The former MMA fighter and Miss United States 2012 has her sights set on a country music career.
And the hits just keep on coming from Whitney Miller, the former Miss Texas, MMA fighter, kickboxing commentator, and Miss United States 2012. She’s been elevating her profile in the world of country music with a string of attention-grabbing and altogether captivating singles, and popping up everywhere from People.com to New Music Weekly.
And today we have her latest release, “Nobody,” a sharply witty and wise number in which she sounds a decidedly skeptical note as her significant other insists that, oh no, he’s not cheating, he wouldn’t dream of doing that to her. Yeah, right.
Making it in music “is the one thing that I’ve always wanted to do my entire life,” Whitney told us during a recent phone conversation. “Probably when I was 10 years old, I knew I wanted to do that. Did I know that I would have to figure out how to make money doing it? No. I'm learning that to this day still.
“But really, at the end of the day, I just wanted to chase what made me happy. And if I could combine being able to put food on the table and live the life that I wanted to live, doing the thing that made me happy and the thing that I was passionate about — that’s already a win for me. I’ve done these other things in my life, from beauty pageants to professional athlete, where I did make a living doing those things. And yet, I felt something was still missing. And so I just knew I had to chase this, regardless if it came with riches or it didn’t come with riches. I just knew that I had to go out and try it, and just get the answer for myself. I didn’t want to live in the world of what-ifs.”
Here are some other highlights from our conversation with Whitney Miller.
Cowboys & Indians: We really enjoyed your new song. But here’s the thing: While listening intently to the lyrics, all we could think of is, “Why would any man be fool enough to cheat on a woman trained in mixed martial artistry?”
Whitney Miller: [Laughs] That’s funny. I’ve actually never been asked that question before. But I feel like sometimes it doesn’t matter where you’re from or what you look like or what your background is — it’s up to the person if they want to make the right choices and do their own thing in the way that you feel is the moral way of doing things. So I’m not sure, but if it were me, I would say it’s not a good idea for a man to do that.
C&I: It’s like a conversation we had with Miranda Lambert years ago, when she went through a series of songs where she was shooting ex-boyfriends or pouring gasoline on them and stuff. We asked, “Miranda, do you have lot trouble getting dates?” And she laughed. On the other hand, you balanced things out with your previous single, “15 Minutes of Fame,” where you sort of shrug it off and tell the gal who’s been cavorting with your man, “Look, let’s just sit down and have a drink, because this guy isn’t worth our tangling.”
Whitney: I think that’s normal. I mean, in today’s society, we hear about relationships that kind of go down in flames regardless. Sometimes you guys just weren’t meant for each other. But a lot of other times, we hear it’s about this deceitful thing, and it’s very unfortunate. I’ve been there. I can’t even think of one person or couple who hasn’t been affected by that, whether it’s their own relationship or other people that they know outside of the relationship.
So I think it’s really like “15 Minutes of Fame” for me. Instead of having the competition between the man and the woman, it was more so like, “Hey, we can sit down and have this conversation and be real about this. We don’t have to hate each other through this because all of us are complacent in this. So how can we sit down and have a conversation and see where we're really at?” “15 Minutes of Fame” was just kind of a cheeky and sassy little way of saying that to somebody.
C&I: Do you ever consider that, as you build your musical career, you have a slightly easier time of it than you might have just twenty years ago, because there’s so much social media, and so many other ways to reach the public. Like, Hank Williams wasn’t able to make many music videos. And Patsy Cline could never have a podcast, or go on TikTok or whatever.
Whitney: Yeah, it’s a super interesting question. It’s something I do ask myself. But on the other hand, I can think back to my idols and say, “Oh, they must have had it easier, because they never knew what you’d need to post online, or who’s going to like it online — and maybe it’s going to work, and maybe it’s not going to work. We have so many different areas that I feel like we have to be experts in now, as opposed to just dropping into the music and the feeling, and who we are as musicians and artists.
We all of a sudden have to be content creators, and we have to be marketing experts. We have to be all of these things — which to me, to be honest, is extremely overwhelming. And there are days that I’m like, “Screw social media. Just let me do what I want to do.” But I don’t know. I feel like each of us has had our own struggles throughout [building and sustaining a career]. We are now in a place where the technology that we have access to can be really helpful and beneficial. But to be honest, at the same time, sometimes I just wish all of that would go away, and we can just play the music that we wanted to play, and have the people say they like it or not.
C&I: Finally, your new single drops this week. Do we have an album to look forward to?
Whitney: It is in the works. We’re trying to figure out exactly what I’m going to do right now. I’ve been thinking, you know what? Maybe I’ll just do singles every four weeks and stress myself out that way. But I really think that there’s going to be an album, or at least a double-sided EP, coming at the end of summer. That’s my goal. And if that doesn’t happen — then a lot more music every four weeks. At least there’ll be that.