Lucinda Williams has been nominated for a Grammy Award an impressive 17 times, winning three. A dream for most artists, Williams did not even give an acceptance speech for her first win in 1994. That year, she won Best Country Song for "Passionate Kisses." Williams first released the song on her own, but it wasn't until 1993 when Mary Chapin Carpenter released it that it became a hit.
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Unfortunately for Williams, she was unable to even attend, for a heartbreaking reason.
"I got nervous about, what am I going to wear?" Williams admits on CBS Sunday Mornings. "What if I can't afford what I need to get? To where I started nitpicking at myself, to the point where I talked myself out of going."
Williams had two more chances to give an acceptance speech. She later won Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, for "Get Right With God," and Best Contemporary Folk Album, for Car Wheels On A Gravel Road. For Williams, the fact that she won three Grammys in three different genres makes sense, at least to her.
"I was inspired by so many different styles of music," Williams concedes. "But I didn't want to pick just one style to do. I love interpreting songs. I love songs."
Why Lucinda Williams Is Grateful Mary Chapin Carpenter Sang "Passionate Kisses"
Williams was still struggling as a singer-songwriter when Carpenter recorded the song, changing everything for Williams. Years later, Williams was doing a show in Charleston, South Carolina, where Chapin resided.
"She came to the show, and I knew she was in the audience," Williams recalls (via Songfacts). "I said, 'This is a song that my friend Mary Chapin Carpenter recorded on her album. And it opened a big door for me because it led to me winning a Grammy for Country Song Of The Year, which neither I nor anyone else thought was a remote possibility.
"I always get a little choked up when I talk about it," she remembers saying. "Because I was so young and more naïve then, and Mary was already a star, really. It was my first Grammy, and it just really started everything for me. When I get to the line 'It's my right,' all the women in the audience yell out and go nuts. I love it."
