Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram and Jon Randall’s ‘Ghost’ Exorcises an Ex [Listen]
Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram and Jon Randall's "Ghost" is a musical exorcism of sorts. All cried out and with "10,000 angels" on her side, Lambert is ready to leave an former love behind for good.
She's already "burned your Levi's and your pearl-snap shirts" and "buried our love in a deep, dark hole," and keeps the comparisons to a death going as she sings, "I replaced the headboard with a chiseled stone / Here lies the meanest man I've ever known." Lambert calls the ex "a poet," but notes, "You're just a shell of a man that I used to hold."
"I sure loved you, but I let you go," she confesses, "and now you're just a ghost ... and I ain't afraid of ghosts."
During a conversation with Taste of Country, Lambert and Randall shared that they and Ingram co-wrote "Ghost" -- from The Marfa Tapes, out Friday (May 7) -- during their second trip to Marfa, Texas, in 2017 or 2018. During a recent Austin City Limits taping, Lambert shared that the song is about a man from her past and noted, "There's been some men in my life that have driven me to drink a little more."
Randall explains that the trio kept writing verses to "Ghost," but they couldn't figure out the hook until Lambert offered up, "I ain't afraid of ghosts."
"And Jack jumps up and starts jumping up and down and running around the campfire and going 'Woo-hoo!' crazy," Randall recalls, laughing. "It was awesome."
For those looking for the real-life inspiration, Lambert married fellow country star Blake Shelton in May of 2011, and the divorced in July of 2015. She began dating singer-songwriter Anderson East that fall, but they split up in early 2018.
Shortly thereafter, Lambert was linked to Turnpike Troubadours frontman Evan Felker, who had filed for divorce from his wife that February, while on tour with Lambert. Lambert and Felker never confirmed their relationship, but in August of 2018, Lambert shared in an interview that she was currently single.
That fall, during a television performance in New York City, Lambert met New York police officer Brendan McLoughlan, whom she'd marry only a few months later, in January of 2019. She revealed their marriage just after Valentine's Day 2019.