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Often called the Queen of Country Music, Reba McEntire has sold 75 million albums and won three Grammys over her five-decade musical career. She also stars in the sitcom <\/em>Happy\u2019s Place and returns this fall to <\/em>The Voice,<\/em><\/em> both on NBC.<\/em><\/p>\n Singing was the only thing<\/strong> that got me good attention. Anything else might be bad attention or no attention at all\u2014which is horrible, because I\u2019m a show dog. <\/p>\n Mama taught all of us<\/strong> kids how to sing. We didn\u2019t have a radio in the car, so that\u2019s the way we passed the time, learning to sing three-part harmony on the road to the rodeo.<\/p>\n I was always afraid if I<\/strong> didn\u2019t use my gift, God would take it away from me and give it to somebody else.<\/p>\n I grew up on a working cattle ranch<\/strong>, eight thousand acres. Alice, Susie, and I were expected to do the work Pake, our brother, did. The only difference was when we got through with our chores, we had to go and do the women\u2019s chores, help Mama cook and clean up, while Pake got to watch TV.<\/p>\n I\u2019m a female<\/strong>; I know you gotta work harder. There\u2019s no need to bitch and gripe about it. <\/p>\n I like to be approachable<\/strong>, and I like to be not scary. I don\u2019t want to be up on a pedestal and idolized and revered. I want to be a buddy, a friend.<\/p>\n I knew I was funny when I told<\/strong> Mama a joke one time and she laughed. And I went, \u201cI want to do that again!\u201d But I had to wait, because I didn\u2019t want to push my luck. I mean, you work on a cattle ranch, it\u2019s not fun\u2014if you\u2019re over here laughing and hee-hawing and then the cattle take off, you\u2019ve lost half a day of work. It\u2019s not a good idea to be, as Daddy would call it, mess-assing around.<\/p>\n One thing that I learned<\/strong> from the new generations is to loosen up. Their first year out and what they do onstage I couldn\u2019t have done in my tenth year. It\u2019s just confidence. <\/p>\n I think it comes from their parents<\/strong>\u2014\u201cYou can do whatever you want to.\u201d Well, I could be whatever I want to be too, as long as I acted respectably. There was a set of ground rules: You get up there, you have your sparkly outfits on, and you act like a lady. Nowadays, I\u2019m not saying they\u2019re not acting like a lady, but they\u2019re more free. <\/p>\n Today\u2019s country isn\u2019t the kind<\/strong> of country music I grew up with. It used to be cyclical and go from traditional to contemporary. Now it\u2019s traditional to pop, rock \u2019n\u2019 roll, punk rock, whatever you want to call it, genres mixed in with a little bit of country. Some stay, some dip their toe in the shallow end of the pool and then go back to where they\u2019re comfortable, but we learn from them, and hopefully they learn something from us. And I hope they had a good time.<\/p>\n Finding the right songs will<\/strong> always be the most important thing for my career, because I\u2019m not a songwriter. If it\u2019s not on the page, it\u2019s not on the stage, and if it\u2019s not in the song, keep looking.<\/p>\n My manager was my husband<\/strong> from 1989 to 2015. Everybody took care of everything. All I had to do was get up and sing. When that dissolved, all that team went with him, and I was scared to death. I was deserted, abandoned, and left. I threw a fit. And then there they were, my angels, right there beside me. \u201cHey, you\u2019re learning. You didn\u2019t know how much a gallon of milk was, now you do. Now get out there. You can do it. You\u2019re tough. We taught you better.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m very competitive<\/strong>. I get a number-one record, I want another number-one record. I won an award, I want another one. I\u2019ll never forget Miranda Lambert coming up to me when she was nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year after she\u2019d already won it, and I said, \u201cGood luck, Miranda.\u201d She said, \u201cOh, I already won, it\u2019s time for somebody else.\u201d What person lets that come out of their mouth? I was shocked. I thought everybody was just like me.<\/p>\n We always play a game at dinner<\/strong>: What would be your superpower? And I always wanted to twitch my nose and have the dishes done, have my hair fixed.<\/p>\n My boyfriend Rex and I are birders<\/strong>, and we can pretty much tell you what bird is what by sound or look. When you\u2019re looking at these birds, so colorful and beautiful, that, to me, is the face of God.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know how I would get<\/strong> through the day without my faith. It\u2019s there to celebrate with me, and it\u2019s there to help me get back on my feet when something really horrible happens.<\/p>\n Listen more, talk less.<\/strong> You can get everybody else\u2019s opinion, but then you\u2019ve got to go back and do some soul-searching.<\/p>\n If you say you\u2019re going to do<\/strong> something, do it. Tell the truth. Both my parents said that. <\/p>\n What\u2019s changed the most<\/strong> is language, what\u2019s allowed, what\u2019s tolerated. Sexuality too. Now kids know about stuff that we knew about a lot later in life. And maybe that\u2019s good. Knowledge is power if you use it right.<\/p>\n If it all ended today<\/strong>, I wouldn\u2019t have a complaint. <\/p>\n
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