It’s hard to believe this, but Miranda Lambert got her start in country music on TV via a little show called Nashville Star when she was only 19 years old. At the time, the teenager confessed in a video package for the show, “People sometimes don’t take me seriously, I haven’t been through a lot of tough times in my life.” Oh, how times have changed.
Lambert has had the ability to channel the pain of others into her songs since before she placed third on Nashville Star, landed a record deal, and skyrocketed to fame in her own right. She’s now one of the most well-known names on the country music charts, and her life in the spotlight has given her lots of her own pain infused into her music.
She’s known for the wit and sarcasm in her lyrics, but considering all Lambert has been through thus far, she may be trying to make people laugh to hide her tears. We’re about to reveal some tragic details about Miranda Lambert.
Miranda Lambert was once an anxious teenager
Though she rose to stardom at a young age, Miranda Lambert was once an awkward teenager growing up in Lindale, Texas. She told Seventeen that she was far from a straight-A student. “I didn’t fail, but I barely passed.” This wasn’t the singer’s way of rebelling at all, though. “I was kind of pretty straight as a kid. I was in the band at church, so all the kids would come hang out at my house. I didn’t go to parties or anything like that.”
She may have been social, but that’s not the same thing as fashionable. Lambert described her high school style as “bad, real bad.” In fact, the “Only Prettier” singer confessed that she didn’t find her stride in fashion until she was on national TV competing on Nashville Star. “I didn’t wear any makeup. I would wear wind pants and T-shirts to school. Hideous.”
But Lambert had bigger things to worry about than her style or even her grades because she admitted she was very nervous about her future as a teenager. “I would tell my 17-year-old self that it’s all going to be okay,” she said. “Because I was a little worried about it, and I still kind of am, but I had anxiety about every little bitty thing when I was 17, so I just tell myself it’s going to work out.”
Miranda Lambert was exposed to domestic abuse at a very young age
Miranda Lambert grew up in a very loving home with her brother Luke and their parents, Richard and Beverly. But mom and dad had a private investigation business, so they often exposed their kids to bad behavior — directly and indirectly. Miranda’s direct involvement was pretty harmless. Beverly told Virginia Hanlon Grohl for the book From Cradle To Stage: Stories From Mothers Who Rocked And Raised Rock Stars that she once had Miranda put on a cheerleading outfit and pretend to be selling candy while she slyly looked for evidence that her parents needed.
The sadness of her parents’ job is what impacted Miranda most because they would sometimes bring home abused women and children they encountered while investigating cases. As she described it to The Guardian, “We brought all the pain in.” Miranda said that she let her own pain from witnessing trauma out via song. “I had Mom making cookies after school, and I also had moms whose partners were beating the crap out of them. Gunpowder & Lead was in my household for a long time.”
“My parents worked their a**es off my whole life, but when you are self-employed like that, sometimes things just go down the tubes, and the phone stops ringing,” Miranda Lambert told Success. “You just have to start over, and that’s what they did.”
That meant the Lamberts rented a small house described as “rat-infested” in From Cradle To Stage: Stories From Mothers Who Rocked And Raised Rock Stars. Miranda’s mom Beverly Lambert told author Virginia Hanlon Grohl that she would pray, “God, give me the ground under my feet.” Beverly drove past a specific house every day that she dreamed of living in and prayed for that, too. One day, her prayers were answered by a preacher who had noticed her and offered to rent the family the home for less than they were paying at the time.
Of those hard times, Miranda told Success, “I learned how to do chores because you have to carry your weight.” When they were more stable again, the Lamberts still “lived off the land” to support themselves. Richard Lambert would hunt to put meat on the table for his family, and Miranda developed a love for the sport. “My dad said, ‘My family will never go hungry again,’ and we didn’t,” she continued in Success. “So I guess I got that fighter spirit in me because I want to work, I want to provide, because back when I was a kid, it got ingrained in me.”
Miranda Lambert’s marriage to Blake Shelton was very lonely
When Miranda Lambert married fellow country music star Blake Shelton in 2011, they instantly rose to “power couple” status in the eyes of the public. 2011 is the same year that Shelton became a judge on NBC’s hit singing competition The Voice, and it quickly presented an obstacle for the newlyweds. TMZ reported that Lambert strongly preferred the couple’s town of Tishomingo, Oklahoma, to Los Angeles, where Shelton had to film the show most of the year. Lambert would visit her husband, but Shelton admitted to People in 2012, “She does that for me way more than I’ve ever done that for her.” He continued, “She’s always been the one to go through hell to make sure we spend time together.” Celebrities are busy. But should anyone have to go through “hell” to see their spouse?
There is also the fact that Lambert left family and friends in Texas to move to Oklahoma and be with Shelton. Success reported that Lambert felt “lost” after the move, and Shelton encouraged her to start businesses to fill her time. “I think maybe he knew that it would make me feel like I planted some roots in our new place, and it definitely did that,” the “Over You” singer said in 2015. Maybe it worked for a while, but we’re not surprised that the couple split that same year. TMZ reported that Lambert decided their long-distance situation was “no way to live.”
Miranda Lambert has fought against so many cheating rumors
The truth about what caused the end of Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert’s marriage lies somewhere in between two stories. While Radar Online reported that Lambert was spotted allegedly “acting like a couple” with fellow country singer Chris Young in March 2015, TMZ reported that it was the “White Liar” singer’s alleged relationship with another man that prompted Shelton to file papers.
Perhaps because both of them are in the spotlight, the rumors about Lambert and Young got so out of hand that Young released a statement of denial on his social media accounts. “I don’t normally address gossip, but in this case I will. My name is mentioned as a contributing factor in Blake and Miranda’s divorce. That is totally FALSE [SIC].” the statement said. “They are both my friends and I would not betray that friendship. Just wanted to clear that up.” A joint statement from the pair (via E!) read: “This is not the future we envisioned and it is with heavy hearts that we move forward separately. We are real people, with real lives, with real families, friends and colleagues. Therefore, we kindly ask for privacy and compassion concerning this very personal matter.”
Miranda Lambert has let the pressures of fame get to her at times
Miranda Lambert loves to write and perform music, but she’d definitely like to leave some aspects of celebrity in the dust. “When everyone’s worried about your personal life, it makes you feel like, ‘Well, if you could just spend some of that time talking about my actual art, that would be great!’” she told Health in 2019. “I’m never gonna get used to the public eye in that way.”
But it’s hard being a woman in country music and Lambert told Success that she’s let the pressure get the best of her sometimes. “If something happened, I’d throw a fit. But I think once you’ve proved your point, you don’t have to scream.” Part of Lambert’s frustration may have had to do with a strange trend among her hits. “Yes, I had to sing with someone with a penis to get a number one,” she told The Washington Post in 2018. Of course, Lambert has had a few number-one hits in her career, but it is harder for her to do than her male peers.
Lambert chooses to say what she needs to say on her records (which do sell well among fans) rather than worry about getting hits on the radio. That was especially true with her 2016 post-divorce double album The Weight Of These Wings. “I know radio’s been a struggle, but I really needed to say these things,” she told Hits Daily Double.
