"I'm just doin' it myself this morning," she laughs. Bad Miranda would just be rolling in from the honky-tonk Good Miranda, however, has a job to do. Stay tuned.)įor all of her contrarian ways, it should be noted that Lambert, and not her publicist, calls me on a Friday morning at the very un-rock-and-roll hour of 9:10. (She doesn't have any dates yet in the Tampa Bay area, though she is going on tour with Toby Keith. Along with Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse and Patty Griffin, Miranda excels at smart, in-your-face songs that put men in their place with humor and bite.Įven more impressive, Lambert is raising her ruckus on the country circuit, which is notorious for preaching conformity, especially to its female stars. With the instant classic Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Lambert leads the 2007 pack of feisty females in music. (She placed third in 2003.) Lambert says she's proud of her beginnings, but she's also wary of "the Nashville Star stamp." Lambert's career commenced on Nashville Star, the USA Network's countrified take on American Idol. "I think a lot of girls are afraid to come out and say that, but I'm not." "I wouldn't actually shoot my boyfriend or burn his house down - but I have thought about it," Lambert says with a sinister little chuckle.
stories) with endless hooks and the genuine oomph of a full-throttle backing band.īut she's not quite the Sing-Along Sociopath. Lambert sells her revenge daydreams (many of which are inspired by her parents' P.I. Much like the outlaw country movement of the '70s - or, better yet, the bullets and braggadocio of the current rap universe - Lambert's songs are pulp-fiction fantasies, small-town dramas souped up with sex and backwoods violence. I don't hold back in my music or everyday life." "I'm not known for being politically correct all the time, that's for sure," says Lambert, who wrote eight of the album's 11 songs. Somewhere, Carrie Underwood is cowering in a walk-in closet.
Lambert's new album, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which comes out today, is a hellzapoppin' joyride dealing in blood, booze, bow-hunting and a Fatal Attraction freakout - and that's just the first four songs. Praised for its blend of raucous rebellion and pure pop smarts, the album was named one of 2005's best by the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Blender and so on.īut that ain't nothin', folks. Lambert's debut, Kerosene, which recently went platinum, hinted at the sexy psychopath lurking within. "I was really proud, especially since it was a bow kill."Īre you ready for country music's most refreshing split personality, a woman who makes Gretchen Wilson look like Mary Poppins? Guessing where Bad Miranda ends (she's never killed a man) and Good Miranda begins (but she's sure thought about it) is the most fun to come out of Nashville since the Dixie Chicks stuffed Earl in the trunk. "(The buck) looks really big on my wall at home," Lambert says, calling from a tour stop in Richmond, Va. It was a 155-pointer on the Boone and Crockett scale, if that means anything to you. And she recently killed the biggest deer of the season in the town of Abilene.