Miranda Lambert: 'Blake Shelton Pulls Me Out of My Darkness'

Miranda Lambert relaxes by the pool for the cover of Marie Claire‘s January 2015 issue, on newsstands December 16.

Here is what the 31-year-old country singer had to share with the mag:

On writing and singing her own songs: “Early on, an artist told me, ‘Don’t be yourself. Perform and be someone else. And I thought, ‘That seems like exactly the opposite of what I should be doing.’ Then I had people wanting me to adjust my lyrics to be more appealing to the masses or whatever. I said, ‘No, that’s bullshit.’ I’d rather sell four copies of something that’s real than 4 million copies of something that’s fake.”

On marriage: “I’m not sunshine and roses. Blake‘s the happiest person on the planet. He pulls me out of my darkness… Literally everything is the best about being married.”

On her 20-pound weight loss: “When you have to walk out there in front of thousands of people, it does feel good to know that your shit’s not jiggling. I’m just like anybody else, insecure and scared of looking bad or being criticized. But everybody’s making this big, giant thing about it. It’s way too much focus on women’s bikini photos, and I hate it. Why do we care? I want women to love themselves whatever they’ve got going on.”

For more from Miranda, visit MarieClaire.com!