Story Behind the Song: Miranda Lambert, ‘If I Was a Cowboy’

Miranda Lambert is longing for life in the wild West in “If I Was a Cowboy”: “If I was a cowboy, I’d be wild and free / Rollin’ around these towns like tumbleweeds … If I was a cowboy, I’d be the queen,” she sings in the chorus.

Lambert co-wrote “If I Was a Cowboy” with Jesse Frasure, after the two met while creating a remix of her song “Tequila Does.” (As a DJ, Frasure — also a well-known songwriter — goes by Telemitry.) Below, she shares the story behind the song, in her own words.

I wrote this song with my new-found friend Jesse Frasure. It was our first write together, actually, and we had a blast. We went out to the West in our heads, and I had to use all my favorite little quirky cowgirl terms — like “hairpin trigger,” for instance — so I’m really, really excited about this song. It makes me bring out my inner cowgirl …

You know, it’s funny: He’s a Detroit boy, and I’m an East Texan, but somehow we wrote a song about the wild West together, so it’s pretty cool.