Before Miranda Lambert collected 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 — but Lambert already knew exactly where she wanted to be.
Two decades later, when Lambert headlines the Music City Rodeo at Bridgestone Arena on May 28, it will feel less like a career milestone than a return to her roots.
“I love a rodeo,” Lambert says. “Those are my people.”
The three-night event, returning May 28 – 30, marks Nashville’s 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 and Jon Pardi as the 2026 headliners, performing after nights packed with bronc riding, bull riding, team roping, and barrel racing.
“We 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,” says Music City Rodeo co-founder Patrick Humes. “Miranda Lambert was the perfect choice.”
For Lambert, the rodeo is more than a booking — it’s 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.
“I’ve always wanted to be a cowgirl,” she says. “So, I decided to grow up and be one.”
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 “Crisco,” marking the first release under her newly announced label partnership with MCA.
Blending classic country soul with a shimmering ’70s disco glow, “Crisco” delivers a feel-good anthem driven by lush strings, jangly piano keys, and an irresistible groove, with Lambert leaning into sonic textures she’s long admired but never fully explored — until now.
That willingness to evolve has become one of Lambert’s defining traits. Her most recent album, Postcards from Texas, became her 10th consecutive Top 10 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, while her duet with Chris Stapleton, “A Song to Sing,” delivered the biggest streaming debut of her career.
Still, some of Lambert’s biggest passions exist beyond the stage.
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.
“I just love having a presence there and reminding people the girls are right up there with the boys,” she says.
Her Western-inspired fashion line, Idyllwind, carried nationwide through Boot Barn, has also become a thriving extension of her personality and lifestyle.
“I always say it’s barn-to-bar attire,” she says with a laugh.
And if music is Lambert’s 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.
“Music and mutts are the two things I do the most,” Lambert says.
When the spotlight hits the Bridgestone Arena stage May 28, Lambert won’t just step out as a country superstar. She’ll walk into an arena carrying the same cowgirl spirit she had as a teenager singing at county rodeos in Texas.
“It’s never been just about the ride,” Lambert says. “Those roots are still a huge part of who I am.”