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By: Jon Gallo

Published: January 19, 2018

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Miranda Lambert, the two-time Grammy Award winner who will perform at Gas South District on Saturday, has reorganized her priorities, which she calls her three “M’s.”

“Music and mutts,” she told Redbook magazine. “That’s pretty much all I live for are those two things.”

What about the third “M”? It used to stand for “men,” at least when she was married to fellow country music star Blake Shelton. But not anymore.

“The last one is Miranda,” she said.

Lambert, 34, will have the spotlight all to herself when she brings her “Livin’ Like Hippies” Tour to Gwinnett. Lambert has emerged as one of country music’s biggest stars, as she’s won 13 Country Music Association awards and her most recent platinum-selling double album, “The Weight of These Wings,” won the Album of the year at last year’s Academy of Country Music Awards.

Still, she doesn’t think her music — or that of any other female artist — is getting the respect it deserves when it come to radio air time.

“Carrie Underwood still struggles to get her songs played on the radio, and that just blows my mind because she’s got a million hits and she’s Carrie Freakin’ Underwood,” Lambert said. “I tell them at the radio stations, ‘Just play one of us; it doesn’t have to be me. Then we all win.’ I’ll fight for it until I can’t no more.”

Lambert will have no shortage of songs to choose from when she takes the stage. Her debut album, “Kerosene,” in 2005 went platinum in the U.S., as it included “Me and Charlie Talking,” “Bring Me Down,” “New Strings” and “Kerosene.” Two years later, her next album, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” produced three hit singles — “Famous in a Small Town,” “Gunpowder & Lead” and “More Like Her.” Her next three albums — “Revolution,” “Four the Record” and “Platinum” featured an array of hits, including “The House That Built Me,” “Heart Like Mine,” “Baggage Claim,” “Fastest Girl in Town,” “Over You,” “All Kinds of Kinds,” “Automatic” and “Vice.”

“Livin’ Like Hippies’ takes its name from lyrics in her song “Highway Vagabond,” which is off “The Weight of These Wings.” Brent Cobb and Jon Pardi, the latter of whom she became a fan of while listening to his music on radio, will open for Lambert in Gwinnett.

“When I lived in Oklahoma, they played him all the time on our Red Dirt stations,” said Lambert, whose “Livin’ Like Hippies” Tour will stop in 23 cities nationwide, she told Rare Country. “That’s sort of how I heard him. I had never met him, really. Now, we’ve met and talked. He’s such a sweet guy. He’s just doing his thing. He seems really fun. I think it’s going to be a great tour.”

Pardi is excited for the opportunity to open for one of the industry’s biggest superstars.

“Miranda is awesome and a great songwriter,” he told Rare Country. “She knows exactly who she is and she knows exactly what she wants to do. She doesn’t take any shit from nobody. She’s a true Texan. As an artist who knows who I am, I totally respect her and all she does, from the singles she releases to the songs she writes I love Miranda. She is a genuine, great artist.”