Miranda Lambert: Women In Country Have To Stick Together

“I really support female artists in any genre, especially country music right now,” Lambert said in an interview Friday. “I’ve taken out girls all tour long and I want to continue to do that because I feel like we need to stick together ‘cause it’s hard.”

Lambert is the only women nominated for entertainer of the year at Sunday’s awards show (CBS, 8 p.m. EDT), pitting her against Garth Brooks, Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line and Jason Aldean. She’s the lead nominee with eight, and her other nominations include album of the year for Platinum and song and single record of the year for “Automatic.”

There are no females nominated for new artist of the year, Lambert is only female artist nominated for single record of the year and her collaboration with Carrie Underwood, “Somethin’ Bad,” is the only female representation in the video of the year category.

“We all have insecurities and I feel like we all know what it takes to be here, so we have to lift each other up,” Lambert said.

The singer talked about the ACMs, writing a song for Reese Witherspoon’s new film and more before she rehearsed at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Associated Press: People say there aren’t enough women on country radio. Why do you think that is?

Lambert: I don’t really know. No. 1, I’m glad to have my spot. I just think that it goes in phases. There’s just a lot of really, really great male artists right now, and it’s good, too. And there’s so many different influences in country right now, too, like hip-hop and rock ‘n’ roll and some blues. So I feel like if you turn on country radio, you will find something you’ll love because it’s so diverse right now. And that’s a great thing.

Have you always had this fiery swag in your music and personality?

I think so. I think also being a Texan – we sort of have that extra fire in us as a breed. I just felt like from day one I had something to say and I wanted to make sure people heard me, and it’s worked. But I’ve definitely calmed down a little bit from 21 to 31.

What advice do you give to young girls who want to be country singers?

Just don’t try to do it too early. Be a high school kid, be a cheerleader, do your thing. … And also, just know who you are; know what you want to say and stick with it throughout.

What advice do you have for your husband, Blake Shelton, who will host the show?

Oh my god. I don’t know. He’s so great at that. I would stress over it for months and months. And he’s just looking at his monologue like yesterday because he’s just so great. But he’s a loose cannon and you never really know what he’s going to say, so I’d be worried. (Laughs.)

You wrote a song for Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara’s upcoming comedy, “Hot Pursuit.” What was that like?

It was different. As a songwriter we write our own stories, you know, and this was already a story; it’s a movie, it has characters. So we sort of played off what the characters are and our take on who they were. … I’m glad I did it. I want to do it again. Reese is so sweet and she texted me and gave me some notes and that helped obviously to go off something because she’s really connected to do the movie. I’m excited about it.

Do you want to act?

I don’t really do acting, you know. I’ve done a little bit – enough to know I’ll stick to what I know. Music is my thing.

You, along with Garth Brooks, Taylor Swift and others will receive the 50th Anniversary Milestone Award on Sunday. How does that feel?

Well it’s crazy. I literally wouldn’t have dreamed of it in a million years that I’m going to be standing there with George (Strait) and Garth and Kenny (Chesney) and Reba (McEntire) and Brooks & Dunn. I don’t really have any clue what I’m actually doing with those people because I feel like I’m still just getting started and I’ve seen them all in concert and they’re all my heroes. So I’m thankful.