Talent, dreams and determination are an intoxicating little
cocktail. It's a recipe that has served to propel a lithesome Georgia
blonde from local honky tonks to the world's most prestigious stages.
For Trisha Yearwood, there was never any other path but music.
Sitting in a Nashville studio listening to mixes of her Big
Machine Records debut, "Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love," it is
obvious Yearwood is living the dream and loving every minute of it. With
three Grammys, three Country Music Association honors, and 19 top ten
singles to her credit, including such career-defining hits as "She's in
Love With the Boy," "Perfect Love," and "How Do I Live," it might be
tempting to rest on her considerable laurels, but that's not in
Yearwood's nature.
After all, a career in music has been Yearwood's goal since she was
five-years-old. "Most little kids ask Santa Claus for a doll or a bike
for Christmas. I was asking for a tape recorder because I wanted to hear
my voice on tape. I have tapes of me singing when I was five or six.
When I die I'm sure somebody will find them, but not until then," she
says with a laugh.
Yearwood remembers getting a copy of Carole King's classic "Tapestry"
album as a Christmas gift and recalls that vividly as a defining moment.
Somewhere she began summoning the courage to pursue her dream. "When you
are that age, especially in a small town where nobody does this for a
living, people sort of say, 'Oh that's cute,'" the Monticello, Georgia
native says.
In her small community, declaring she wanted to be a country singer
was tantamount to wanting to become the president of the United States.
It seemed a lofty dream with little chance of reality, but Yearwood
remained undaunted. "Some people at five or six-yeas-old already know
what they want to be, and I did. That was the beginning and the desire
to do it just got stronger and stronger."
Like most hopeful young artists, Yearwood began singing around her
hometown, and though she became a big fish in that small pond, deep
inside she wondered if she really had the goods to succeed. She found
her validation in a little bar in Macon, Georgia. "It was a talent night
and I was 16 and not old enough to go into a bar," she recalls, "but if
you won, you got $50 and you got to come back on Friday night and sing
with the house band. I talked to my parents and I said, 'You guys go
with me and we'll do it.' I won! I got to go in and sing that Friday
night with the band and that $50 check is still hanging on my bulletin
board in Georgia."
Still in her teens, Yearwood talked her parents into a vacation in
Nashville and a visit to the Grand Ole Opry. Driving down Music Row her
dream became palpable. "Just seeing those buildings and knowing there
were people making records in there and writing songs, it was exciting,"
she says. "I knew I just had to get back here. I remember praying about
it and just asking God 'If this is not the path, if I'm supposed to do
something else, then just please take this desire away,' because there
was this painful desire to do it. I had no clue how to go about it, but
that strong desire never went away, so I just felt like it was what I
was supposed to do."
After graduating from Belmont University, and serving a stint as a
tour guide at the Country Music Hall of Fame, Yearwood landed a job as
the receptionist for Mary Tyler Moore's MTM Records. It was there she
first met Big Machine Records president Scott Borchetta, who was working
in promotion. "Watching people on a daily basis live your dream, I
thought I really have to get off my behind here and make something
happen or I'm going answer the phones for the rest of my life," she
recalls.
She started singing demos, and earned a reputation for her solid work
ethic, engaging personality and phenomenal voice. Songwriter Kent Blazy
frequently used Yearwood on his demos and it was in his attic studio
that she first met Garth Brooks. "He booked us to sing a duet demo," she
recalls. "We were singing on one mic and it felt like we'd sung together
forever. That day Garth called Bob Doyle, his manager, and said 'I've
heard her. I just heard the best singer.' But it wasn't like he was
Garth Brooks. He was this guy who had just signed with Capitol Records
and had finished his first album, but hadn't had a single out yet."
Brooks introduced her to his producer, Allen Reynolds, who introduced
her to producer Garth Fundis. Soon after, Yearwood did a showcase and
landed a deal with MCA Records. "My first showcase we did was the night
that Tony Brown said, 'Let's make a record,'" she remembers. "I'd been
in Nashville for five years at that point, but when it happened, it
happened fast. Fundis had a song called 'She's In Love With The Boy'
sitting in his drawer in his office. He had it in that drawer for
several years and just hadn't found the right place for it and it ended
up being for me."
"She's in Love with the Boy" topped the Billboard country singles
chart in August 1991. Her self-titled debut album has been certified
double platinum and of the 10 albums that followed, all have been
certified gold and six have been certified platinum. "Songbook: A
Collection of Hits" has achieved quadruple platinum status. Yearwood has
won three Grammy Awards; including best country female vocal performance
for "How Do I Live." She's a two-time winner of the Country Music
Association's female vocalist award, and has also netted the Academy of
Country Music's top female vocalist honor. Inducted into the Grand Ole
Opry in 1999, Yearwood has won kudos for her recurring role on the TV
series JAG as a Navy forensic specialist.
After more than 15 years on the MCA roster, Yearwood exited to sign
with Big Machine Records. "Signing with Scott seemed really natural for
me," she says of reuniting with Borchetta, a friend since the MTM days
who also played a major role in her success at MCA. "They are very, very
focused and they are very excited about what I'm doing. A lot of the
people on this staff are people that I've worked with during the years.
Scott and I have really worked together for 20 years. He was the head of
promotion when 'She's In Love With The Boy' came out on MCA."
Having found her new label home, Yearwood entered the studio with
longtime friend and producer Garth Fundis to record her 12th album. She
says the word that immediately springs to mind when she's thinking of
the new project is energy. "It's usually really easy to find ballads,
but when it comes to up tempos, I'm really lucky if I find two or three
that I really like. This time, we cut eight songs in two days and I
think we had two ballads out of all of that. I'm really excited because
it's like a live show to me. I love ballads and that's my bread and
butter, but I'm really enjoying the energy of this record."
Such gems have always bee a staple of Yearwood's artistry. "I always
thought my biggest hits have been happy accidents. I didn't know 'She's
In Love With The Boy' was going to be that big. I didn't know 'How Do I
Live' was going to be that big and those allow me to do some of the
other songs that are maybe a little more left-of-center," she says. "I
always called it the Emmylou factor. I was always checking my integrity
level and saying, 'Okay would Emmy sing this? Could I pass her on the
street if I sang this song?'
"I think I was actually a lot more serious in the beginning and
finally Garth Fundis said, 'You have to lighten up a little bit.
Everything doesn't have to be so deep. You can have some fun and
nobody's going to think you've lost your artistic integrity.' I think
we've had more fun on the later albums because I have lightened up a
little bit. I can sing the gut-wrenching stuff, but I can have fun too.
I think I'm able to sing some happier songs with sincerity in a way that
I never did, not that I wasn't happy before, just not this level of
happy. I can actually put a little more into those kind of songs."
Yes, Trisha Yearwood is happy these days. There's a light in her
smile and buoyancy in her tone that's undeniable and absolutely
infectious. "It still amazes me that I make a living doing what I love
to do," she says. "I don't ever feel like it is work. I feel really
grateful and blessed to get to do what I love. I love, love, love to
sing."
