Miranda Lambert reflects on her journey from Texas bars to country-icon status, opens up about the turning point that changed her career, the lasting impact of Revolution, and what it means to represent country music for more than 20 years.

She also talks about helping shape Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas,” why the song hit so hard and how she’s embraced being a mentor, producer and proud big sister behind the scenes. She also opens up about working with Kacey Musgraves on “Horses and Divorces” and squashing their misunderstanding, and more!

Miranda Lambert: I love that song and it so feels like such a part of me. I am from Texas and I just … You know, it was like one of those things where we just wrote this song we really loved and all of a sudden, I’ve, I’ve never seen anything like it. So when Ella calls and is like, “What does this mean?” I’m like, “I wouldn’t know.” 

Interviewer: Can’t help you with that one, yeah. Yeah. 

I’m like, “You might need to call Taylor Swift right now, ’cause this is, like, that kinda big.” I think it’s 2010. OK. I started in 2005, like, you know, with my record deal. I got a record deal, but I’d been playing bars for three years before that. So I’d just been kinda at it awhile and I’m glad ’cause I got my grit and my chops honed a little more. But 2010 felt like a transition year for me. Um, I think it’s because I had had a No. 1 by that time, finally my first No. 1 on my third record. And, you know, I think it didn’t, it didn’t really click fully until, like, that really … I don’t know. That really kinda helped raise the bar for me at radio especially because I had struggled at radio up to that point ’cause I was putting out stuff like “Kerosene” and “Gunpowder & Lead,” a little less.

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