Miranda Lambert will perform at CMA Music Festival, June 5-8, 2008, in Downtown Nashville. Photographer: Jack Guy, courtesy of Columbia Nashville. Provided by Country Music Association.
May 27, 2008 — It’s a good thing music has become a worthwhile career for Miranda Lambert, because she didn’t have a backup plan.
When she went to high school in Texas, she was a self-described "horrible student," who was so consumed by music that her grades suffered. The only place she got an A was in choir.
So when it came time to look into college, she chucked that idea and turned music into a fulltime pursuit.
"My college was gettin’ on a motor home that was like a 1985 model and going around the country," she told Dial-Global. "That was my college. People always asked me, ‘Well, what’s your back-up plan?’ A lot of older people always go, ‘You need to go to college.’ I’m like, ‘Why?’ I mean, ‘So I can fail and waste $60,000 of my parents’ money that they don’t have?’ I just knew that it wasn’t for me. I just figure now, if I keep doing this, I’ll have a retirement and my back-up plan is to go be a back-up singer for somebody or be a songwriter and get a mailbox check."
Miranda’s family does include a good student; it just doesn’t happen to be Miranda. Her brother gets straight As at the University of Texas in Austin, where, she says, he’s "excelling hugely."