Miranda Lambert: The Song That Hit Her ‘Like A Brick’
Miranda Lambert has been writing songs all her adult life, and she even considers her songs and albums as her way of journaling and telling her life story. One of her biggest songs is one she did not write herself, but she wishes she had.
When Vulture asked her what song she wished she had written, without a pause, she answered, “A hundred percent ‘House That Built Me.’ That song hit me like a brick-like; a train ran over me when I heard that song for the first time. It was a piano demo with Tom Douglas singing it, just piano and a male voice. I was like, ‘How do they know? That’s my story.’ They knew because it’s everybody’s story, and that’s why that song is what it is.”
She added, “I’m so thankful for that song. I sing it every night, and I watch people cry. I cry once a tour, at least, especially if I’m playing in Dallas because my family’s there. I think any songwriter that you ask right now they have that on their top-ten list of songs they wish they’d written. It’s just so vivid, and parts of it are part of all of our childhood. But my guitar player for so long, who I lost this year, Scotty Wray, the first time he heard it, I was saying, ‘Isn’t this just everyone’s story?’ He goes, ‘No. I wish I had that house. I wish that was my story.’ I’d never thought about it like that. There’s a whole different meaning when you listen to it from someone that didn’t have that. It made me cry when he said that. I think that’s the power of ‘The House That Built Me.’ It brings out so much emotion.”
Lambert also told Vulture what one of the songs she thought was best for a breakup. She offered, “If you’re pissed, then there’s a lot. I mean, I can’t tell you how many people, girls, come up to me and say, ‘Your ‘Kerosene’ record got me through a terrible breakup.’ I mean, ‘Mama’s Broken Heart’ is the staple I would pick if I was pissed and wanted to break stuff and get drunk and be mad at my ex.”
That song did cause a bit of trouble for Miranda in her shows. She explained, “I, for a while, did this set where I would end with a fiery one and then go down and do a couple ballads, like ‘House That Built Me and ‘Dark Bars.’ I had to switch it because I would do ‘Mama’s’ before ‘House That Built Me,’ and always girls would start fighting in the front row, and then they’d still be fighting through my ballad. And I’m like, All right, we’re going to have to put ‘House That Built Me’ somewhere else because they don’t get over it quick enough.”
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