Miranda Lambert will release her eighth solo album, Palomino, on April 29, and after more than 15 years of releasing music, she says she feels the freedom to be the artist she truly wants to be.

This has been exemplified in Lambert’s recent releases — from her stripped-down, Grammy-nominated album, The Marfa Tapes, to her upbeat, good-time anthem, “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home),” with Elle King. Lambert reflected on her career in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, adding that she hopes to inspire other female artists to blaze their own unique trail.

“I’ve been lucky enough to have a long career where I can have a little freedom creatively, but it’s still scary,” Lambert tells the publication. “I want people to accept both and not be like, ‘Well, that’s not country! That’s not commercial!’ These are just songs I love, and it doesn’t matter where they fit. I hope that’s opened some doors for women, especially, to go, ‘I can put out whatever I want and sound like whatever I want and look like whatever I want. And if I change my mind, that’s just what I do.’”

The place Lambert has landed in her career hasn’t come without its hurdles, however. The singer also chatted about the struggles she has endured, remarking that she took every hardship in her stride while focusing on staying in the industry for the long haul.

“My goal was longevity,” she shares. “I wanted to be someone who says something important and does it through music, and can stay a long time. I wanted an Emmylou [Harris] career. That’s what I wanted, even though some of the roads were long, because I didn’t pick the right commercial sound or the right outfit or whatever it was at the time that was hot. I didn’t have my first No.1 until my third record, and that was OK with me. It was about establishing something.”

In addition to readying her Palomino album, Lambert will take her show to Las Vegas in her newly-announced Velvet Rodeo: The Las Vegas Residency. The 24-date residency will kick off on Sept. 23 and run through April of 2023 at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood.

Miranda Lambert + Brendan McLoughlin at the 2021 Grammy Awards

Miranda Lambert and husband Brendan McLoughlin walk the red carpet prior to the 2021 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, on Sunday (March 14). The couple of two-plus years appear on a night that the singer is nominated for multiple awards and set to perform her song "Bluebird."

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