Trisha Yearwood has truly earned all the accolades that grace her mantel. The country music star has talent and charisma galore. She says she always wanted to be a singer, despite the fact that it's a tough career with very few assurances and lots of pitfalls.
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Even so, she pursued that path with her whole heart and the loving blessing of her parents. When Georgia native Yearwood, 61, was a guest recently on The Touch Up podcast hosted by Mari Brown and Tarryn Feldman, she talked candidly about how she got into the music business and the star whose career she longed to emulate.
Cher Was Yearwood's Childhood Idol
It was the larger-than-life Cher who made a big impression on Yearwood from her earliest days. Per the podcast, Yearwood confided that she looked up to Cher from the time she was five. She never doubted that she would make it big herself someday like the fabulous "I Got You Babe" artist.
Yearwood shared, "I was never a kid who said, 'I wonder what I want to do when I grow up.' I knew, but I was in a really small town of 2000 people where nobody did this." That did not deter her one bit, In fact, it seems to have strengthened her resolve to be famous and successful.
She Headed for Music City as a Teenager With Big Dreams
At 19, Yearwood set off for Nashville. She attended Belmont University and got professional experience singing on demos. It was a start. The "Walkaway Joe" singer said, "I did that really solid for several years. Made a really good living. I had a job as a receptionist at a record label, but I didn't tell anybody I sang."
She got a degree in music business, but she wanted to be on a stage with a mic in her hand, singing. There was no discouraging her. And there was no safety net, either. It was make it or break it.
Yearwood declared, "I had never had a backup plan. Because I went to college...I was a music business major, I had a lot of people ask me, 'oh, would you be in the music industry in the corporate part because you have this degree if you weren't a singer?' And I've always said no, because I think watching people do what I wanted to do would be much harder."
Yearwood Never Wondered What She Would Do With Her Life
Yearwood saw her destiny as a singer. Period. Nothing else would satisfy her. She said on the podcast, "I feel grateful. I know a lot of people who don't know their whole lives what they really want to do. And I've always known...And I think I would be doing it even if it was on a level of playing five nights a week at a bar. I think I'd be singing. I just do."
The illustrious path Trisha Yearwood has blazed proves that she was absolutely right. She followed her heart from day one and became a genuine superstar.
