It’s about time this song gets the recognition it deserves.
If you’ve spent time scrolling through Tiktok lately, you might have came across videos using this lyric:
“If you need me, I’ll be where my reputation don’t precede me”
But what you may not know is that it’s from Miranda Lambert’s 2016 track “Vice”. There are lots of videos to this song of people packing their bags to hit the road, or on horseback, and even Miranda has caught on to these videos herself:
@mirandalambert❤️🩹🌵🐴♬ Vice (Album) – Miranda Lambert
@mirandalambert…hiding in my barn doing the glamorous work 🩵🐴
It’s cool to see that Lambert, one of the legends of country music, is still living out her lyrics all the years later, spending time on her horse farm in Tennessee. But this song isn’t just about being with your horses and doing your own thing, it has a completely deeper meaning about her own flaws and regrets, and the vices that she runs to because of them.
And let me tell y’all, it’s an absolute masterpiece. It was the lead single off her album The Weight of These Wings and was her first release post-divorce with Blake Shelton. It’s a co-write by Miranda with Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne, written phenomenally, with Lambert at her most vulnerable.
“Another vice, another town
Where my past can’t run me down
Another life, another call
Another bed I shouldn’t crawl out of
At 7 AM with shoes in my hand
Said I wouldn’t do it, but I did it again
And I know I’ll be gone tomorrow night
Mm, another vice”
It also earned her Grammy and CMA Award nominations for Best Country Solo Performance and Single of the Year
What’s cool is to see where she is now compared to when she wrote this song. Married to her husband Brendan McLoughlin, a retired NYPD police officer, for 6 years now. She gave The Tennessean some context of her life during that time when she was writing it:
“I wrote this at the exact time of the shit hitting the fan. I think it’s great, though. It’s documented on paper with emotion.”
And thank God for that. She’s in her happy place, and without her trials in 2016, she wouldn’t be where she is now, and we wouldn’t have gotten the ultimate sad country song from it.
The song just barely missed making the Top 10 on the U.S Billboard Country chart before it fizzled out, but maybe now, thanks to TikTok it can get back up there and be the hit it always deserved to be.
And if it doesn’t? I’d just be grateful to hear it on her setlist on her upcoming tour dates:
June 20 // NRG Stadium // Houston, Texas w/ Corey Kent and Koe Wetzel
June 21 // NRG Stadium // Houston, Texas w/ Corey Kent and Koe Wetzel
June 28 // Camp Randall Stadium // Madison, Wis. w/ Ella Langley and Miranda Lambert
July 11 // Hard Rock Stadium // Miami Gardens, Fla. w/ Gavin Adcock and Miranda Lambert
July 12 // Hard Rock Stadium // Miami Gardens, Fla. w/ Gavin Adcock and Brooks & Dunn
July 18 // State Farm Stadium // Glendale, Ariz. w/ Ella Langley and Miranda Lambert
July 19 // State Farm Stadium // Glendale, Ariz. w/ Ella Langley and Brooks & Dunn
July 25 // Lumen Field // Seattle, Wash. w/ Anne Wilson and Miranda Lambert
July 26 // Lumen Field // Seattle, Wash. w/ Anne Wilson and Brooks & Dunn
Aug 1 // Levi’s Stadium // Santa Clara, Calif. w/ Anne Wilson and Miranda Lambert
Aug 2 // Levi’s Stadium // Santa Clara, Calif. w/ Anne Wilson and Brooks & Dunn
Aug 15 // Huntington Bank Field // Cleveland, Ohio w/ Ella Langley and Miranda Lambert
Aug 16 // Huntington Bank Field // Cleveland, Ohio w/ Ella Langley and Thomas Rhett
Aug 22 // Gillette Stadium // Foxborough, Mass. w/ Corey Kent and Miranda Lambert
Aug 23 // Gillette Stadium // Foxborough, Mass. w/ Corey Kent and Miranda Lambert
Sep 4 // Rogers Centre // Toronto, ON w/ Gavin Adcock and Miranda Lambert
Sep 5 // Rogers Centre // Toronto, ON w/ Gavin Adcock and Brooks & Dunn
Sep 12 // Commonwealth Stadium // Edmonton, AB w/ Ella Langley and Miranda Lambert
Sep 13 // Commonwealth Stadium // Edmonton, AB w/ Ella Langley and Brooks & Dunn