Miranda Lambert's spouse, Brendan McLoughlin, experienced culture shock over more than the volume of fried foods served by his mother-in-law when visiting the country star's hometown of Lindale, Texas.
"I took him home. He's a New Yorker, and he was like, 'Why are there so many churches everywhere?!" Lambert told Southern Living's Biscuits & Jam podcast.
Specifically, Smith County, which includes the cities of Tyler and Lindale, has 212 churches of various Christian denominations.
"You know the South. That's just how it is. There's a Baptist church on every corner," Lambert added.
Lambert credits a rural culture that centers on worship for both her musical beginnings and her personal resolve.
"I sang in the youth group, I sang in the choir. My dad played guitar in the church band. It was a big part of what I build my foundation on," she said. "And I think that having that small-town childhood with the living off the land, and survival skills that my dad had instilled, and then our faith as a family — I feel like that really carried me through those first crazy years of getting into the music business.
"It's not easy and you can be pulled in a thousand directions," she continued. "I feel like if I hadn't had that foundation, I could've strayed off in a million other directions and maybe not stayed true to my core."
Per research from 2010, there were a whopping 27,848 churches in Texas. Findings from the study aren't completely in line with regional cliches, though, with New York having the sixth most congregations in the country with 14,110— placing it ahead of such Bible Belt hotbeds as Georgia and Alabama. A 2015 report counted over 4,000 denominal Christian churches in New York City, where McLouglin previously worked as a police officer.
READ MORE: Meet Melissa Peterman: From Barbra Jean on 'Reba' to a Decades-Long Friendship with Reba McEntire
