“I’m gonna stop right here for a second, I’m sorry,” said Miranda Lambert during a July 15 performance of her Velvet Rodeo residency at Vegas’ Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. Miranda, 39, abruptly stopped singing “Tin Man” mid-song to call out some fans who weren’t paying attention to her on stage. “These girls are worried about their selfie and not listening to the song. It’s pissing me off a little bit,” said Lambert. “I don’t like it. At all. We’re here to hear some country music tonight. I’m singing some country damn music.”
‘I don’t like it – at all. We’re here to hear some country music, and I’m singing some country damn music!’
Miranda stops Tin Man to call out girls who are more concerned with taking selfies than listening to the music 🫡 pic.twitter.com/6BKnUskeZz
— Miranda Lambert Fan (@ranfancentral) July 16, 2023
@justingregg8 Amazing show. 10/10 recommend. This had ☠️ lmaooooo #countrymusic #MirandaLambert
While fans at the theatre applauded Miranda’s decision to shame her fans, others online weren’t so supportive. “The way I’d be so upset! I take selfies to remember the time and place or to just have something to look back on. This was uncalled for,” commented one person on TikTok. “Everyone takes pictures at concerts!” said another. “The way I would walk out. They paid money (I’m sure a lot) to be there, I would be taking all the selfies I could,” said one, while another remarked, “This feels like such a power trip lol.”
“I think people forgot it’s HER concert, her rules,” said one fan while defending Miranda. “Love her and this reaction,” added another, “I was there in the pit and yes, they were doing it the whole time…tin man is tear-jerking. Be quiet, listen to the words.” “I always take one video and put the phone away for the rest of the show. I. paid to watch the show, not my phone,” added another defender. “Okay but it looked like they had a light that was becoming a distraction while they were taking those selfies,” argued one other.
The issue at hand might be the song that Miranda was singing. Her “Tin Man” is a semi-tribute to Kenny Chesney‘s “Tim Man,” one of Miranda’s favorite songs. “This song sort of wrote itself,” she told The Tennessean. “I was a little worried at first about writing another song like that but I told Kenny … I felt the same emotion I feel when I hear that song. I was feeling it myself, and the other two co-writers [Jon Randall and Jack Ingram] were feeling it as well. It comes from the same place, and I guess it inspired it.”
Miranda also spoke to iHeartRadio about how she felt empty like the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz. “Whatever influenced you the most at whatever time of your life, it some way or another comes out in your art. The ‘Tin Man,’ I guess going through a lot of times where I felt pretty empty, I understood a whole new meaning,” she said. “I mean, how many times have we seen The Wizard of Oz? But, something that the world shares is 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. [It was] sort of an epiphany.”