When Miranda Lambert releases her seventh studio album, Wildcard, on Nov. 1, it will mark the first time in Lambert’s entire career that longtime producer Frank Liddell didn’t produce the project. For the next set of tunes, Lambert decided to use rock producer Jay Joyce – a big decision that she admits was far from easy.
“It was quite a big decision for me to be honest with you,” Lambert shared at a media event introducing her new record. “I made every single record of my career, including Pistol Annies, with Franklin Liddell, who I adore, love and trust so much. He’s one of my best friends in the world. Like any long relationship, sometimes you reach a place where you have to regroup.”
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Lambert invited Liddell to her house to discuss the idea of switching producers, even though the two of them had so much success collaborating together.
“Me and him had a bottle of wine on the magic porch. The magic porch does some magic s—,” Lambert said with a laugh. “Always involves some type of holy water if you will. But we just talked it out and we thought, you know what, we need to take a minute from each other and go get inspired somewhere else, and come back and revisit. He gave me his blessing in a way, which I needed because you know that’s what long time relationships do.
“So, I called Jay Joyce,” she continued. “I knew that I needed to approach this record with the same energy and heart and open-mindedness and excitement that I approached my very first record with, which was in 2005 called Kerosene. And so I just kind of wanted to be open and push and Jay has made me do that.
“And so I feel like in a way I reinvented a new rock and roll sound for myself on a few of these things,” she added. “But also in a way, I’ve revisited the rock and roll sound that was invented in the first place.”
It was Lambert’s husband, Brendan McLoughlin, who unintentionally made Lambert realize that her new music wasn’t really that new after all.
“My husband was actually listening to ‘Mess With my Head,’ because he’s supportive and wants to make how ever many cents we make these days when we get a stream,” quipped the singer. “Anyway, he’s playing in the car, and right after it came on, ‘Kerosene’ came on and I was like, “This isn’t a departure at all. I’m just back b—es.”
Pre-order Wildcard at MirandaLambert.com.
Photo Credit: Getty images / Taylor Hill
