Reba McEntire just dropped a new, live version of her “Trailblazer” song with Lainey Wilson and Miranda Lambert. McEntire surprised the crowd at the inaugural Music City Rodeo, which featured McEntire as one of the headliners, by bringing out her two good friends.

McEntire, Wilson and Lambert debuted “Trailblazer” at the recent ACM Awards. The song was written by Wilson and Lambert, along with Brandy Clark, inspired in large part by McEntire’s career.

“We were like, ‘Okay, we’re going to do a song with Reba — what kind of song do we write?” Lambert recalls to Billboard. “We were calling her on the set [of sitcom Happy’s Place] and trying to figure out, ‘What’s the right message for this trio? What do we really want to say in three minutes?’”

The Story Behind “Trailblazer”

The songwriters were inspired by McEntire when writing “Trailblazer,” but also by other female icons in country music, including Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Pasty Cline and Tammy Wynette, who are all mentioned in the song.

“We wanted to lean in pretty hard to paying tribute to each person,” Lambert says. “We had to do it strategically, though, because we didn’t want it to be so blatant — but more like a secret thing that you would have to listen to it twice.”

Because of Happy’s Place, McEntire was unable to be in the room when the three were writing “Trailblazer.” Still, the Country Music Hall of Fame member says they all wrote the perfect song for her.

“I remember listening to it in the dressing room. I couldn’t find a flaw in it, not a word,” McEntire says. “It was that great. I was very emotional when I heard it.”

It was Wilson who had the idea for “Trailblazer, by thinking about how both women have been so helpful to her, sincer her own career.

“We were just having a conversation about how both [Lambert and McEntire] have influenced me and [about] passing the torch and blazing trails for each other,” Wilson, who also came up with the song’s title, recalls. “Generation after generation, it’s going to continue, but we got to keep blazing those trails for the next one.”

It seems hard to believe, but McEntire had a new career first with “Trailblazer.” The 70-year-old had the highest streaming debut of her career with “Trailblazer.”

Reba McEntire’s Friendship With Lainey Wilson and Miranda Lambert

Wilson is 35 years old, while Lambert is 41. In spite of their age difference, McEntire calls the two women among her closest friends.

“We’re very close,” McEntire tells CMT. “We love each other’s work ethics and our morals, and hanging in there and helping each other. They’re great ladies. I just love them to pieces.”

McEntire not only feels a kinship to Wilson and Lambert. But she also feels a responsiblity to help them, the way others also helped her, decades ago.

“Loretta and Dolly and Tammy and Barbara Mandrell all helped pave the road for me,” McEntire says. “And I thought, ‘Well, it’s my responsibility to do things to help those coming on after me.”

Find “Trailblazer,” and all of McEntire’s music and upcoming shows, at Reba.com.

Photo Credit: ACM / Rich Polk