Born in Longview, Texas and raised in Lindale, Miranda Lambert learned about country music – and guns – from her father. Her interest in country music was sparked when her parents took her to a Garth Brooks concert when she was 9 years old. She began performing professionally in high school, singing with a band at the historic Reo Palm Isle Ballroom in Longview which has also featured acts such as Elvis Presley, Waylon Jennings, and Loretta Lynn.
When she was a child, bad investments led to her family losing their home and, faced with homelessness, moving in with Lambert's uncle. The family eventually moved into a nearby dilapidated rental house, which Miranda's father said probably would have been demolished had they not moved in to it. With only enough money to fix up one room at a time and her father doing anything to provide for his family – including digging ditches for four dollars an hour – they slowly pieced their lives back together. Years later, when Lambert heard "The House That Built Me" on a pitch CD intended for Blake Shelton, it reminded her so much of that house that Shelton insisted she record it. The song went to #1 on Billboard's country music chart in 2010 and won Lambert her first Grammy for Best Country Female Vocal Performance.
Lambert placed third in 2003 on Nashville Star, country music's version of American Idol. She was actually hoping she wouldn't win because she was afraid that signing a recording contract would force her to change her style. Before eventually signing with Sony, she told label executives that if they would not let her make her music her own way, which included writing her own songs and playing her own guitar, she would not sign and would just go back to playing Texas honky tonks. John Grady, the head of the Sony record label, assured her that she would be allowed to make her own music. Her first album, Kerosene, debuted at #1 on the Billboard country chart, and of the 12 songs, Lambert wrote 11 of them. The title track was a Top 20 hit in 2005.
In 2005, Lambert performed "You're the Reason God Make Oklahoma" with Blake Shelton on CMT's 100 Greatest Duets. It was their first performance together and Lambert said that she felt an inexplicable draw to Shelton, who was married at the time. She said in a 2011 interview on Dateline NBC that she "knew better" than to pursue a relationship with him. "My parents are private investigators for God's sake. I've seen this my whole life – affairs. Of all people to know better, I know better than this." Shelton divorced his wife a year later and Lambert and Shelton were married in 2011.
Lambert picked up her second straight Country Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year award in 2011. This came on the heels of her release of Four the Record, which made history by debuting at the #1 spot on Billboard's Country chart. This made Lambert the first artist in the 47-year history of the chart to have her first four albums debut at the top spot.
Saying she wanted to "build an empire," Lambert formed the Pistol Annies, a female trio with Angaleena Presley and Ashley Monroe, in 2011. The group's debut album, Hell on Heels, was critically acclaimed and debuted at the top of the Country chart in August 2011. Lambert told USA Today that the group sings "housewife music." Lambert said, "We write about things that women are thinking but not necessarily saying."
At the 2013 Academy of Country Music Awards, Lambert told us about her songwriting influences: "My dad is actually a singer/songwriter. I grew up listening to his songs. And as I got older and he would sing his songs around the campfire, he would also sing Merle Haggard and David Allan Coe and Guy Clark and Jerry Jeff Walker. And I couldn't tell the difference sometimes if it was one of their songs or one of my dad's. So I just loved songwriting so much since then, you know, it's in my blood."
Miranda Lambert first met her husband Blake Shelton at a CMT taping and began dating in 2006. They were married on May 14, 2011 at the Don Strange Ranch in Boerne, Texas, just north of San Antonio.
Lambert and Shelton announced their divorce on July 20, 2015.
Lambert owns a women's Western wear store -
The Pink Pistol - that started in the small Oklahoma town of Tishomingo, where she lived with Shelton until their divorce. After their split, she moved it to her hometown of Lindale, Texas.
When at home, Lambert begins her mornings by feeding the couple's menagerie of animals and saddling up her horses. "I love the slow pace," she told Billboard magazine, "the normalcy that it gives me."
Miranda Lambert told Marie Clare that music has always been her chosen career. "When I first started playing bars in Texas, my parents had to come so I could get in," she said. "I didn't have any other plans. I didn't go to college. There was no, 'if this doesn't work out...' It was like: 'This has to work out!' When I walk into a bar and smell old beer and cigarettes, it smells like home, because that's where I grew up."
Asked by Gibson.com if she has a go-to guitar for songwriting, Lambert replied: "I have a Gibson Hummingbird that Merle Haggard signed a few years ago. I took it off the road and I keep it in my house. I use it when I write, but I'm scared sometimes because it's so sacred to me. I don't want to risk rubbing off the signature."
When Miranda Lambert was a child, her parents were private investigators who frequently took in battered women. Witnessing the pain those victims endured at the hands of the men who were supposed to love and protect them, the country star was inspired to write songs like "
Gunpowder & Lead" about getting revenge against an abuser.
Miranda Lambert announced on social media on February 16, 2019 that she got married again. Her second husband is New York City Police Department Officer, Brendan Mcloughlin.
Lambert and McLoughlin first met in late 2018, when the Pistol Annies were on Good Morning America. McLoughlin was on security detail for the show.
Miranda Lambert wrote her very first song at 14 about a girl named Mandy Leigh. The singer recalled during
Country Radio Seminar 2020: "She was going to Nashville to become a singer. I played it for my little brother who was 10 at the time. He said, 'It's not very good, but you're getting there.'"
On April 25, 2023, Miranda Lambert added published author to her list of accomplishments with the release of her cookbook, Y'all Eat Yet? Welcome to the Pretty B*tchin' Kitchen. In her tome, Lambert offers readers over 50 recipes inspired by the women in her life, along with personal stories and anecdotes about her own culinary experiences. Co-written with author and journalist Holly Gleason (known for her work on Woman Walk the Line: How the Women in Country Music Changed Our Lives), Y'all Eat Yet? features a variety of recipes suitable for everyday meals, as well as some dishes that are perfect for those special occasions.
When Miranda Lambert
appeared on the Joe Rogan experience in 2025, the host couldn't resist asking about her tour rider, and the answer was delightfully low-key.
"People are always like, 'What's on your rider?'" Lambert laughed. "I'm like, 'Cheetos and Tito's.' That's kind of all I need."
She did note that sometimes her team throws in a cheese tray for good measure, but otherwise, her backstage setup is refreshingly simple.
