Miranda Lambert has lived most of her adult life in the public eye, after competing on the reality TV talent show, Nashville Star, in 2003, The Texas native has weathered plenty of highs and lows since then, including a public divorce (to her first husband, Blake Shelton), which was reflected in her more serious The Weight of These Wings album, released in 2016.
But Lambert found love again, this time with New York City police officer, Brendan McLoughlin. Her happiness came out in her recent Wildcard album, opening up about the joy that followed one of the darkest times in her life.
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“It definitely feels good to be singing a few love songs,” Lambert said on Sunday Today. “I mean, I don’t want to get too happy, where I can’t write a sad song.”
Not all, of course, magically became perfect in Lambert’s life after her marriage, but life overall feels much better now that she is with McLoughlin.
“There’s ups and downs,” she conceded. “But in my case it’s just public. So sometimes it gets a little rough. But just because it’s all out there, for everybody to hear and see … But so is happiness. And that’s where I am right now.”
Lambert wasn’t looking for love when she met McLoughlin, but her fellow Pistol Annies members were, setting them up while the trio was performing on Good Morning America. Now, Lambert can’t imagine life without him.
“When you truly find someone that loves you for who you are, and that you genuinely are smiling, it’s like a smile from the inside,” Lambert reflected. “It’s a lot that kind of clicks on, that you really didn’t know was off.”
McLoughlin might have been a relative unknown, at least before marrying one of country music’s biggest stars, but he has adapted to her crazy, and public, life with remarkable ease.
“He’s pretty laid-back and friendly and sweet and just [a] very go-with-the-flow kind of guy, which is great for this life,” Lambert said. “And I’m glad to share it with him and that he’s open to it.”
Lambert has never tried to separate her personal life from her music, a fact that was evident in Wildcard.
“I definitely think whatever’s going on in my life is reflected in my music all the time,” Lambert told PopCulture.com. “The best part of country music in general though, we tell our stories no matter what they are. So having some happier, more hopeful songs on this record is definitely a reflection of getting happy in life.”
Purchase Wildcard at MirandaLambert.com.
Photo Credit: Getty / Jackson Lee
