In a new interview with Texas Monthly, Miranda Lambert reflected on her successful 24-year career in country music and what it took to establish a name for herself. The three-time Grammy Award winner said it was “a longer road” for her as a woman in the male-dominated Texas country music scene. Booking agents declined to give her gigs, telling her parents, “Well, we don’t hire girls. Girls don’t draw.” The 40-year-old Lambert is appreciative of where her career is at, having just released her 10th studio album, Postcards From Texas, which reached No. 8 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart.

Though she can’t help but compare her road to the career journeys of her male contemporaries. “There’s been some highs, and then there’s been some knock-down, drag-out battles that I didn’t win, that my songs just couldn’t win,” Lambert says. “Certainly, for male artists, it’s just a different path. I’ll watch it, and sometimes I’m like, ‘Damn, that happened quick.’’” (People)