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Before Miranda Lambert\u00a0collected more than 80 major industry awards, before arena tours and platinum albums, she was a teenage girl from Lindale, Texas, standing on flatbed trailers at county rodeos singing the national anthem. Her boots were dusty, the crowds were small, and the cowboys sometimes outnumbered the audience \u2014 but Lambert already knew exactly where she wanted to be.<\/p>\n
Two decades later, when Lambert headlines the Music City Rodeo\u00a0at Bridgestone Arena\u00a0on May 28, it will feel less like a career milestone than a return to her roots.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love a rodeo,\u201d Lambert says. \u201cThose are my people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The three-night event, returning May 28 \u2013 30, marks Nashville\u2019s official Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association rodeo and blends two traditions that have long traveled side by side: country music and the rodeo. Lambert joins Charley Crockett\u00a0and Jon Pardi\u00a0as the 2026 headliners, performing after nights packed with bronc riding, bull riding, team roping, and barrel racing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had an incredible response to our first year, and we knew we wanted to open year two of Music City Rodeo with an artist who truly represents the spirit of country music and the rodeo lifestyle,\u201d says Music City Rodeo co-founder Patrick Humes. \u201cMiranda Lambert was the perfect choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Lambert, the rodeo is more than a booking \u2014 it\u2019s a lifestyle she actively lives. She started mounted shooting with friends in Arizona last year and has been showing Gypsy Vanners for more than a decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to be a cowgirl,\u201d she says. \u201cSo, I decided to grow up and be one.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Her return to the rodeo also arrives during a creatively fearless season of her career. Three-time GRAMMY Award-winning singer-songwriter Lambert launches a bold new chapter May 15 with the infectious new song \u201cCrisco,\u201d marking the first release under her newly announced label partnership with MCA.<\/p>\n
Blending classic country soul with a shimmering \u201970s disco glow, \u201cCrisco\u201d delivers a feel-good anthem driven by lush strings, jangly piano keys, and an irresistible groove, with Lambert leaning into sonic textures she\u2019s long admired but never fully explored \u2014 until now.<\/p>\n
That willingness to evolve has become one of Lambert\u2019s defining traits. Her most recent album,\u00a0Postcards from Texas, became her 10th consecutive Top 10 on Billboard\u2019s Top Country Albums chart, while her duet with Chris Stapleton, \u201cA Song to Sing,\u201d delivered the biggest streaming debut of her career.<\/p>\n
Still, some of Lambert\u2019s biggest passions exist beyond the stage.<\/p>\n
This month, her Lower Broadway Tex-Mex cantina Casa Rosa celebrates its fifth anniversary. When the venue opened in 2021, Lambert became the first female artist to own a bar on Lower Broadway.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just love having a presence there and reminding people the girls are right up there with the boys,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Her Western-inspired fashion line, Idyllwind, carried nationwide through Boot Barn, has also become a thriving extension of her personality and lifestyle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always say it\u2019s barn-to-bar attire,\u201d she says with a laugh.<\/p>\n
And if music is Lambert\u2019s calling, animals remain her heart. Her nonprofit, MuttNation Foundation, founded with her mother, Bev Lambert, has raised more than $13 million supporting animal adoption, shelters, and disaster relief efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cMusic and mutts are the two things I do the most,\u201d Lambert says.<\/p>\n
When the spotlight hits the Bridgestone Arena stage May 28, Lambert won\u2019t just step out as a country superstar. She\u2019ll walk into an arena carrying the same cowgirl spirit she had as a teenager singing at county rodeos in Texas.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s never been just about the ride,\u201d Lambert says. \u201cThose roots are still a huge part of who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n