,” out in stores on November 1st.
