A Q&A With Skip Hollandsworth

The executive editor on Miranda Lambert hitting it big, her marriage to Blake Shelton, and one of the country star’s most unappreciated assets.

October 2011

Executive editor Skip Hollandsworth

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In the October issue, executive editor Skip Hollandsworth profiles country music star Miranda Lambert, who is known for her spirited lyrics and songs about good-for-nothing men. Here he talks about the Lindale native’s rise to fame, her marriage, and what she’s really like. Here’s the story behind the story.

The magazine published a piece on Miranda Lambert a couple of years ago. Why do another story on her now?
When John Spong last wrote about her for TEXAS MONTHLY, she was making her move to the top. And she was still, frankly, a bit of a curiosity. There was still a question of just how high Miranda could go. We decided to do another story on her largely because that question has been answered: Miranda is now in the top echelon of country music singers, and she could very well go even higher. How high she goes, of course, depends on her new album, Four the Record, which hits stores the first of November. She’s got lots of major interviews and television show appearances lined up, so just about everyone is going to hear about Four the Record. Now the big question is just how many people will go out and buy it. Will there be a big enough hit on that album to set off a Miranda stampede?

Her marriage to Blake Shelton certainly set off a lot of buzz about her.
It sure did. There is talk they are heirs to Faith Hill and Tim McGraw as country’s royal couple. But again, their fame depends on a big hit. Maybe the duet they are singing on her new album, which I talk about in the magazine piece, will be their crossover tune that will rope in people who are not necessarily country music fans.

You probably had some preconceived ideas of what Lambert would be like in person. When you finally met her, were you right on, surprised, or a little shocked?
I loved her openness. Read the first scene in the article, about her letting me watch her wolf down a giant piece of chicken. And how she let me wander around and watch her throw down a drink before she hit the stage. You think Carrie Underwood or Taylor Swift’s handlers would let me watch that? Not for a minute. And let’s be honest: She’s a spark plug, just a heck of a lot of fun to be around, outspoken—sort of like that pretty but feisty girl in high school you always wanted to date but you found just a little intimidating. Blake told me that he thinks a lot of guys secretly have a crush on her, and I think he’s right.

What was the most interesting thing you learned while working on this piece?
It was the story of her youth: the way she got to know the abused women her parents took in back when she was fourteen, and how she sat in the den listening to their stories—and how, so many years later, and even today, that informs the kind of music she writes.

If you could include more in your story, what would it be?
Well, I think I should have written more about one of Miranda’s most unappreciated assets: her ability to write a heartbreaking ballad about loss. As good as she is at writing a revenge song about a cheating man, she’s even better at writing gentle, sorrowful pieces about women who have lost their way. I think her big crossover hit—the one that will really vault her to fame—will be one of those songs.

Anything else about Lambert that you wished you had put in?
Well, it’s a reporter’s dream to get quotes from Miranda, Blake, and her parents. Those people are funny, insightful, poignant, and just so damned interesting. In fact, here is a list of ten quotes from them I wish I had included in the story.

Blake Shelton on their major marital disagreement: “Here’s what always gets my little Miranda pissy—me setting the alarm for 5 a.m. so I can go sit in my deer stand and hunt. She’ll see me setting that alarm and say, ‘Honey, don’t do that. I want you to sleep late with me.’ I say, ‘Miranda, you won’t even know I’m gone, and anyway, I’ll be back before you wake up at noon.’ She says, ‘No, you always wake me up getting out of bed, and I don’t like it.’ And do you think I give in? You’re damn right I don’t. I’m up in the morning and out at that deer blind. And she’s pissed.”

Miranda on their one marital disagreement: “Every day, he likes to tweet something that embarrasses me. There have been a couple of Come to Jesus Meetings between me and him about Twitter, and a couple of times he’s taken it off his phone because he got a little drunk and carried away. He’d get drunk and pop off at someone, like someone who made him mad, and he would say 'balls' all the time when he tweets, and I’m just like, ‘Blake, really? You’re 36. Enough is enough.’”

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