How Miranda Lambert Saved Her Parents’ Marriage
If not for Miranda Lambert, her parents' relationship would likely have been only a brief part of their lives. Bev and Rick Lambert, in fact, were split up when Bev got pregnant with the future country superstar.
The Lamberts met when Bev was just 15 years old and Rick, by his own admission, "was a pretty wild guy" as a guitarist and undercover cop.
"[He] had long hair, had a pink jacket on. I was like, 'Don Johnson done entered into my life — this is the best day ever!'" Bev Lambert remembers in an episode of rocker Dave Grohl and his mom Virginia's new television series, From Cradle to Stage, referencing the Miami Vice actor.
Bev, she recalls in the show's episode, which focuses on her relationship with her daughter, was visiting her own mother while on her way to cheer camp when she met Rick. He played her some of his songs, and she was "done."
"I was over," Bev says. "It was just done for me."
The Lamberts were married for four years when things began falling apart. Bev was managing a country club and hanging around with upper-class people, "and I got weird and stupid, and he's like, 'I'm out. I don't want to be with you,'" she recalls Rick telling her.
"It was my fault," Bev admits, "but I didn't see it coming, and it was devastating."
Bev, she shares, moved back in with her mother "and completely lost my mind." But before she and Rick officially divorced, she found religion and "straightened out."
Still, the Lamberts moved forward with their divorce plans. The divorce was set to be finalized on Valentine's Day 1983, but when Rick came to Dallas for the proceedings, he stayed with Bev per her request, and, well ...
"About four months later, he got a phone call," Bev says. She was pregnant with Miranda, and Rick "had a change of heart."
Miranda Lambert was born on Nov. 10, 1983.
"So, that's how Miranda saved my marriage," Bev Lambert says. "We would have probably never seen each other again."
The Lamberts later had a second child — a son named Luke — and are still together today. In the From Cradle to Stage episode, Rick Lambert calls his wife "a knockout" back then and still now, and "a good mate."
"She's really hard-headed, and she's demanding," he admits, "and she knows that."
From Cradle to Stage examines the relationships between several musicians and their mothers, through interviews and archival footage. In addition to Lambert and Bev, the series also includes episodes featuring Brandi Carlile and her mom Teresa, Imagine Dragons' Dan Reynolds and his mother Christene Reynolds, hip-hop and R&B artist and producer Pharrell and Dr. Carolyn Williams, rocker Tom Morello and Mary Morello, and Rush's Geddy Lee and Mary Weinrib.
From Cradle to Stage is based on Virginia Hanlon Grohl's 2017 book, also titled From Cradle to Stage: Stories From the Mothers Who Rocked and Raised Rock Stars. Grohl — formerly of Nirvana and now of the Foo Fighters — and his mother hit the road together for the series, interviewing the artists and their mothers at home.
From Cradle to Stage is available to stream on Paramount+, with new episodes rolling out weekly, one at a time. Lambert's episode is set for Thursday (May 20) and Carlile's due out on May 27. Sign up for Paramount+ here.