Miranda Lambert made post-split album ‘The Weight of These Wings’ for her own ‘sanity’

In 2016, following her high-profile split from husband Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert released an album unlike any of her previous recordings. Praised by critics and fans alike, “The Weight of These Wings” was inspired by heartbreak, but as Pitchfork put it, the music was “more focused on moving on and growing up than lashing out or telling all.” It was also extremely long for a country album — and did little to court fans of the singer and guitarist’s wry sense of humor. But as she told an audience this week at the 2020 Country Radio Seminar in Nashville during an onstage chat with a rep from AMG, she almost had no choice but to make the album the way she did. “I needed to make ‘The Weight of These Wings’ for my sanity and my songwriting ability,” Miranda explained, according to Billboard. “It was dramatic. It was 24 songs and most of them were sad. I was a little bit exhausted of always keeping the sassy and headbanging. In my life, I was tired because I was going through something hard. I wanted to be honest. I’ve always been honest.” These days, Miranda seems much happier and more at ease. Last month, she celebrated her one-year wedding anniversary with Brendan McLoughlin, a New York City cop she married in secret in early 2019. And as she told the Radio Seminar audience, she’s as proud as ever to continue making decisions based on her own self-understanding. “I’ve never strayed away from exactly who I am,” she said. “At times it’s not helpful in business for me to just be who I am. That’s the only advice I’ve gotten from my mom. She said, ‘You just need to know who you are and stick with it.'”