1955-present
Reba McEntire News: “Queen of Country” Releases New Acoustic Album and Book
Country music legend Reba McEntire, 68, has released an acoustic album, Not That Fancy, featuring guest singers Dolly Parton and Brooks & Dunn in correlation with her new book. On shelves on October 10, Not That Fancy: Simple Lessons on Living, Loving, Eating, and Dusting Off Your Boots features an array of personal stories, lifestyle tips, and recipes from the “Queen of Country” herself. “Sometimes you have books like autobiographies that are really diving into stuff,” McEntire said. “This is just a fun book. You can look at it, you can read it front to back.”
Not That Fancy: Simple Lessons on Living, Loving, Eating, and Dusting Off Your Boots
Not That Fancy: Simple Lessons on Living, Loving, Eating, and Dusting Off Your Boots
Who Is Reba McEntire?
Country music star Reba McEntire got her break singing the national anthem at the 1974 rodeo finals. The Grammy-winning artist has recorded more than 30 studio albums, topped the country charts two dozen times, and been named Best Female Vocalist by the Country Music Association four times. Some of her biggest songs include “Fancy,” “Whoever’s in New England,” “Consider Me Gone,” and “Does He Love You.” Her many accomplishments earned her a spot in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2011. Also an actor, McEntire starred on her own sitcom, Reba, for six seasons and has had several movie roles. In 2023, she became a celebrity coach for the current season of the NBC singing competition The Voice.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Reba Nell McEntire
BORN: March 28, 1955
BIRTHPLACE: McAlester, Oklahoma
SPOUSES: Charlie Battles (1976-1987) and Narvel Blackstock (1989-2015)
CHILDREN: Shelby
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aries
Early Life and Musical Background
Reba Nell McEntire was born on March 28, 1955, in McAlester, Oklahoma, to a family of champion steer ropers. While growing up, McEntire and her three siblings—brother Del, known as Pake, and sisters Susie and Alice—spent time traveling to and from their father’s world championship rodeo performances. Their parents, Clark and Jacqueline McEntire, nurtured their children’s musical talent. During their many long car rides, they would pass the time by learning songs and harmonizing.
Eventually, when Reba was in ninth grade, she and her two younger siblings formed the group the Singing McEntires and performed at rodeos. The group later disbanded, but Reba continued to appear as a solo act through her college years.
Country Music Stardom
In 1974, McEntire caught a break when country music star Red Steagall heard her sing at the National Finals Rodeo. The young singer’s national anthem performance impressed Steagall, prompting him to help her record a demo and eventually sign with Mercury Records. Her debut album, Reba McEntire, came out in August 1977.
Throughout the late 1970s, the soon-to-be “Queen of Country” spent several hours in the recording studio, creating and releasing singles. While none of her early songs were major hits, chart success was just around the corner. In 1980, “You Lift Me Up (To Heaven)” cracked the top 10 of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs, ultimately launching her illustrious career.
In the 1980s, McEntire stuck close to her roots in terms of persona, capitalizing on the rowdy rodeo girl theme in photos and onstage. As her powerful vocal stylings matured, her image changed as well, from rough-edged and rural to more polished and mainstream.
Nashville was still largely considered a boys’ town when McEntire was getting her start in the ’70s and ’80s. When later asked how she managed to transcend gender politics so successfully, McEntire responded, “As a woman, you don’t complain, you work twice as hard, and you do your job. You try to outsmart them, you try to outwork them and get there first. You help out, you volunteer, you’re at the front of the line. That’s what I learned from working on the cattle range, and it helped me in the music business.”
McEntire had a smash year in 1986. Her ninth studio album, Whoever’s in New England, became her first to garner a Grammy Award; the title track won Best Female Country Vocal Performance. By all accounts, the success of the album was a product of its unique sound. A blend of McEntire’s more traditional twangy style with a more mainstream pop sound appealed to a wide audience, cementing the artist’s place as country royalty for years to come.
Always a strong businesswoman, the singer understood early on the importance music videos would have for her career. Her first video, for the song “Whoever’s in New England,” artfully told the story of a suburban housewife tortured by the idea of her philandering husband and his trips up north to visit a mistress. Employing well-known actors and directors, the singer took full advantage of this visual medium to showcase the strong narratives of her songwriting, using videos to tell full and compelling stories. In the future, her penchant for drama not only drove record sales, but also fueled an unexpected acting career.
Her success continued with another 1986 album titled What Am I Gonna Do About You. The Country Music Association also named her Entertainer of the Year and, for the third consecutive year, Female Vocalist of the Year. The singer won the category again in 1987.
The momentum didn’t stop there. McEntire went on to churn out hit after hit, some more critically acclaimed than others, but most selling by the millions. In 1990, she released Rumor Has It, an album that eventually sold three million copies, going triple platinum by 1999.
On March 16, 1991, tragedy struck when a charter plane carrying eight members of McEntire’s band crashed. There were no survivors, and the accident left the singer stunned and reeling. McEntire turned back to her music and, out of her grief, came a bleak but immensely popular album, For My Broken Heart, which she dedicated to her deceased bandmates. In the late 1990s, she recorded duets with Brooks & Dunn and Linda Davis, which were fan favorites.
Over the past two decades, McEntire has continued to reign as the “Queen of Country,” collaborating with other country music hitmakers like Kenny Chesney, Trisha Yearwood, and LeAnn Rimes.
McEntire released the albums Room to Breathe in 2003 and Reba: Duets in 2007. Both have earned platinum status, and Duets debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Another chart-topping album followed with 2009’s Keep On Loving You. That same year, McEntire broke a CMA record, surpassing Dolly Parton as the most nominated female solo artist in the 43-year history of the CMA Awards. Today, her 52 nominations are second to Miranda Lambert’s 63. In 2010, McEntire released her next album, All the Women I Am, which included the No. 1 country hit “Turn On the Radio.”
In March 2011, the Country Music Association announced it would induct the almost 56-year-old into its hall of fame. However, the day of the announcement, McEntire was back in Oklahoma with her father who was hospitalized after a serious stroke left him in a comma. “This is a huge honor for me and something I’ve dreamed about since I was a little girl,” the country star said in a release. “When I was a young girl, we would take vacations to Nashville and tour the Country Music Hall of Fame. And now, for me to be inducted, is a dream come true.”
The bonafide country star detoured into gospel music with her 2017 release, Sing It Now: Songs of Faith & Hope. The new sound resonated, earning McEntire the Grammy for Best Roots Gospel Album. She has since recorded a second gospel album, My Chains Are Gone (2022).
In December 2018, McEntire was an honoree at the annual Kennedy Center Honors ceremony. Her most recent album is Not That Fancy, an acoustic collection of some of her hit songs that released in early October 2023.
Acting Career
Adding even more to her plate, the singer successfully made the crossover from music to movies at the height of her stardom. Taking quickly to her second career, she co-starred in the 1990 film Tremors, played a race car driver in The Little Rascals (1994), and starred in several made-for-television movies.
In 2001, the WB Network launched a TV sitcom called Reba, starring the country music star as a divorcée trying to raise a teenage daughter. The show ran for six seasons and garnered McEntire a Golden Globe nomination. Also in 2001, McEntire found success on the theater stage, playing Annie Oakley in a Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun.
As Reba was wrapping up, the singer-turned-actor voiced Betsy the Cow in the 2006 remake of Charlotte’s Web, starring Dakota Fanning, Julia Roberts, and Dominic Scott Kay. McEntire starred in a second sitcom, Malibu Country, which debuted on ABC in November 2012. However, the show lasted only 18 episodes.
In 2022, she showed off her dramatic acting ability by joining the cast of the ABC series Big Sky, playing Sunny Barnes, and had a guest role on The Big Bang Theory spinoff Young Sheldon. In 2023, she appeared in the Lifetime movie The Hammer, also featuring her former Reba co-star Melissa Peterman.
Net Worth
According to Celebrity Net Worth, McEntire’s total net worth is estimated at around $95 million as of July 2023.
Coach on The Voice
In 2023, McEntire joined the NBC singing competition The Voice as a celebrity judge and coach alongside Gwen Stefani, Niall Horan, and John Legend. She had previously appeared on the program as an adviser and a “mega mentor” before taking on the expanded role to replace Blake Shelton.
“John and Niall [are] all really funny and clever and always have so many smart things to say, so I’ve got my work cut out for me,” she told People in May. “I’m most excited about basically getting started, and I’m sure that I’ll have lots of help, lots of advice, lots of people coming around saying, ‘You can do this. You can do that.’ And I’m not afraid at all. I think it’ll be a very fun adventure.” Episodes from Season 24 began airing in September.
Boyfriend, Ex-Husbands, and Son
McEntire is currently dating actor Rex Linn. The couple, who first met in 1991 on the set of the Kenny Rogers movie The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw, reconnected throughout the quarantine period during the COVID-19 pandemic. McEntire revealed their relationship had become romantic in October 2020.
The country star has previously been married and divorced twice. In 1976, McEntire married steer wrestling champion and rancher Charlie Battles. The couple owned a ranch in Oklahoma. But in 1987, just as McEntire’s musical career had begun to soar, the marriage collapsed. After their divorce, the singer moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to refocus on her music.
In 1989, McEntire wed her manager, Narvel Blackstock, who already had three children from a previous marriage. In 1990, the couple welcomed a son, Shelby McEntire Blackstock, into their blended family. In 2015, after 26 years together, the couple announced they were separating.
Before dating Linn, McEntire was in a relationship with Anthony “Skeeter” Lasuzzo from 2017 to 2019.
Quotes
- To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone, and a funny bone.
- As a woman, you don’t complain, you work twice as hard and you do your job. You try to outsmart them, you try to outwork them and get there first. You help out, you volunteer, you’re at the front of the line. That’s what I learned from working on the cattle range, and it helped me in the music business.
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