#388 - Martina McBride on Why "Independence Day" Wasn't No.1 Even Though She Called Radio Stations To Fight For It + Being In A Rock Band + Dropping Out Of College After One Semester + Reveals Her Secret to 35 Years of Marriage + The Joke Loretta Lynn Made Inducting Her to The Opry - Bobbycast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
I just didn't get it, not until I think years later,
and when somebody said something I was like, oh my god.
I was just like, yeah, the penetrators will penetrate you
with our music. Episode three eighty eight Martina McBride, Well,
what a good good job, Mike, I know you worked
on this one for a while. Yeah, super cool. I've

(00:25):
never spent a whole lot of time talking with Martina.
I've talked to her occasionally, like we're somewhere at the
same place or music, but I never just sat with her.
I don't think she I've ever interviewed her. I've never
met her, never even seen her till this, So you
didn't even if she was real. Nah, it's awesome. So
at Martina McBride, I you're gonna follow her on Instagram
and TikTok. I mean, there's just so much shit, all

(00:49):
these number ones. Obviously you're gonna walk through some of them. Yeah.
Nineteen ninety five, Wild Angels nineteen ninety seven, A Broken
Wing nineteen ninety seven, Wrong Again nineteen ninety nine, I

(01:11):
Love You two thousand and one, Blessed two thousand and three.
This one's for the girls. What's crazy. It's like her
biggest songs weren't number one. Yeah, like if you talk
about Concrete Angel or Independence Day, like, those songs are

(01:33):
still played today and they weren't number one at the time.
So just her songs that weren't number one were massive,
So super cool. You can go check her out on
the road Martina McBride dot com. She's in Louisiana, Missisippi, Alabama, Kentucky,
all coming up May through June four CMA Vocalists of
the Year Awards three consecutively. She became Remember the Opery
in nineteen ninety five, sold over twenty three million albums,

(01:56):
and just super cool to have her come over and
talk for an hour. I don't know, I liked it
and you've been killing it. But we had a great
Chase Rice episode and then a great Martina McBride episode
and good ones. Yeah we're on a two streak too.
I don't know, I just forget who was third. That
was awesome too, But I just forget Haley Witters. Oh yeah,
the Haley one was good too, All right, enjoy Martina McBride.

(02:17):
So a couple of things and if you want to
wear those, you can. You don't have to. We may
play a song or something. Okay, but you don't. You
definitely don't have to a couple of things. I was
talking to my wife, she's a massive fan of yours,
and she was like someone on like her fifth grade
talent show saying, concrete Angel fifth grade. Wow, that's what
I said, And she said she was singing a lot

(02:38):
of your songs. She goes, you know, someone in a
fifth grade talent show. They didn't really know what it meant.
They just liked the song, so they got up and
sang Concrete Angel, and nobody really told the girl it
was a very serious song, which again, that is a
very serious song. But there's a kid singing in a
talent show thinking it's like a happy song. That would
be a peculiar situation if you really know what the

(03:01):
song is about, like to see a kid or anybody
or just somebody's screaming. I don't know what half the
songs are I sing along too, right, So when you
have a song like that, do you have to treat
it extra sensitively and performance even as well because it
is and at least in my mind, a lot of
other folks who've seen the video, who know the song,
do you have to treat it a certain way as

(03:21):
well whenever you perform it. Yeah, well, it's interesting. First
of all, you said that about the child singing it,
because it's really super popular with little kids, and I
think that they don't understand completely what it's about. But
I think they they it's about a child, you know,
So it's some part of them relates to it and
is empowered by it, I guess. But yeah, when I'm

(03:44):
singing that song, it's I don't do it live in
the show very much anymore. But this is kind of
like not a downer, but you know what I mean,
it's like very serious. So and when I was recording it,
when I chose it, I was I went back and forth.
I think I listened to it for the album before

(04:04):
and then finally just said, I have to record this song.
It's so good. But yeah, you have it's a there's
a sensitivity to it, for sure, you know you kind
of I try not to look into the audience because
if I see somebody emotional, I get emotional, so you know.
But yeah, there's a sensitivity to those kind of songs.
When you perform them, you have to have that. I
would also think, and this is there's a theory. You
can hit me and tell me I'm wrong if you've

(04:26):
performed that song ten thousand times or something that I
do over and over and over again. Although I know
the impact of the meaning, if you do it a
whole lot, it just starts to be a part of
a process and that you'd have to read because there
are times there have been like news stories, but you
have to reach check yourself and go, Okay, this is

(04:46):
the one time somebody's going to see me do this.
I can't There can't be any snickers or anything right, right,
even though I've done it ten thousand times, And I'm like,
you gotta treat this as serious you possibly can, because
if somebody that's just seeing you do it once, you
gotta do it like they feel a about the song. Yeah,
there's a responsibility there. I will say that after I
have to check in every once in a while. I'm

(05:07):
kind of in the process of doing that now, of
really going through all of the lyrics and really start
because I have two months off from the road, and
my part of my process this two months off is
really going to be reconnecting with those lyrics again. Because
You're right, it does get to be not just a performance,
but like you know, you really have to check in

(05:27):
and make sure that you understand the seriousness of the lyric,
even if it's a happy song, you know what I mean?
So like that too, say yeah, yeah, where it's if
you just do it something over and over and regardless
of what it is, it just becomes part of the process.
And I have to do it too, you know, even
with the happy That's a great point. We do a
segment on our show that we've done for like fifteen years.
It's all about positivity, and I have to remember because

(05:49):
sometimes I hate doing this segment because I've just done
it so many times. Yeah, and we get all this
research back and it's like number one testing, number one,
and I have to go, you know what, some people
are only hearing this twice a week, right, and I
need to approach it like it's the only time they're
going to hear this, and I need to feel great
about it. But yeah, I want you to to do it
so many times? Why because I didn't know that. Why

(06:10):
the process with the song? You know, you didn't choose
it and then you chose it later, Like what were
you bouncing between? I just think the heaviness of it.
I think I can't remember chronologically where that song came
in my body of work, but I feel like probably
after some I'd probably had a few heavy songs before that,
you know, I had Independence Day, Broken Wing and So

(06:33):
and Loves the Only House and just some things, and
I think that I just thought, Wow, this is maybe
heavier than any of those because it's about it well,
I guess Independence Days about a child too, but you know,
it's it's definitely hard hitting and very honest, and there's
no kind of skating around it with the lyric. You know,
it's really just it's real hard, It's it's real and

(06:56):
it's real life for some people. And so I just
kind of thought, but I don't know, man, I do
that sometimes with songs I'm going to Love you through.
It was the same way. I just kind of hesitated
for a minute. I thought, is how is how is
this gonna be? Like? Is anybody really want to sit
through this? And then like a set list of like

(07:18):
or a record or what are you thinking to what
on the record? Got it? You know? And I just
but at the end of the day, I just thought
to myself, I have to you know, it just then
it just becomes sort of you have to listen to
your gut and I'm like, I have to record this song,
and and it was released as a single of course
and was a hit. So it's like that is a
different I think we have a different landscape, you know. Now,

(07:41):
I don't know if Concrete Angel was released in twenty
twenty three, if it would ever get played on the radio.
I don't know, because I think now authenticity wins. It
doesn't even have to be the sonically the best song anymore,
as long as like people believe that it's real, even
if it's real stupid, if it's presented real stupid. But
I think it is, so I don't think it would
be a hit. I think it would be a hit
now we right, the lands gave us so different and

(08:05):
I do think the honesty of it still holds true
to today because sometimes we'll play it. I don't pick
a lot of the music that we're playing because we're
doing national show, but it'll come on occasionally three or
four of your songs and I'm like, Dane, this song
still hits like it still has. Yeah, you're watching all
the movie or an old TV show like Mash will
come on and I'm like, you know, it didn't quite

(08:26):
hold up, but I can see why then it was good. Yeah, yeah,
But what some of the especially Concrete Angel Independence Day,
you kind of get the same feeling like like, oh,
like that's it. Did you ever worry about maybe worries
not the word having so many serious songs that you
then would become the series, the person who sang all
the serious songs like typecast even I don't know if

(08:47):
consciously that was a thought process. I don't know if
that if I kind of you know, interpreted it that way,
but I think that was. Yeah, maybe that's part of
the hesitation of recording another one of those kind of songs.
I never thought about you until you started to list
them all off together because I know your body work
just listening to it through my life. Never once did

(09:08):
I go, you know, Martina, she does all those serious
songs really but it's right, But that's consumer versus the
person who's living it every single day. Whenever you're doing
your set, now, like what's the biggest pop when, when, when,
what song starts? What notes hit? And everybody knows this
is it, this is the loudest, but for sure broken
Wing and Independence Day, but this one is for the

(09:29):
girls gets really good response. It's it's just such a
lift in the show, you know. I think we do
it right after Loves the Only House, and it's just
this that guitar dan huff guitar riff starts and everybody's
you know, I always say, you know, this is for
all my girls out there, and everybody just stands up
and sings along, and it's a real high high point
in the show. I would stand up a thing along too,

(09:49):
and you'd be like, you're not a girl. But I,
you know, like that's tough. I'm here. I love it,
So I'm going, that's so funny you say that, because
I always say I look out there every night and
there's inevitably like the biggest man, as burly as guy,
just standing up and singing at the top of his
lung and I'm like, I love you. That would be
except without the manly and burly part. But I would
be up there singing at the top of my lungs.

(10:09):
I was talking to a friend earlier today. We were
up at the radio studio, the other one and I said, Hey, Martinez,
gonna come by, and I expected her to say, because
she went wow, she like lit up a little bit.
I thought she would be like, wow, I love this song.
She went right to your cookbooks really yeah, and she
was like, I love Do you have two? Okay? She said,
I love I don't know which one. And that was

(10:32):
the first thing she thought about whenever I said your
name was was your ventures into cooking. And so how
much time do you spend with that now, even recreationally?
Do you still cook and love to cook every day?
Really as much as I can every day. If I'm
home off the road for only like three days, I'm

(10:52):
and somebody wants to invite us out to dinner, or
I'm like kind of bummed because I'm like, oh, that's
one night I don't get to cook. Love to cook,
I love it. And it's so I'm so lucky, you know,
that I've found another passion. Some people only get one
passion in their life and one sort of thing that
they can give, and I'm just really lucky that I
found that. I just love to cook and I love

(11:15):
you know, I'm thinking about writing another cookbook. And it
seems like lately, just lately, like maybe in the past
month or two, it started people who started to really
resonate with that part of me. You know, do you
keep notes on your phone if like, oh this would
be a cool recipe or this would be something cool
to do in a cookbook, the same way you would
if you have a song idea. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And

(11:36):
I'm a paper and pen girl, so I'm I like,
I sit down and write down this chicken poe. Yeah
all right? Like what changes I want to make next time?
But I'll tell you that I don't want to get
off on cooking because it's not everybody's but we have
all the time. But like I started out, first of all,
I'm not a trained cook, so I'm not a chef.
I'm like a home cook and I am still learning

(11:57):
every day. But I started out just following that recipe,
you know what I mean, Like if it says half
a cheeseman of salt, I'm going to put a half
a cheeseman of salt. I'm not varying from any of this.
And then now it's so much more fun because I've
cooked enough and I've had enough experience to really be
able to riff, you know, so I can say, well,
I want to add some tearragon to this chicken salad

(12:18):
or I want to you know, I think that this
would maybe I want to cook it it even prepare
it a different way because I know techniques now a
little bit better. Sounds like you play jazz when you cook,
because you're so comfortable in that key and you can
just kind of you can you can riff it, yeah
on whatever, And that's that's kind of what makes it fun,
is when you can use your instinct and experience to
create and make it your own. And I think so

(12:41):
many people are intimidated by cooking, you know I am
really yeah, and by people who can do it really well,
both because it's an art. And my grandma was a
great cook and she had to learn how to cook
because she grew up and the you know, the depression,
and you know, she had to find things and learn
how to make them halfway decent. Yeah, So she was

(13:02):
great when she actually had real ingredients, and so she
was awesome. My wife is such a good cook that
when I met her, she was like, I'll cook dinner.
And I laughed because I'm like, yeah, you're pretty for
you probably don't cook, and she's like fantastic, But like you,
she now has the ability to go, oh, let's try
a little bit of this, little bit of that because
she was raised cooking. Yeah, that's an intimidating things somebody

(13:25):
who can really like chef it up. Yeah, because it's
an art and science to it as well. And I'm
terrible at it. So that's also why it's intimidating. Like
I've tried, I mean cookies the other night. This isn't
even cooking. This is baking. It's not baking's harder. Well,
let me tell you the story. They're cookies in a pack. Oh,
I literally have to just put them on a plate
for pre heat the oven to like three fifty put

(13:48):
them in. I put them in, I'm looking up through
a lot of keep a light on. I know that
keep the light on. And while they're in there, I
push them and they're still so soft like that we
can't be done. And so she said they done. I said,
I don't know, there's no waste soft. She because how
long I've been there. It's a fifty minutes. She goes,
what was it eight? And I said, yeah, but they're
still soft. There's no way they're done, because no, you
got to pull them out and then they get hard.
I didn't know that, So I'll pull that and they're

(14:09):
all burnt. Oh yeah, yes, I'm just an idiot. Basically
when it comes to cooking, baking's harder. I wasn't really bakings,
just literally just tak you were just plopping thing. I
was just trying to count to eight minutes and pull
them out and that didn't work. So a third cookbook,
huh yeah, what would be the difference? Like what would
you do differently in this one? You know? That's the
hardest part of a cookbook for me is like, first
of all, with anything that I do creatively, I think

(14:33):
this is a process for a lot of people. Sometimes
I have a really concrete idea, like about why would
I win a record to sound like, Sometimes I'm like,
I don't know, I don't know, you know. Like so
for me with a cookbook, it's like where do I start?
Like what everybody always wants an angle, like is it
a vegetarian cookbook? Is it a thirty minutes and let
under on the table cookbook? Is it? You know? So

(14:53):
I'm just kind of stuck as to what where to start.
I mean, for me, like cook cookbooks are like a
collection of people's favorite recipes, which I think that's enough, right,
What does it have to have? Isn't that the angle?
Could that be the angle? Well, so my wife did
some just she moved to her a pandemic. Everybody was
doing whatever just to stay sane. And she's not someone
who likes to be on camera, but she loved to cook,

(15:15):
so eyes it was like, hey, let's do some cooking
videos and I'll hop in some of them with you.
And she did. She did them really well, and she
was like, I don't really like to be on camera,
but well, Food Network called her and they were like,
they were like, would you like dinn't offer a show
or anything, but they're like, what we like to do
is put people who are good on some of these
panel shows and they can like judge. And she was like, ah,
that's really not for me, Like thank you, but you know,

(15:36):
I appreciate that. And so I tried to learn while
she was doing it, you know, while she was cooking.
I tried to learn from her a little bit. But
it was also like what's the theme. She's like, I
don't even know, like what's the theme of this video?
Like everybody wants like a gimmick as to what we're
gonna create Now, we're going to create it. And when
we got married, we got like three hundred recipes from
her family. Wow. That was like there, that's right. I

(15:58):
was like, that's the theme. We already have it written for.
We'll just take credit for it. Yeah, Kylen's family recipes. There,
we go, stamp it there, you can mail it off.
You were out doing the judge tour, So were you
filling in? Where you part of that because I know
there were some changes once the death happened, or were

(16:18):
you already on that tour? I was already on the tour,
so they asked me back in the summer. Well, I
don't know. I guess we toured in the fall, so
in the summer to come on every show and do
forty five minutes like a full set, like a full
set before before every show, and then they were going
to have well then it was gonna be one known
in Naomi. And then when Naomi passed, they restructured and

(16:40):
had still wanted me to be on every show, thank goodness,
and then had several other women fill in. So there
was Kelsey Ballerini actually Judge, Trisha Yearwood, Brandy Carlisle, Tanya Tucker,
I'm forgetting someone. Faith was on a show and so,
you know, so I got to Yeah, I got to

(17:01):
be on every show. The story of Tanya Tucker and
your dad like talking to you. Yeah, because you grew
up a Tanya Tucker fan. Yeah, I think like most anybody,
I grew up in rural Arkansas, so you almost had
to be Yeah, so what is the story? I know
you were in a family band for a while, and
so was that passed down through you that tanned the
Tanya Tucker fandom? You know? Was your dad your mom fans? Yeah,

(17:23):
you know, I was. My dad had a cover band
that played on the weekends and so we would just
play like whatever was on the radio. So I sang
in the band. I sang Texas when I you know
when I die, I may not go to heaven Texas
when I die, and a couple of her other songs.
And I went one of my first concerts actually was well,
I went. I think my first concert might have been
Alabama with my parents, but then I went to see

(17:44):
We went to see Tanya Tucker in this little town
in Kansas, about thirty miles from where I grew up.
And um, so I my mom passed three years ago,
so I called my dad every night since that. And
so I was on Taniya asked me to come over
to her bust after one of the shows just a
couple weeks ago, and so I went over there and

(18:05):
we were visiting. She's playing me music. It was really
really awesome, and I said I have to go because
I have to call my dad, and she goes, well,
let's call him, call him up. I'd love to talk
to your dad. And it was so sweet for you, like, Dad,
or did you say, I don't know? How do you
set it up? I think I just said, hey Dad,
I've got you know, And then she just jumped in.

(18:26):
She's like, hey Dad, it's Dane. That's awesome. Hank Ty
the Bobby Cast. We'll be right back. Welcome back to
the Bobby Cast. What's Sharon Kansas Light? Um. There's about
one hundred and forty people that live there. It's very rural.
It's about ninety miles from Wichita, which is the biggest

(18:46):
city in Kansas. And it's just like like like dirt streets,
no stop lights. There's a couple of maybe three churches.
There's no grocery store, there are no restaurant. Gotta be
a dollar store though, No, really, no, No, it's tiny. Wow,
because I'm from a town of seven hundred and we
just got a dollar store there you go, and then

(19:08):
it turned into two dollar stores. Wow, not a two
dollars store, but two dollars stores that now compete for
that seven hundred people. Wow. So you had no how
many traffic lights? None stop signs? Yeah? I too. We
didn't have as in dirt streets. There was there's a
couple of there's a couple of paved streets, but mostly
the side streets are all dirt streets. What about the school?

(19:28):
What did you have, like Sharon elementary, we had elementary
through high school and then like I had ten people
in my graduating class, that is small. I thought forty.
I had forty, and I was, wow, that's a whole
different level. We had thirty eight. The year I graduated,
we had thirty eight students in the whole high school,
thought student body? Did they combine classes? Ever? No, there

(19:50):
were ten people. It was ten. Class after me was
five kids. And the year my brother graduated he's two
years younger than me, they shut down the school and consolidated,
which really was just the end of really the end
of the town because there were no more team sports
really in that town, and there were, I don't know,
the high school was really the hub of the whole town.

(20:10):
So so the band that you were in with your
your dad, your family band was it called the Shifters?
And so was he a musician when he was younger?
Did he ever try, like I'm gonna give this the
real try to make it as an artist or was
he always just someone who loved it recreationally and got
pretty good at it. Yeah? I think so. I mean
he was he was a farmer as well, and a woodworker,
built houses and things like that, and he like entered

(20:34):
some contests when he was a kid, but just never
really thought of actually like picking up and moving to Nashville.
Is it because nobody else did it? So he didn't
know it was a real thing. I don't know, because
that was nobody else I knew did it either. But
it was a whole different, you know, generation, But like
I don't know why. I mean, I think he was
really really happy playing in that local band. It was

(20:56):
kind of a big deal. We were like, you know,
regionally respected, and we worked a lot and I think that,
you know, that was that was good for him, And
I mean that was probably good enough for him. How
was he when it came to you doing your own thing?
Support wise? Very supportive. My parents were both very supportive.
They always said, you know, we didn't come from a

(21:17):
lot of like college graduates, so it was going to
college wasn't really that important? It was you know for me.
I think everybody we just always assumed that I would
sing in some capacity. And they always said when I
when I decided to move to Nashville, my husband and
I decided to move to Nashville. We'd just gotten married
about a year before that, um or two years. My

(21:39):
parents were always like, look, somebody's got to make it right.
Like literally, maybe tomorrow there's going to be a new
artist that gets signed and makes a record. Why couldn't
it be you? If you get in the right place
at the right time, and you work really hard, why not?
Why not you? And I was like, yeah, so I
think you know, probably like you when you have when
you have when you grew up with something that you

(22:01):
it's just kind of part of you. You have a confidence,
you know, especially when you're young. If a confidence that
I could probably do this little naive, little confidence. Yeah,
it's a real lethal mix it. Yeah, And I think
you have to see it, Like I think you have
to be able to visualize walk. I'm like, for me,
I always visualize walking up on CMA steps and accepting

(22:22):
an award. You know, I think you have to see it,
otherwise you won't go for it, especially if there's no
one around you that can tell you that it can
be a reality. I mean, a mountain Pine, Arkansas, nobody left,
we worked at the mill, or you worked in Hot Springs.
That was it. And so there was never anybody that
was like, this is a reality, you can actually pursue it.
But at the same point, there was nobody said it.

(22:42):
You couldn't. It was just a TV thing. It was
like fairy tale. Yeah, probably like moving to Nashville. Yeah,
but to have parents that were so optimistic, Yeah, like
what an asset for a kid? Yeah? Oh absolutely. And
you know, also just being able to watch the CMA
Awards or watch he Harror, watch whatever we watched and
see you know, Loretta Lynn and Tanya Tucker and Riba

(23:03):
and all of these amazing women doing that. I mean,
you just saw you saw yourself there, You're like, well
I could do that. I mean she's from Oklahoma, you know,
a little town in Oklahoma, little town in Kentucky. Like
they came from small towns. Why couldn't I do that?
When you were singing as a kid, when did people
start to treat you special, like, oh, you're better than

(23:24):
other kids at that age doing that thing. It's interesting
because you know, I'm very Kansas is very Midwestern and
in a lot of ways, and praise isn't really something
that's bandied about, Like it's not really freely given, so

(23:44):
they think you're going to get an ego or a
big head or something. So like kids are like, I
think I recognize that people recognize that what I did
was good. I was the only kid that did it.
Like everybody else was into sports and things like that,
so but it wasn't nobody was going around going, oh
my god, you're you're you know what I mean? So
I think I probably recognize that it made people pay

(24:06):
attention and made people happy. When I was probably about
seven years old, that is a lot younger than I
thought you were going to say, Ye, could you like
nail pitch? At seven? Yeah? You know, I was a belter,
you know I was, And I didn't have any lessons.
We didn't have like my lessons that were in high school.
The way I learned to sing was from listening to

(24:29):
records and singing along with records like Linda Ronstadt records,
Bonnie Rate records, Rebo records, um and singing those cover
songs in the band. That was really how I learned
to increase my range and try to match their nuances.
And they're all of it, you know, how long they
held notes, how big the sound was, And so I
forgot your question. But well, just about other kids treating

(24:53):
you different and you at seven being able to hit
just match a pitch at all, but you did. You
just got it from listening. I just got it from listening.
And you know, we we lived way. I didn't live
in the town, the booming town of Sharon, Kansas. I
lived on a farm about ten miles away the suburb
of Sharon. Obviously. Yes, it was like literally ten miles
down or eight miles down a dirt road and then
there's a house. And my grandparents lived a mile down

(25:16):
the road before he got to my house. So it's
very isolated and we my mom didn't drive. So until
we could drive, we were just come home from school.
You're there, like you're not going to run around and
go down to the corner, you know what I mean.
It's just like so my parents always had instruments for
us though piano, guitar. We had little tape recorders that

(25:39):
we would record ourselves messing around on the out, you know,
in the utility room. And my brother, my younger brother.
So that was our entertainment and records. And I can
remember having kids home from school, like my classmates to
play after school or to stale night or whatever, and
we would I would be playing them all these records
and they they just didn't. I found a friend in

(26:00):
high school that was a little older of me that
loved music like I did. But you know, most of
the kids in my school were just not that interested.
It was just music. It was just like background, you know.
And so I would we would sit and listen to
records and they after about thirty minutes, they'd be like,
is this all we're gonna do? Like, let me go
outside and blay. I'm like, yeah, okay. Your music maturation,
I guess jumped quickly because that's what you had a

(26:20):
lot of at the house. Yeah, what did your parents
care what kind of music you listen to? Were the
rules on what you couldn't listen to? Um at twelve, thirteen,
fourteen years old, I don't know if it was rules,
but there was they they My my dad was a
country fan, like he like I somehow my old I
have an older brother and an older sister. My older
brother was into like Credence, clear Water and um, I

(26:44):
don't know, just like really cool rock bands, and my
sister was into pop living Newton John and Casey and
the Sunshine Band whatever it was on the radio, and
so I got those influences from there. But when we
were in the car, it was specifically with my parents
country music. And my mom loved like she loved more
like crooners like um, like Nashville sound type croner. Yeah, No,

(27:06):
like like you know, like Frank Sinatra. We didn't have
any Frank sat Yeah, I got it, got it, like
the rat Pack guy Boubley now yeah. Yeah. And my
dad love he did love Ray Charles, and so we
did have Ray Charles records and Eda James. But then
I got into high school and I got into like
like my first concert that I went to without my parents.

(27:27):
Was Ozzy Osbourne, right, the Blizzard of Oz tour. It's
it was so like rock and roll and was so
exciting to me. And um so some of that music
I would listen to with headphones. Yeah, you finished high school,
you go to college. Now, you mentioned college a minute ago,
because there wasn't a lot of college graduates in your family.
Same here, so it was a whole new world to me. Again,

(27:49):
I'm I'm somewhere. I don't really have anybody to lean
on to go How do I do this? How was
your experience to college short lived? I went to a
community college. I got a UM dollarship for music and
academic and I went there. Okay, so but we like
my kids grew up in Nashville and had all of
this college prep. They've got a college counselor, they've got

(28:10):
all of these people that helped them know what to expect,
help them with the application process, all of that stuff. Okay.
I had the opposite of college prep. I had no
college prep. So I show up, I'm literally so overwhelmed.
I don't know this whole schedule thing, you know, and
how you have to find your classes and it was

(28:31):
just completely overwhelming to me. Plus I was living off campus,
I was singing in a rock band, and I was
working at dairy Queen. I had a boyfriend, so I
had a lot going on that was pulling me in
a lot of directions. But I went one semester and
was just like, I don't know what I'm doing at all.
The fact that you came from such a small school,
and I'll speak from my experience as well, it's more

(28:52):
than just I having college prep as well. It's like
a culture change. Yeah, going from ten kids in a
class too, it doesn't matter our community college aid side
school like that is like moving to New York City
or to Yeah. So it not only was wow, nobody
family has ever been in college before. I'd never been
around so many people, right, Yeah, and it's always all
been on me. But now I'm having to go and
do the same thing. Yeah. And so speaking of your

(29:16):
rock band, The Penetrators, Yeah, yeah, well we're in a room.
Who says, well, okay. In my defense, I was seventeen
years old when I joined that band, and I've lived
a pretty sheltered life and we didn't have the you know,

(29:37):
Internet or anything like that. Three channels on the TV.
One was fuzzy, so like I just didn't get it,
like I'd really not until I think years later then
when somebody said something, I was like, oh my god.
I was just like, yeah, the penetrators will penetrate you
with our music. What role did you have when you

(29:59):
entered the band at first? Were you pure front front man? Yeah,
like that's it. And did they not have a singer
before or we just way better than the one they
already had They had one and she quit or moved
or something, and so yeah, they actually one of the
guys in the band owned worked at a like a

(30:20):
music store that my parents frequented, you know when we'd
go to the big townel Wichita or whatever. So they
actually came down and talked set in our living room
and talked to my parents. They were these were older
you know, well I guess they're probably in their mid
twenties thirties, and said, you know, we want more tea.
Looking back on it, it seems like a blur. I
don't really recognitantly remember like having that. I kind of

(30:40):
remember sitting there going, Okay, these guys want me to
sing in their rock band. I'm going to be a
rock star. I love it, you know. And my parents
were like, well you seem like good, good people, you know,
they kind of gave their blessing. And I spent the
next year and a half riding around in a van
with a hole in the floor, you know, pooling all
of our money together to get two jars of peanut

(31:02):
butter and two loaves of bread, and like that's what
we were going to eat for the week, you know
what I mean. It's like just playing locally but scream
like singing Pat Benatar and Heart and Journey and it
was it was fun. Well, you have to be nourished
if you were, can penetrate properly? Yeah, yeah, I mean
I completely understand have your protein absolutely. You mentioned those

(31:23):
three artists, Like what I was gonna ask, like what
songs do you hear and remind you of that time period,
like if you hear it on the radio or playing
at Walgreens. You mentioned Journey, like don't stop believing anything
like we did anyway you want it? Oh, yeah, good,
anyway you want it? And we did Pat Annatar, we
did uh oh my gosh, the best shot. Hey, I
don't know if we did that one. I did that

(31:43):
live every once in a while now, but we did
Promises in the Dark, we did um Fire and Ice.
It's probably a little bit later Pat Benatar, because I
remember when Pat Benatar came out. I was at my
grandmother's I was folding clothes and I was listening to
Casey Kason's Top forty and Heartbreaker came on the radio
and I was like, what is that. I was so

(32:05):
knocked out by that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And then later
I got to do Crossroads with Pat Benatar, which was
and when it all comes back, unbelievable. Was that like
one of the coolest Yeah, for sure for me, if
I get to hang out with people that I loved
as a kid, it's way cooler than somebody that could
be massive, like in celebrity stature. Yeah, but for me

(32:26):
to be able to remember, like John Michael Montgomery right,
like he's been over here and we and to him,
he's just John and loves in Kentucky, drove down listen
to the show. But I'm like, I don't know if
I need to remind you you're John Michael mcgomery. Like
that to me is super cool because as a kid,
listen to a lot. Yeah, and so for you to
be able to do that, that's awesome. It was awesome,
and it was so surreal because I thought to myself, Okay,

(32:49):
never in a million years would I have dreamed that
I would be on stage with Pat Benatar singing her songs.
But then also, I have songs that she's going to
learn and sing. That's so that's even beyond like but no,
I'm it's not lost on me. Like when I was
standing on the stage a couple of weeks ago with
Winona and Tanya Tucker and me, and I'm like an Tanya,

(33:12):
you know, with like put her arm around me, like,
oh my god, what am I doing here? Like, yeah,
it's so crazy. And when you when you kind of
allow yourself to look at it that way, yeah, that's
super cool. The Penetrators, how long do you guys play
before you stopped penetrating? It was pretty short lived. It
seemed like a long time, but I think it was

(33:32):
probably I don't know, because I moved to Which's Hodd
to sing in another band five nights a week at
a club when I was probably eighteen, so maybe eight
months a year at eighteen? Did you kind of have
it figured out somehow? Someway you were going to sing, like,
oh yeah, did you know you would go to Nashville
eventually or was it let's just see where it takes me. No.

(33:54):
I always dreamed of making records and doing, you know,
doing the big thing, but I couldn't at that point
in my life eighteen nineteen twenty, really settle on country music.
I was kind of rebet. I was kind of like
singing all kinds of music. So I was singing with
this cover band. I was singing everything from Marita Franklin
to Whitney Houston to Madonna to you know, just whatever

(34:16):
was on the radio at the time, plus some classics
like that. And I love that too. So I was like,
I don't know if I'm really ready to go and
do country music full time. And I had an aha moment.
I had to quit singing for a while because I
was I was like waiting tables and singing in clubs
five nights a week, and I started to get like
some vocal fatigue and that they did a scope and said,
you know, you don't have nodules, but they're starting. It's

(34:39):
not looking good. You should probably take some time off
from singing. So I did and in the meantime. Of course,
I couldn't just completely take out sings, so I started
singing harmony vocals in this country band, these two brothers
called the Feller Brothers that played locally, so I'd go
and sit in and sing harmony. And then I started
singing with my dad's band a little bit again, and

(35:00):
we did a battle of the bands, which is so weird.
We never did that the entire time I was growing up.
Your dad, me and my dad in that band. Yeah,
And it was at a club and it was in Wichita,
and we did this battle of the bands, and something
clicked for me, like a light bulb went off, and
I said, I said. One of the DJs that was
judging the contest actually said to me, I don't know

(35:22):
what you're going to do with your singing, because I
know you're singing a lot of other stuff, but I
hope you decided to sing country music, because you know
that would be really great. And I that comment coupled
with the experience of singing that music again and realizing
how important the lyrics were, how important the singer is,
it just felt like home to me. I said to

(35:45):
my mom. She was there. She ran the soundboard actually
for the band, and I said, I think I've made
a decision. I'm going to move to Nashville and pursue
a career in country music. And I told my I asked,
you know, didn't tell my husband, Well kind of, maybe
I kind of did. I think I said I want
to move to Nashville. And he had a local sound
company that was doing you know, local sound and touring
a little bit regionally. Um, And he was like, all right,

(36:08):
let's go, and he moved his entire sound company. We
didn't know. We knew John Kay from Steppenwolf because John
had worked with him and toured with him doing monitors, um,
but we really didn't know anybody, and we talk about
naive like I would go. I knew I had to
find songs, so I'd go to these publishing companies and
walk up down walk up and down music row and
knock on the door and say I'm a singer and

(36:29):
I want to get a record deal. Can you play
me some songs that I can records for demos? And
they're like, um, sure, come on in. Like it was
so odd that they were probably slightly welcoming but confused. Yeah,
like this is really not how it works. But okay,
you know right, wow, So okay, were you married? You
were married at the time, Yeah, you and your husband,
so how long he'd been married? Therefore we moved. We

(36:51):
got married in May of nineteen eighty eight, and we
moved here January of nineteen ninety. That's a that's a
pretty adventurous first year and a half. Yeah, so you
get here, you don't know anybody, You're walking up and down.
How did you even known music row was a thing? Though? Well,
we ran into We came down before we moved and
made a demo and actually we went in to see

(37:13):
this guy at a publishing company that John Kay had known,
so it's kind of like a friend of a friend,
and sat down with him and played him a demo
that we had made back in Kansas, and he said,
that's not good. That's not going to cut it. Like,
you know, that's not good enough. You need to find real,
real musicians. It was recording a warehouse. It was like, really, echoy,
He's like, you need to find a studio records. And
he gave us a list of names of people that

(37:35):
maybe could help us do that, studio musicians, and John
made a couple of calls, and I think the third
person he called was a bass player named Mike Chapman,
who said, yeah, I can. I got a friend, Lonnie Wilson,
who's a drummer played on sons on my records. Do
you know Lonnie, I know who is so great? And
he said, he's got a studio in his like reck

(37:55):
room or garage or whatever. How about tonight put a
little band together. You can come out Because we were
only in town for like three days. And I went
out there and we recorded, Um, I don't need a
couple of original songs that one of the one of
the musicians had said here, you can record these songs.
And I was like, I like these songs and took
it back to the guy the next day and he said, yeah,
that's good enough. That's that's a real demo, right, so

(38:18):
um so yeah, it was. It was just it was
just like meant to be. I guess what sounds very
divine in that the battle of bands happens, whether you
had your awha moment where somebody happened to be there
and go, hey, I would like to give you affirmation
that what you're doing here is the right thing. Like
all those little particles came together, and then you knew

(38:42):
somebody that knew somebody, and that person first of all
not only helped let's do it tonight, but it's also
like still that same game. He's still in your life. Yeah, yeah,
I mean all of that's not coincidental, right, but pretty
cool that when the dominoes fell, we aren't afraid to
kind of go with them, because that's also brave. Yeah,

(39:04):
you know to here you are, You're I don't know
how how old you at this time twenty two? Okay,
I'll make a demo with guests musicians here. How did
you feel singing with experts? Did that? Because again they're
the bad they're they're doing studio work. You gotta be
really good to do that kind of stuff. Yeah, did
you think about that at all? Are you just like
I can saying, let's go, I don't remember I journal,

(39:26):
I have to look up, I gotta go. I'm say
I'm going to go back through and read all of
my journals because your perception of things and how it
really happened are different. But um, I think I was
probably just nervous and blown away and kind of like,
but let's do this. You know, it's kind of quite
equal parts of because because you know, I was in
my element musically but out of my element situationally. You know.

(39:47):
So I don't know, you come back with that demo,
do you when you move here, do you start passing
it around? Are you duplicating it? Or are you like, Okay,
this will get me into another room where I can
then record even more or our songs. Yeah. We I
think we ended up borrowing some money to move here,
and we set up this was like a two song demo.

(40:09):
So the song the next demo that we made was
the one where the songwriter said, here record these songs,
and um, we went to we went to Fireside I think,
and recorded the tracks for like five songs, which I
just found that demo the other day, by the way,
and um, then we were Then we went to the
Music Mill, which was it was a big studio here

(40:31):
at the time, and recorded the vocals and then we
so we pitched that around to every record company. Got
turned down by everybody. Why, I don't know. They just said,
we're not looking it's not what we're looking for. Standard answer,
it ain't for us. Yeah, And then I made a
second demo, This is all all within about a year
year and a half, and um John was out as
production manager for garth At that he'd got that job

(40:54):
in the meantime, and so I made it. We made
a second demo, and I Mike Chapman, the original bass
player guy, said you know you need to do somebody
had told me at a publishing company size singing demos.
They said, we think we hear that OURCA is looking
to sign a female artist, and I was like, okay.
So Mike Chapman said, you need to put your demo

(41:15):
in an envelope and you need to write they don't
just take stuff off the street, which I didn't know.
You got to write on their requested material and put
a phone number on it. And I was like all right.
So I went down to Kinko's and I got this
bright purple envelope and wrote I think John actually wrote
requested material Martina McBride and a phone number. And about
three weeks later we got a phone call from Josh Leo,

(41:36):
the head of A and R at the label who
and they wanted to see a showcase, and we heard
through the grapevine there was like me and two or
three other girls. So we put together a band. We
went to ASA clubs, we did a showcase, and they
came back that night and said, come in tomorrow and
you've got a record deal. Why all that that advice
of just write requested material on there so they'll think
that they actually were the ones who wanted this, that

(41:58):
that act that paid off. Obviously it was you who closed.
But sometimes you can have all the talent in the world,
but if you don't have a way to get that
talent to where it needs to go, it's a tree
fallen in the woods. Yeah, that is so crazy. He's like,
just write requested material and they'll just believe they wanted
it and that they were the ones. We're in control
the whole time. Yeah, and that's it worked. And you know,

(42:21):
on my I think my fortieth birthday, Randy Talmas, the
head of A and R, gave me that envelope. He'd
saved it all those years and he framed it and
gave it to me and now I think it's in
my Hall of Fame exhibits. So it's yeah, it's it's wild,
you know. I mean, I just think that some things
are meant to be and if you can meet it,
you know, if you have enough enough determination and sort

(42:41):
of passion and perseverance to meet it where it is,
you know, then it's then it, like you said, the
dominos start to fall, Yeah, and it's okay to fall
with him. We interrupt this interview to bring you a
message from our sponsor. This is the Bobby Cast. So
you've been married thirty five or so years almost so,

(43:04):
got married for the first time about a year ago.
Never been married, was never engaged, was never in a
serious anything. Ever, She's the first person I ever told
that I loved, because she was the first person I loved. Right,
So I'm a little stunted in that part of my
life because I was just so dedicated to my career
and met her and it's been a year, year, a
year and a half or so. What is there is?

(43:26):
I know there's no universal key. You can't give me
a key to the city and I open every door
with it. What is it? What's what's the secret that's
not that secret that it's just right in front of me.
I think it's determination and deciding. You kind of decide
I'm I'm gonna stick. I mean, unless there's abuse or
you know, if it's just really not healthy. That's a

(43:46):
whole different thing, right, But like, if it's healthy and
you found your person who wants to grow with you
and encourages you and you makes you laugh every day
and has a sense of adventure and all some of
the really important things, then you just decide we're in this.
And there's going to be times when you know, maybe
you go, oh my god, what have I done? You

(44:07):
know what I mean for him and me? But you
go that passes, it passes, or you talk about it,
or maybe it was just a mood or a season,
and then you just you know, you then you start
to have all these shared experiences and I don't know,
I think you honestly, I think you just decide to
be dedicated to it if it's a good relationship. Whenever

(44:28):
your success really started to grow, and as a new
artist that has a bit of momentum, you're gone. A
lot people think new artists are just making tons of money,
and new artists are not grinding harder than anybody. Yeah,
making no money. How was that for the relationship with
you and your husband? Was that a really hard time
or was he able to take what he does and

(44:50):
take that along a little bit of both, so he
was my sound engineer on the road, so he did.
We did travel together and we still do that. Really
may I think made things easier than if it would
have been a different situation because we get to share
everything together. We've kind of grown through this together. And
but when we were first get when I first got

(45:13):
a record deal, he tells the story of how, you know,
he was kind of like my manager for lack of
not really, but you know what I mean, he was
like the biggest he wrote on the envelope. He went
and dropped it off. He was like a big supporter.
And so you know, we go do this thing. Ourca
used to have this thing during country radio seminar that
was like a boat show. So he went on this
General Jackson boat and all of the radio people were

(45:34):
there and it was like a showcase, like you did
your new material or whatever. So the first time I
went on there, my promo guy, my radio guy, came
and got me and said, I want to take you
run and introduce you to some people. And John says,
it's like he just like you just left with the
real people, you know what I mean, and left and
he was kind of left standing there. And also a

(45:58):
lot of people weren't. He had to go through a
lot of things where until people get to know him
and respect him and not see him as that the
husband that was going to be in the way, or
you know, all of those stereotypes that people have. So
it was I would say it was harder for him
than me. But you know, once people spend any time
with him and recognize his talent and his passion and

(46:19):
his heart, you know then that that came around nineteen
ninety three, you get inducted into the Grand ol Opry.
You mentioned Lauretta in earlier, she's the one who does it.
What do you remember about that night? It was part
of a television special. It's like an anniversary of the opry.
And Loretta is so funny. She came, she came to

(46:40):
do the rehearsal and they gave you. They gave me
a plaque and she said, well, during rehearsal, she said,
is this is this what I'm supposed to give you?
This is what you get for joining the opry? And
I said, yeah, I guess though, and so she said
she kind of laughed, and during the ceremony she said,
welcome to the opera, honey, this is what you get.

(47:04):
That's super cool that it was her and she's the
one like just first want anything with her. Yeah, but
she's the one inducting you into the greatest country music
space in the history of the world, the Grand Ole Opry.
Like what a special memory. Did you know that she
was going to be inducting you before like rehearsals with it,
because sometimes you know, they the invite us a surprise.

(47:27):
Was that a surprise to you? Yeah, but they didn't
do it like they did. They didn't just show up
and surprise you at performance. I went to lunch with
the head of the opera and he asked me at lunch,
and and then and then I got to I got
to invite. I got to ask who I wanted to
induct me. So you chose, all right, okay, man. Being
told at lunch by someone who an executive is like
being proposed on the phone. It was like, I mean,

(47:49):
you're still getting married and that's awesome, but you didn't
even get on a knee. Yeah. I don't think they
did it like that back then. Now I love how
they do it now where they I got to be
that person for Charlie Daniels, I got to ask him
to join the opera and he didn't know you were there.
You guys kept it completely secret. That's that's the greatest.
Those videos where people are surprised. Just dude, I would
say the history, because you're right. They didn't do it

(48:11):
like that twenty five years ago. I think like twenty
years they started doing it a little bit. But those
videos where people get surprised and they're awesome only second
to whenever somebody for the military comes home and surprises
are kids. Man, those are good too. But I don't
like when they show the videos of the dogs with
one eye and Saidarah McLaughlin sings those videos that don't like.
I like what they're doing. I just don't like those videos. Yeah,

(48:33):
Like you know what comes to me? You sign a
record deal ninety one? How fast until you actually take
off and have a hit from the moment you signed
until you're on the radio and you got a number
one song? Yeah it was a second record. I didn't
have a number one song to the third record. Wild
Angels was my first number one. It actually just happened
the other day. I think it was in nineteen ninety six,

(48:55):
So it took six five or six years to really
get to that place. But i'd be four wild angels.
I had Independence Day and I had my first three Independence.
It wasn't a number one song, No, it was number ten.
Maybe Again, I'm just the consumer here the song that
I would know you for the most. Yeah, it wasn't

(49:15):
even a number one song, right, that's a whole story. Like,
you know, we had a lot of resistance at radio
with that song because the subject matter, and I think
it was really because she burned the house down, you know,
it was like she was taking she took action that
just didn't set very well with a lot of radio people. Bizarre.
And so it's funny because I was so passionate about

(49:38):
that song, like it literally changed my life, not only
career wise, but just my awareness and my you know,
wanted to try to help some way, and all the
letters that I got and the people that I talked
to and heard their stories and it was so big
for me. And so my probown guy once again, Mike Wilson,
came to me and he said, I think we're losing
the song. I don't think that it's gonna take it.

(50:00):
And I was like, what, how is this possible? And
he goes, well, there's there's a you know, maybe twenty
stations that won't won't refuse to play it, And I said,
can I talk to them? Can you give me their numbers?
And I want to have a conversation and he was like,
uh sure, I guess, like that's not usually done, but
I guess though, And so I got on the phone

(50:22):
with these guys and I was just like, talk to me, like,
tell me what is it? And some of them would say,
we just don't think it's appropriate that it's on our station.
And I said, and oddly enough, this is right. Independence
Day came out maybe seven weeks before Nicole Brown Simson
was murdered, so all of a sudden it was on

(50:42):
that story was everywhere, and so I was I said,
you know, it's interesting because you're talking about domestic violence
every every day, several times a day on your newscasts, right,
yet you don't feel like this song can can be
listened to or whatever. And I turned a couple few
of them around. There were ten stations that never did
play it, but but I was able to they would

(51:04):
give it a chance. You know. One guy said to
me that video like if I'm sitting with my daughter
and that video comes on. Then I have to talk
to her and explain things, and I'm like, yeah, dude,
that's maybe not a bad idea. So it was interesting.
It's just a different time, you know, is it when
people just think that song is about fourth of July? Yeah,

(51:24):
like on fourth of July you hear the song and no,
it's not the same thing. Guy talking about literal Independence
Day of America. Yeah, because sometimes I'll be like, it's
your July for the playlist and oh all that every year. Yeah, yeah,
Independence Day comes on. I think I think that's what
you were talking about earlier. How sometimes you can just
sing a song for years and not really ever. You
kind of just sing the chorus and you're distracted during

(51:45):
the verses or whatever. Because I think a lot of
people don't know what that song is about still, But
then so many people do, and that's you know, that's
the song that I've heard and thought to myself, somebody
needs to hear this song. This is going to be
the song for somebody. Yeah, And then I get letters
people saying that's what I got in the car and
I heard that song on the radio, and that's I
decided I'm out of here. I've had enough, right, So

(52:08):
it's like that's the power. That's not me. That's the
power of music and the power of a song. Let's
take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor, Wow,
and we're back on the Bobby Cast. Three questions for
you when you finally win for female vocalists, because you
grow up a couple of times in like the late nineties,

(52:29):
but in like maybe two thousand and three or so,
I think you won the first time three in row.
By the way, it was like bam, bam bam. Yeah
it was ninety nine. Is that you won ninety nine? Okay,
So the first time you win and you had always
been able to envision yourself winning, did you have that
moment while it was happening where you're like, I've always
like it while it was happening, like I always could

(52:49):
see this and now it's actually happening. Yeah, kind of. Yeah,
it was like not an out of body experience, but
like it's so okay, I want to say this and
have it come off as an in aconceited way because
I'm not, but and it's not where it's coming from.
But like, like it goes back to what I was
saying before, you kind of have to believe it. You
kind of have to believe it otherwise all of the

(53:10):
rejection and the and the being away from home and
the traveling and the recording and all of the stuff
that you do is you know, you have to believe it.
It's going to pay off in that moment as as
in that moment. So you know, there was a I
don't know, maybe it might have been even four or
five years we were nominated and didn't win, and and
you you just go, what's going to happen. It's gonna happen.

(53:33):
So you still believed it was going to happen. Yeah, Yeah,
when you got that close and didn't, Yeah, because it
was too maybe premature, Like I feel like we One
thing I'm really that was a good feeling for me
was when we finally won. I felt like we'd been
around long enough to kind of deserve it in a way,
and my team, you know, everybody that worked so hard,
they it was rewarding. It was just kind of like, oh,

(53:54):
I'm so glad it didn't happen too fast. I'm so glad.
I feel like I'm kind of in the industry and
that people really wanted me to win, maybe so, but yeah,
there's that moment where you go, well, this is it,
you know, the first times that you didn't win. Are
you like listening for mum and is it deflating or

(54:14):
is it? Do you really feel anytime I ever lose,
I'm not honored to be there? Right, I'm like this sucked? Yeah?
Or are you honored just to be there? And You're
like I'll get him next time? Like it? Like, yeah,
I was kind of like that. I was really because
I would look at the category and the other females
in the category and I was just like wow, wow,
like it's so amazing that I'm even in the same
like these people even know. I remember when I walked
past Alan Jackson one time at an award show, probably

(54:36):
the first CMA Awards I went to, and he's in
the front row and I walked by him and kind of,
you know, I was I'm not I'm kind of an introvert,
really honestly extroverted introvert. So I'm not the kind of
I'm always the kind of person that doesn't want to
go up to somebody and introduce myself. I don't want
to bother them, you know, what I mean. But I
walked past him and I just kind of looked at
him and thought to myself, Oh God, that's Allen Jackson.

(54:58):
And he said I love your stuf, and I was like,
oh my god, Alan Jackson knows who I am and
has heard my music. What in the world you know?
So it's it was like that. I don't think it
came off. I conceded at all. And I'm a big
believer in what I would call a healthy arrogance it
because if I don't have it, if I don't believe
in me so much, nobody else is going to yeah,
like I have to because at times other people are
gonna go yeah or nope, or I don't know, prove it.

(55:21):
But if I don't believe in me and I don't
believe what I'm putting out, it's worth people buying a
ticket if I'm doing a comedy show or spending twenty
minutes with me in the morning or reading a book.
If I don't believe it and I don't believe it's great,
nobody else will. Yeah, that's true. So I have to
be that, and I have no problem. It's just for me.
At times I think I get so insecure that that
healthy arrogance tends to come off the other way because
I'm so insecure that it's like, well, I got a

(55:42):
prove to everybody that I don't take any crap, and
let's let's go. That's my problem. When things started to
really pop for me, I had to There are a
couple times where I had to be like, WHOA, we
got to check yourself. Luckily, I have that awareness. I
was going to say, you're aware of Luckily, yeah, did
when it? Did you ever have to have that talk
with you That's a weird question to ask where you're like, oh,

(56:04):
it's hitting now, like let's make sure we make these
some wise decisions, not because of an arrogance thing or
insecurity really, but you know, I just it took me
a really long time to realize that I had some power.
Like you know, nobody tells you that when you start out.
They're like, there's all kinds of people that want you
to do what they think you should do. And I

(56:24):
mean everybody from video directors to art directors to producers
to everybody executives. And it took I think it was
my husband actually that said, you know you they're kind
of working for you in a way, and I was like,
oh my god. Yeah, so then you kind of you
can kind of assert your power over your creativity and

(56:46):
your own persona and how you see you over yourself,
and that can get pretty heavy. So sometimes I feel like,
especially I don't you know, as a woman, I kind
of had to check that a little bit just to
not alienate everyone. Makes sense, Yeah, absolutely it does. My
final question, it's kind of a two parter. If you
go to your home, inside your home, what is your

(57:07):
favorite professional picture that you have that if somebody could
stumble across it's in a frame somewhere. And what is
your favorite personal picture that you have that somebody could
just stumble across and be like, oh look at this,
Oh you're duck hunting. I don't know what, but give me,
give me both of them. Okay, well, I don't really
have any professional pictures of me framed, but nothing like
you had a singing it's the opery anything at all?
Any not in my house. But a friend of mine,

(57:28):
Nathan Chapman, who I think has been on this show.
I love him. Yeah, saw him. We played the Rheman. Yeah, yeah,
he does. He's an amazing human being. And my favorite
bass player. Really no offense to all the other bass
players out there, but he's so good and he's a
great singer and a musician and I just love him.
I can't see enough good things. But he also, because
he's good at everything he does, is an amazing photographer.

(57:49):
So he called me up a few weeks ago and said,
can I jump on your bus and just I just
want to come out and shoot photos. I was like absolutely,
So he took this photo of me two actually, one
me going up the stairs to the stage and it's
kind of blurring out of focus. It's so iconic, and
then another one of me on stage from the back,
which is my best angle, by the way, and there's

(58:11):
nothing for me to critique or pull pick apart. It's
like it's the back of my head. My hair looks good,
it's fine, and so um that picture. And I haven't
got him framed yet, but he made me huge prints,
like like as big as that when you have here,
So I'm probably gonna frame a couple. That's super cool.
What about personally, My one of my favorite pictures is
my picture with Loretta. I have a couple of snapshots
with her that I have framed um and I just

(58:34):
look at I walked by them and just think, I
just was so lucky to know her, so lucky to
know her, you know. And then of course I've got
kid pictures with my kids when they were from all
all through their whole um, you know, their whole lives.
Got some newborn pictures with all of them. So you know,

(58:56):
that's personally. I guess when I said, when you said
personal picture, and I said me and Loretta, that did
feel like a personal relationship to me. So, but that's
probably more in the professional category. So pictures of me
with my kids would be the second one. So you're
doing shows a few in May and in June. Now
you're taking a break right now though for the most part.
That's what you're saying. Are you going back out in

(59:18):
the fall? Is that announced yet? No? Okay, putting that together,
I don't want to go to tour jail, so I'm
not going to push no, what's up. I just decided
this year to take a little bit more, to try
to tour a little smarter, because we were for the
past since COVID, since since touring started back up again,
we were really hitting it every single weekend like Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,

(59:39):
every single week, maybe with a week off here or there,
and it just gets to be so discombobulating. There's there's
always this first of all, I'm a real homebody. I
love to be at home, but I love to tour.
But there's this reentry that comes every time I coming
off the road. There's about a day where it just
takes a minute to get settled and in the groove,
and and that's just jarring, and nothing ever gets unpacked,

(01:00:00):
and everything's I'm transporting things back and forth. And so
this year I said I kind of wanted to work
in chunks, so we did the Judge tour. We've got
April and May off, no March and April off, and
then we were working in May, June, a little bit
in June July. Then we're going to do a tour
in the summer and the fall for probably fifteen dates,
and then we always do a Christmas tour, so we'll
probably end up doing the same amount of shows, but

(01:00:20):
they're just spread out a little more. It's been a
real treat. I appreciate you coming and just talking with
me about like the stuff that I don't have to
get to hear from you, like I want to know
about Sharon. Yeah, I want to know about your mom
and your dad. And so I hadn't heard this. So
I really appreciate you taking an hour and spending it
and sharing that with me. That's that's the coolest thing
for me to get to do this. So if you
want to get ticket, you go to Martina McBride dot

(01:00:42):
com or go to our socials quite the Instagram following.
I must say, you kind of kill it over there.
I love it. It's fun at Martina McBride. And then
the final final question, do you still love singing? I do? Yeah,
I do. I mean I do, And I think I'm
I'm learning to love it in a different way. Um,

(01:01:04):
for a long time, it was just this thing I did,
and it was just this I sort of had complete
control over it. I don't want to say I took
it for granted. But you know, now I'm older, I've
gone through a couple of vocal issues which I've been resolving,
and I appreciate it more and I think I'm more
connected to it in a in a in a different way.

(01:01:24):
And I think the next few years I'm going to
enjoy it more than ever. Well, thank you for your time.
This has been a real treat for me. Um, I
guess that's it, right, Mike, all the stats and stuff
we read before you got here. I'm glad you did
you know what I was here. Yeah, Well, we didn't
want you to get too cocky, you know, So all right,
Martina mcgride, Everybody, I loved this episode of The Bobby Cast.
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#388 - Martina McBride on Why "Independence Day" Wasn't No.1 Even Though She Called Radio Stations To Fight For It + Being In A Rock Band + Dropping Out Of College After One Semester + Reveals Her Secret to 35 Years of Marriage + The Joke Loretta Lynn Made Inducting Her to The Opry

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Bobby Bones

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