Miranda Lambert: ‘I Want to Have Some Mystery’
Signing off of social media is good for Miranda Lambert and her music.
The singer contrasts the pressure to share bits of her private life with fans with her inclination to remain private in a lengthy new interview with Hits Daily Double. She also opens up about her vulnerabilities, admitting she's been the heartbreaker and the heartbroken.
It was a rare sit-down with Lambert, during which the singer mostly talked about her music and the process of recording the two-disc The Weight of My Wings album in 2016, one year after her divorce from Blake Shelton. The album was therapy, she says. Unlike Platinum, she didn't worry so much about the reception or commercial success as much as about getting things off her chest.
To capture those songs, she took three months off of social media. She did it again recently, stepping away from her phone for a full week.
"But you have to use it for work," Lambert concedes. "I do want to let people in on my regular life too; I’m just not very good at it. It makes me nervous, 'cause I’m private. I want to have some mystery, and I want people I’m fans of to have mystery, too."
She admits she tries to keep a private life, but "it's not up to me."
"With social media, it’s a whole other thing," she insists. "And it’s such bullsh--. I’m thankful for the drama of it all, because it gets sillier and sillier. They make up so many lies, no one can know the truth. The truth is it’s in my music if you listen close enough."
This interview comes three days after Lambert's Don't Give-a-Darn set at Country Jam.
See Photos of Miranda Lambert's Set from Country Jam
Lambert doesn't mention her rumored breakup with Anderson East or her rumored relationship with Turnpike Troubadours' Evan Felker at all during this part of the interview (Part 2 is coming later), but alludes to her love life in deflecting the pressures that come with being a headliner. Interviewer Holly Gleason compares what Lambert is to the next generation of female singers to what the Dixie Chicks were to Lambert's generation.
"But I didn’t sign up for that," Lambert insists. "That's a lot of pressure. I am who I am. I am honest about being flawed. That’s all I can be, you know? I cuss. I drink. I get divorced and get my heart broken. I break hearts. I can’t do or be that anymore, or it’ll drive me crazy. I won’t be any good anymore."
The takeaway may be that this raw, "porous" version of Lambert — the version found throughout the 24 songs on The Weight of These Wings — might be the truest version of who she is. From there, one can only draw conclusions about what her next album will sound like. Aside from keeping a prodigious songwriting schedule, there's no specific mention of details for her next solo album or the long-awaited third Pistol Annies album.
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