As Ariana Grande’s single Thank U, Next, topped the US singles chart, supergroup Pistol Annies reached No 1 on the US country chart with their third album, Interstate Gospel. It’s Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley’s highest chart position yet, and shares DNA with Grande’s hit, approaching breakups with a sense of enlightenment. “I like the sound of that,” laughs Lambert. “We get over it quicker: females need a second to fall apart, have a mini nervous breakdown, a smidge of a pity party. Then you hunker down and make the best of it.”
Their recent single, Got My Name Changed Back, is a deadpan post-divorce romp celebrating the ordeal of reclaiming your maiden name, inspired by Lambert’s high-profile divorce from fellow country star Blake Shelton in 2015. The news barely made a ripple in the UK, but imagine the frenzy that would follow the Beckhams splitting and you’re halfway there. Lambert says “that song’s seed was planted at the DMV” when she had to amend her driving licence details after the divorce. “It’s huge to do that: change your name and change it back. Days and weeks of shit.” Monroe nods: that’s why she didn’t take her own husband’s name. “I don’t have an ex-husband,” she says, wincing. “Yet.”
The room is nervy. Maybe it’s the mention of old ghosts, or maybe it’s to be expected given that it’s the afternoon of the Country Music Association awards, where Lambert is the only woman to have won album of the year twice. The Annies are between fittings and rehearsals inside their management’s office on Nashville’s Music Row. As Presley strokes Monroe’s blonde extensions, Lambert perches on the edge of the sofa. The band haven’t celebrated their No 1. “I drank some milk,” Presley says, laughing and pointing at her pregnant belly; her second child is due in January.
When the Annies formed in 2011, Lambert already had multiple platinum albums and Grammy nominations. The biggest gig Presley had played was at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe, with its capacity of 90 people. “None of us ever imagined we’d be in a girl band,” says Lambert. “I didn’t even have girls in my band on the road.” When Monroe played Presley’s music to Lambert they had a “drunken epiphany” and called her. Lambert and Presley had never spoken. “I thought they were high,” Presley recalls. “We were,” says Lambert. “But we meant it.”
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