Reba McEntire‘s new lifestyle book, NOT THAT FANCY: LESSONS ON LIVING, LOVING, EATING AND DUSTING OFF YOUR BOOTS, is available now. The book contains personal stories, photos, lifestyle tips, recipes and so much more.
The Oklahoma native was first signed to a solo record deal with PolyGram/Mercury Records in Nashville in 1975. With a series of single and album releases, it wasn’t until her fifth album did she have her first chart-topper, “Can’t Even Get the Blues.” Up until that moment — and even after — she performed anywhere she could.
“From hearing that first song on the radio, I spent the next seven years traveling around playing anywhere I could living on greasy burgers and corn dogs at truck stops and county fairs from Los Angeles to Boston, seven years of performing at fairs, rodeos and honkytonks, singing over bar brawls and tractor pull competitions and even bull sales; seven years of patience before I had a real hit, ‘Can’t Even Get the Blues,'” Reba recalls in her new book. “That was in January of 1983. Even with that hit, the first time I headlined my own show in 1984, only 800 people showed up. I actually lost money. I had to write a check to get out of town, because I didn’t sell enough tickets. I thought, ‘Welcome to the big time, little girl.’ I sure did appreciate the few who did show up, though. Thank God for that McEntire determination.”
Women in the music business in the music business in the ’70s and ’80s and earlier didn’t really have a say in their career or what songs they would record. However, Reba really started taking control when she heard the song “Can’t Even Get The Blues,” which her producer played for her, but he was going to have her male labelmate, Jacky Ward (“Fools Fall in Love”), record. Reba persevered and the song became her first No. 1 hit.
“I knew the boys in the business were all picking their own songs and producers and running their tours they way they wanted to, why couldn’t I? Then one day my producer Jerry Kennedy played me a song called ‘Can’t Even Get the Blues.’ It was uptempo, sassy and strong, a real departure from the waltzes I’d been recording,” she recalls. “I loved it from the first moment I heard it, but he intended it for Jacky Ward, my fellow labelmate. ‘Why wouldn’t you pitch me a song like that,’ I asked him. ‘You’d record that?’ I said, ‘Heck yeah, I would.’ So, we did. It became the second single on Unlimited, my fifth album, and it went to number-one. It was great to feel like I had a seat at the table for what I wanted my career to be.”
Reba recently spoke to PEOPLE magazine and gave them the recipe for her chocolate chip cookies, which just so happens to be a favorite of her boyfriend, actor Rex Linn. Click here for the article and recipe.
The Country Music Hall of Famer previously co-wrote a 1994 memoir titled Reba: My Story with Tom Carter and also authored a second biography, Comfort From a Country Quilt, in 1999.
You can catch Reba every week as a coach on NBC’s The Voice.
Reba McEntire (proud to be an Okie) OC: …like Oklahoma. :22
“Now I’m going to tell you right now, I’m proud to be an Okie. To me there’s nothing better than sitting on the back porch looking out at the land that goes on for miles of beautiful sunset, and me just sipping on a glass of iced tea or whiskey and Sprite (laughs) with my friends and family. I don’t know what Heaven is gonna look like, but I hope it feels like Oklahoma.”
Reba McEntire (beginning of her career) OC: …McEntire determination. :55
“From hearing that first song on the radio, I spent the next seven years traveling around playing anywhere I could living on greasy burgers and corn dogs at truck stops and county fairs from Los Angeles to Boston, seven years of performing at fairs, rodeos and honkytonks, singing over bar brawls and tractor pull competitions and even bull sales; seven years of patience before I had a real hit, ‘Can’t Even Get the Blues.” That was in January of 1983. Even with that hit, the first time I headlined my own show in 1984, only 800 people showed up. I actually lost money. I had to write a check to get out of town, because I didn’t sell enough tickets. I thought, ‘Welcome to the big time, little girl.’ I sure did appreciate the few who did show up, though. Thank God for that McEntire determination.”
Reba McEntire (A Seat At The Table) OC: …career to be. :47
“I knew the boys in the business were all picking their own songs and producers and running their tours they way they wanted to, why couldn’t I? Then one day my producer Jerry Kennedy played me a song called ‘Can’t Even Get the Blues.’ It was uptempo, sassy and strong, a real departure from the waltzes I’d been recording. I loved it from the first moment I heard it, but he intended it for Jacky Ward, my fellow labelmate. ‘Why wouldn’t you pitch me a song like that,’ I asked him. ‘You’d record that?’ I said, ‘Heck yeah, I would.’ So, we did. It became the second single on Unlimited, my fifth album, and it went to number-one. It was great to feel like I had a seat at the table for what I wanted my career to be.”
