Miranda Lambert’s Dad Was an Undercover Cop in a Country Band: ‘It Was a Good Way to Meet Drug Dealers’
Singer-songwriter Miranda Lambert made her major label debut in country music in 2005. While Lambert has become a staple in country music, new fans might be curious about the Texas native’s upbringing. It turns out Lambert’s father was a police officer for the Dallas Police Department and also performed country music.
Miranda Lambert’s dad is a former police officer
Lambert was born in 1983 and has a younger brother. Her parents met in the 1970s while her father was working as a police officer.
According to Texas Monthly, Lambert’s father worked in the Dallas Police Department in the “patrol division, then to undercover narcotics, and then homicide.” Lambert’s dad also has a history with country music and was a member of a band named Contraband.
“It was a good way to meet drug dealers and make undercover buys and get them off the streets,” Lambert’s father Rick told Texas Monthly in 2011. “And by the way, it was also a good way to meet Dallas stewardesses.”
Miranda Lambert’s dad did not like when she got a tattoo
Lambert has multiple tattoos, including one of two pistols with angel wings on her forearm. The country singer has spoken about her father’s negative reaction to the tattoo on multiple occasions.
In her song “Heart Like Mine,” Lambert sings, “Daddy cried when he saw my tattoo/ Said he loved me anyway.”
The singer shared more information about how she got the tattoo in an interview with USA Weekend, revealing, “I got it when I was 22 on tour with George Strait… It’s the first thing I ever did without asking my parents. My dad didn’t speak to me for a week.”
During a 2017 interview for The Daily Beast conducted by Meghan McCain, Lambert gave more insight into what her father thought of her tattoo.
“The only reason I regret it is because my dad was pissed. I love it, it’s kind of become my signature, it’s on everything I have, it’s my logo, it’s on all my backdrops—but my dad was upset. He’s kind of old school so he took it personally. But we’ve gotten past it,” Lambert told McCain.
The singer wrote songs with her father
Growing up, Lambert found some musical inspiration from her dad. While she developed the ability to write songs of her own from a young age, she sharpened this skill by making music with her father.
“One day, she walked into my room while I was strumming some chords on my guitar, and she suddenly sang to the melody I was playing, ‘Rain on the window makes me lonely.’ We both came up with some more lines, and in an hour and a half, we had a song about a woman sitting on a bus, devastated by the end of an affair with a married man,” Lambert’s father told Texas Monthly.
He continued, “We played it for Bev, and when Miranda sang, ‘I’m gonna find someplace I can ease my mind and try to heal my wounded pride,’ we both shook our heads. Miranda had this eerie ability to take on someone else’s story and make it her own.”
