‘American Idol’ Runner-up Turned Country Star Reveals the Advice Miranda Lambert Gave Her During a Chance Bathroom Encounter

Lauren Alaina got some great advice in an unexpected place. During an appearance on Taste of Country Nights, the country singer revealed that she first met Miranda Lambert in a bathroom, where she received some words of wisdom from the superstar.

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“Miranda Lambert I ran into at the BMI awards, in the bathroom,” Alaina said. “It was my first time meeting her and she was like ‘Don’t you let this town or anybody change who you are. You’re a sweet Southern girl and you stay that way.’”

The situation surprised Alaina, because she didn’t realize that Lambert knew who she was.

“It was the sweetest moment ever,” she gushed.

What to Know About Lauren Alaina and Miranda Lambert

Alaina rose to fame as the runner-up on season 10 of American Idol in 2011. Since then, she’s released three LPs, most recently Sitting Pretty on Top of the World in 2021.

Unlocked, Alaina’s 2023 EP, and “Raining Whiskey,” a single she put out in April, are her latest releases.

Alaina is currently busy on the road, playing festivals, opening for artists like Luke Bryan, and performing headlining shows.

As for Lambert, she recently sent fans into a frenzy by launching CountryAndDisco.com, which leads to a countdown clock. Lambert, who recently produced Ella Langley’s sophomore album, Dandelion, also made headlines for her upcoming duet with Kacey Musgraves.

The two women were previously engaged in a long-standing feud. It all started after Lambert got pitched and recorded “Mama’s Broken Heart,” a song Musgraves co-wrote and had intended to release as her first single.

Everything changed in the fall of 2025 when Musgraves came across a video of Lambert riding a horse.

“I thought, ‘Well, at least we have two things in common: horses and divorces,’” Musgraves told Texas Monthly.

Musgraves thought the phrase would make a good song title, one that would be made even better with a feature by Lambert. She decided to text Lambert about her idea. Eventually, the women hopped on a phone call to hash things out.

“We wrote it in one afternoon,” Musgraves said of the track, which will appear on her new album, Middle of Nowhere. “At one point there really was tension there, so it’s not a contrived duet. It’s real. We’re older now and don’t have the energy for dumb  s**t like that. But it was nice that we got to talk about it and kind of therapeutically bury the hatchet.”

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