Miranda Lambert is wrapping up a crazy 2019, from touring the country to getting married to splitting her time in New York and Tennessee and now dropping her 7th album Wildcard.
Lambert stopped by The Bobby Bones Show to talk about all things music, beach balls, tours, and what fans can expect from her new record. Wildcard is the first album she's written on every song that made the cut since her first album Kerosene in 2005. However, she's not regretful of past albums with other songwriters as she says "I would have robbed myself of career songs, if I was specific about myself being the one that wrote it." One of those songs would have been "House That Built Me," Lambert heard the song as a demo on a drive back from Dallas and she had to pull over because she started crying.
"House That Built Me" is one of those songs that Lambert would never not play because of how big it was for her career. She tends to play it during the middle of her concert sets and says on her Roadside Bars and Pink Guitars Tour with Maren Morris, Elle King, Pistol Annies, Ashley McBryde, Tenille Townes, and Caylee Hammack, she closes the show with all the girls and "Fooled Around In Fell In Love" as well as "Little Red Wagon," "Gunpowder and Lead," and "White Liar." Lambert is always part of the process on her set lists, she and her band leader put together the list for their best shows. On the setlist, Lambert admits she writes the city she's in, in big letters at the top of every one, because she's terrified of saying the wrong name.
There's one thing though that Lambert isn't welcoming on her tour, and that's beach balls. Bobby Bones asked Lambert about the beef with beach balls and Lambert shared how it all started. She says it started on The Kenny Chesney tour, someone did a volleyball smack with a beach ball during "More Like Her" and it hit Lambert's microphone and in turn the microphone hit her in the lip and busted it. She went on further to say that she doesn't have any songs about beaches or beach balls, so she really doesn't get it. Now, Lambert carries a pocketknife with her on stage every time in case someone tries to pull out a beach ball.
Lambert has been splitting her time between New York, where her husband is, and Tennessee, where her farm is. For Wildcard, Lambert says she was writing off the road so she could focus on that side of her creative brain. "White Trash" and "Pretty Bitchin'" were two songs on the album that were a bit autobiographical for her, she says they both were already going when she came in to write, and heard the sound and thought they were perfect for her. "Fire Escape" was written in New York, about New York and her time there. Lambert shared that she goes back once a month, and loves it for a few days, but then wants to get back out to the farm. The song "Locomotive" on the record was originally a slow song and Lambert wasn't feeling it, one of her songwriters suggested speeding it up, and now has turned into the opener for her concerts. While Lambert is a writer on each of the songs on Wildcard, she has worked closely with songwriters and some in particular that she says really understand her and her sound are Natalie Hemby, Luke Dick, and Shane McAnally. As far as the overall vibe of this record, Lambert says the overall goal of the album is to have "All Comes In The Wash" as the complete overtone, because there isn't a lot of darkness on this one.
Not only though is Lambert busy with her professional life, Lambert adores animals. Her organization MuttNation Foundation has just hit it's 10th anniversary in helping animals in shelters, raising over 4 million dollars. Lambert also has her own rescue animals, she laughed sharing that there's a greeting squad when she gets in the door of 9 animals. She continued sharing that she talks to them like people and they all get along. Besides her big heart, Lambert just loves to create. She says she spends her time outside of music pickling things and making dreamcatchers. She confessed that for Christmas last year, all of her people got homemade pickles and homemade bath salts. All of these things are what make Miranda Lambert herself, and when asked what she would name a musical about her life, Lambert says it would have to be "#ThatWasWeird." She also laughed, saying that she wants that to be the hashtag if she died.