Miranda Lambert Responds to Controversy by Sharing Fan Interaction Slamming 'Selfies'
The "Tin Man" singer is facing backlash after she called out a group of fans for taking a photo during one of her Las Vegas residency shows earlier this month.
Miranda Lambert is showing some appreciation for her fans. Just days after the country superstar paused a concert to publicly call out fans taking a selfie, Lambert again took a moment to address a fan in the crowd who attended her Velvet Rodeo Las Vegas residency show on Saturday night, though this time, she sang a little praise.
While performing at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino at Zappos Theater during her Miranda Lambert: Velvet Rodeo The Las Vegas Residency, Lambert spotted a shirt in the crowd that piqued her interest and prompted her to briefly stop her performance. "Her shirt says, 'Shoot tequila, not selfies,'" Lambert told fans in the crowd, videos shared to social media showed. Lambert added, "She did it, I didn't! That's bada-." The country singer also accepted a mini tequila bottle from the fan and took a shot onstage before handing it to her guitarist, Ethan Ballinger, who shared one of the videos of the interaction with the fan on his Instagram Stories, writing, "Soo this happened last night."
@whiskeyriff “Shoot tequila, not selfies” // 🎥: @mmorris785 (Instagram) #whiskeyriff #countrymusic #mirandalambert
♬ original sound – Whiskey Riff
The t-shirt was seemingly a reference to another fan interaction Lambert recently had that has sparked plenty of outcry. On July 15, Lambert paused her performance of "Tin Man" after she noticed a group of fans taking selfies instead of listening to the music and took a moment to call the fans out, telling the small group, "These girls worried about their selfie and not listening to the songs is pissing me off a bit. Sorry, I don't like it. At all."
Adela Calin, one of the audience members involved in the interaction, later told NBC News that she was "appalled" by the singer's reaction and said, "It felt like I was back at school with the teacher scolding me for doing something wrong and telling me to sit down back in my place. "I feel like she was determined to make us look like we were young, immature and vain. But we were just grown women in our 30s to 60s trying to take a picture." Calin said she took "30 seconds at most" to take the picture with her friends, who "took the picture quickly and were going to sit back down" before Lambert called them out.
The incident has sparked a heated debate, with many criticizing Lambert's reaction. In a new interview on Audacy's Mercedes in the Morning radio show, LL Cool J told Lambert to "get over it, baby," sharing that he wouldn't call out crowd members for taking pictures during his performance, as "they're fans. It's fans. Your job as an artist is to create art. The way people choose to interact with that art or engage it or appreciate it is up to them." Meanwhile, Vanilla Ice addressed the issue during the "I Love the '90s" concert Friday night, when he told his fans, "You can take all the selfies you want – this ain't no Miranda Lambert concert."