Miranda Lambert is extremely skilled at writing songs about what she knows. She had so much content written that her latest project, The Weight of These Wings, ended up being a double album, with 24 songs total.
Each song tells a story that she may or may not have lived, but one song stands out because of its emotional meaning and because it gets to Lambert every time she performs it. “Tin Man” is a song that references the iconic character from Wizard of Oz who does not have a heart. She sings about how lucky he is because without a heart, he cannot feel how painful heartbreak is.
Because of how emotional the song is, Lambert is on the verge of tears, if not crying, every time she performs it on the road. We were able to see her perform it at the recent ACM Awards, where she was set to perform her single “We Should Be Friends”, but changed her song at the last minute.
For the first time, she is opening up about what inspired the vulnerable song.
“Whatever influenced you the most, at whatever time in your life, somewhere or another comes out in your art. The Tin Man. I guess, going through a lot of times where I felt empty, I understood a whole new meaning, I mean, how many times have we seen The Wizard Of Oz, but it’s something that world shares…everyone knows what the Tin Man represents–cold, and empty, and loneliness, and heartless…and it just opened my eyes to it even more going through pain myself, you know, sort of an epiphany,”she said according to Sounds Like Nashville.
Her epiphany resulted in one of the best songs we’ve heard this year. Watch her performance of “Tin Man” at the ACM Awards below.