Miranda Lambert facts: Songs, albums, age, marriages and side-projects of the 'The House That Built Me' star (2024)

16 May 2024, 14:05

By Mayer Nissim

From Nashville Star to country superstar, we take a look at the life and work of a modern icon.

Miranda Lambert is quite simply one of the greatest country music stars of the modern age.

She's racked up the awards over her stunning career, and has more Academy of Country Music gongs than anyone else in history.

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Over two decades in, she's showing absolutely no signs of slowing down, continuing to release absolutely massive albums.

She's also pretty good at making friends, having recorded some pretty special collaborations over the years too.

Read on for all the fast facts you need about Miranda Lambert's life and work.

Where was Miranda Lambert born, and how old is she?

Miranda Lambert feels inseparable from Nashville these days, but she was actually born Miranda Leigh Lambert in Longview, Texas and was raised in Lindale, Texas.

Her dad Rick and mum Bev were private investigators who worked on the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.

She was born on November 10, 1983, which makes her 40 at the time of writing.

How did Miranda Lambert get into music?

Before he was a private detective, Miranda's dad Rick was an undercover narcotics police officer in Dallas. At the same time he played in a country-rock band called –wait for it –Contraband.

So Miranda had music in her blood, and in her younger days in Texas, she sang with The Texas Pride Band, and also fronted the house band at the Reo Palm Isle in Longview.

She was 16 when she entered the Johnnie High Country Music Revue talent show in Arlington, Texas. Then came a failed session in Nashville, Tennessee, where she wasn't happy with the material being offered to her.

Taking the DIY route, she returned to Texas and asked her dad to teach her the guitar so she could write her own songs, and went on to self-release her debut album Miranda Lambert in 2001.

Miranda continued to make a name for herself in Texas, and in 2003 entered Nashville Star (think American Idol, but for country).

She only came third, but during her time on the show, she impressed show judge (and Sony Music exec) Tracy Gershon, who made sure that the label snapped her up via their Epic Records imprint, eventually releasing her albums via Epic Nashville.

In 2004 she released her first "proper" single 'Me and Charlie Talking' and her debut label album Kerosene, having co-written or wholly written 11 of its 12 tracks.

The album topped the country charts and went platinum, with a million copies shipped.

What are Miranda Lambert's biggest albums and songs?

Leaving her self-released work to one side, Miranda Lambert has released eight solo studio albums, the most recent being 2022's Palomino.

Her first five albums (Kerosene, Crazy Ex-Girlfiend, Revolution, and Four the Record) all sold over a million copies and topped the US Country Albums chart. The sixth, Platinum, topped the Billboard Hot 200.

Miranda Lambert's biggest songs include:

• Me and Charlie Talking
• Kerosene
• Famous in A Small Town
• Gunpowder & Lead
• White Liar
• The House That Built Me
• Only Prettier
• Heart Like Mine
• Baggage Claim
• Over You
• Fastest Girl In Town
• Mama's Broken Heart
• Automatic
• Somethin' Bad (with Carrie Underwood)
• Little Red Wagon
• Vice
• Tin Man
• It All Comes Out in the Wash
• Bluebird
• Settling Down
• If I Was a Cowboy
• Wranglers

Who has Miranda Lambert collaborated with on her music?

Hook-ups and featured spots are very prevalent in today's pop (and country) landscape, and Miranda Lambert is no exception.

As well as her own singles featuring Carrie Underwood ('Somethin' Bad') and Little Big Town ('Smokin' and Drinkin'), she's appeared on songs from Loretta Lynn and Sheryl Crow ('Coal Miner's Daughter'), Keith Urban ('We Were Us'), John Fogerty and Tom Morello ('Wrote a Song for Everyone') and Enrique Iglesias ('Space in My Heart'), among others.

She's also released FOUR albums with Pistol Annies, her country girl group formed with Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley, and also The Marfa Tapes in collaboration with Jack Ingram and Jon Randall.

Is Miranda Lambert married and does she have any children?

Miranda Lambert married fellow country star Blake Shelton in 2011 after the couple dated for five years. They announced their divorce in 2015.

The story goes that Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin actually wrote Lambert's signature 'The House That Built Me' for Blake Shelton, but she loved the lyrics so much she asked to record it.

After dating signer Anderson East for a couple of years, Lambert briefly dated Turnpike Troubadours frontman Evan Felker.

In January 2018, she married NYPD officer Brendan McLoughlin.

While she hasn't given birth, she's a loving stepmother to Brandon's son from his previous marriage, Landon.

What are Miranda Lambert's tattoos all about?

While she's not as inked as Post Malone, Miranda Lambert has a whopping NINE tattoos (that we know about).

She started off with a distinctive double gun with wings on her arm.

"It's the first thing I ever did without asking my parents, my dad didn't speak to me for a week," she told USA Weekend. Apparently, he hated the design but later warmed to it because, um, "at least it's guns".

Elsewhere on her arms and hands there's a music note, arrow, the word "Tumbleweed", a cross and a giant heart with "M"s on either side, and on her feet there's a paw print heart, feather and the word "Wild".