Reba McEntire knows who she'd grab a beer with in a corner booth if she could spend "Seven Minutes in Heaven." Though we never see her face in the song's music video, it's clear that McEntire's ideal conversation partner in the sweet by and by is her mother, Jacqueline Smith, who died on March 14, 2020 at age 93.
"I wouldn't ask Cash why he wore all-black/ Or have Elvis sing me a song/ I wouldn't ask why Kennedy died/ 'Cause I know that I wouldn't have long," begins the song, which goes on to explain why McEntire would use her brief stay in the afterlife to check in on her mama.
"This one was an emotional one to film, but I'm sure glad we did," McEntire wrote on Twitter. "Who would you like to spend seven minutes in heaven with?"
The Matt Wynn and Olivia Rudeen co-write is the one new song on Not That Fancy, a Dave Cobb-produced album that otherwise consists of stripped-down versions of some of McEntire's best-known hits and features guest appearances by Dolly Parton and Brooks & Dunn.
"We had done [the compilation album] Remixed, Revised and Revisited, and so we pulled some of those songs," McEntire said. "Working with [producer] Dave Cobb, that was an album that was stripped down, that we wanted to pull from. And we added some more songs to it, brand new songs, which is our new single called 'Seven Minutes in Heaven.' And it just worked out really good to be 'not that fancy.'"
Companion book Not That Fancy: Simple Lessons on Living, Loving, Eating and Dusting Off Your Boots hits shelves on Oct. 10.
"The best things in life are really not that fancy," reads the book's description. "This photo-driven book featuring all-things-Reba invites you to get back to the basics of life: fun, food, friends, and family. In her first book in over two decades, actress and country music legend Reba McEntire takes you behind the scenes and shares the stories, recipes and Oklahoma-style truths that guide her life."
