She might be headlining big arenas all over the country, but Miranda Lambert was once a traveling bar act, just trying to get her start like so many other aspiring artists. But unlike most artists, the Texas native went from playing in bars to opening for one of country music’s biggest superstars, Keith Urban, which became a crash course for her in plenty about the music business, including life on the road.
“I’ve been making music on the road since I was 17,” Lambert told CMT. “I went from bars to opening for Keith Urban, so that was a huge jump for me, to get thrown in and learn from him, and continued on tours with Dierks Bentley, George Strait, Brad Paisley, Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney.”
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Lambert wrapped up her all-female Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars Tour last year, and just kicked off her Wildcard Tour, with likely plenty more tours to follow. Although fans just get to see Lambert take the stage for two hours each night, the 36-year-old reveals her job really is all day, and most of the night as well.
“I think that it would surprise people to know just how much work and time we put into it,” Lambert acknowledged. “Showing up to the venue and putting on a show and then rolling to the next town takes a huge team of people and a lot of money and a lot of rehearsals.”
Not that Lambert is complaining. All of the work all day is worth it for the brief amount of time she gets to do her favorite thing: sing to her fans.
“You wait all day to do your job,” Lambert said. “But then you get to do the most incredible job in the world. It’s waiting all day long for then this surge and burst of energy. And then your adrenaline’s going, and you have to calm down from that late at night.”
Lambert also counts on her fans to help her determine which songs to sing, with that list changing as the tour progresses.
“Usually after the first night of the tour, I tweak the setlist pretty good,” Lambert told AZ Central. “We rehearse with it. But without a crowd there to tell you if it sucks or not, you don’t know, you know what I mean? So I rely on them big time to tell me where we need to go.”
Photo Credit: Getty / Christopher Polk
