It's hard to imagine Miranda Lambert becoming a household name --a longstanding status that earned her the 2022 ACM Entertainer of the Year award and shelves-full of other trophies-- without her salt-of-the-earth song selection or her personal take on country fashion. Yet in a typical tale for women in most facets of the music industry, she felt pressure early in her career to change those elements that set her apart from peers.
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In a clip shared by People from Friday's (May 5) episode of CNN's Who's Talking to Chris Wallace?, Lambert gets candid about past attempts to limit her creative control over her sound and look.
"There was a risk of people trying to dress me in a way that I didn't want to dress or change my sound, and I just wasn't going to go for that, even really young," she shared, referencing experiences she first faced as a teenager.
Lambert stood her ground in part because she views country music as being about more than marketability.
"I just kind of knew. It's not about that," she explained. "It's about what I have to say, because I knew I had some really great messages I wanted to share with the world and I wanted that to be through song and not through, you know, a crop top."
As Lambert's established an image on her own terms, she's been more open to heed some --but not all-- industry advice.
"There were some moments where I was being pushed in directions that I just wasn't comfortable," she said. "So I stood my ground, but as I've gotten older and more into the industry, I've kind of relaxed in that."
Lambert views such changes less as concessions and more as a way to "[push] some boundaries."