Do not ask Miranda Lambert about Gwen Stefani
Miranda Lambert and Gwen Stefani Getty Images
Miranda Lambert refused to do press to promote her post-Blake Shelton divorce album “The Weight of These Wings” — because she knew she’d be asked about Shelton’s relationship with Gwen Stefani.
“I came into [manager] Marion [Kraft’s] office and said, ‘I’m not speaking to anyone until they hear this record,’” Lambert, 34, told HITS Daily Double. “It was going to be hell, and I’d already been through hell,” she explained. “It was hell putting it on paper, putting my words on paper. So I didn’t want to rehash. I’d finally gotten to a place where I wasn’t sad anymore … It would’ve set up some expectation that couldn’t be met. I was very publicly going through this thing, and there wasn’t an explanation to be given.”
Shelton, 42, and Lambert filed for divorce in July 2015. By September, Shelton had taken up with fellow “Voice” coach Stefani, with whom he’s essentially been on a PDA tour ever since.
When Lambert caved and broke her no-press vow, it had the most predictable possible outcome.
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“I got on the phone for the first interview. First question was, ‘How do you feel about Gwen?’ I hung up,” she said. “I told Marion, ‘I just can’t do this.’ What was in the music was real, and I wanted people to get it from that. Take from it what they would. Then if I needed to talk, I would. But I haven’t really until now.”
She explained that the themes on her record reflected who she was at that moment in time, but admitted she can’t stay that same person forever.
“I am who I am. I am honest about being flawed. That’s all I can be, you know? I cuss. I drink. I get divorced and get my heart broken. I break hearts. I can’t do or be that anymore, or it’ll drive me crazy. I won’t be good anymore,” she said. “I felt, maybe, a different kind of fear than any other record. It was really my life’s work and my life’s story. But there was also relief, I was thankful to let the music do what the music does — and to allow myself that.”
A source previously told Page Six of Lambert’s deliberate post-split silence, “She only wanted to do TV performances. She made them turn all of it down. She said, ‘Gwen’s and Blake’s albums didn’t sell, and all they did was do press.’ She’s trying to go Beyoncé and let the music do the talking.”
It looks like it worked: “The Weight of These Wings” was certified platinum in July 2017, while Stefani’s “This Is What the Truth Feels Like” and Shelton’s “If I’m Honest” only went gold.
