Plenty of musicians who hit the big time say success hasn’t changed them.
When that statement comes from Gretchen Wilson, it rings true.
“I don’t know, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” she says. “I wasn’t any spring chicken when I got this record deal. I was already pretty set in my ways. I’m just a real down- home kind of girl. I always have been.”
Still, there’s the matter of her 70-acre farm outside of Nashville, complete with horses.
“It’s a redneck dream out here,” she says.
Ah, the word “redneck.” It’s the term that made Wilson a country music star. Her 2004 chart-topping single, “Redneck Woman,” defines much of her public image. It’s a word Wilson cheerfully embraces.
“All those labels, redneck and white trash, and all that stuff, they make me proud,” she says. “It’s people who are born into life with little or nothing, and they just kind of eke their way through life and get out on their own and then make something of themselves, you know.”
As that statement suggests, Wilson’s own story fits her redneck definition.
She was born 32 years ago in the small Illinois town of Pocahontas, a couple of counties away from the Mississippi River and St. Louis.
She was born when her mother was 16, and her father had moved out of her life by the time Wilson was 2. (Wilson has since gotten to know her father and now considers him a good friend.)
She grew up dirt poor in trailer parks and quit school at 14 to work alongside her mother, tending bar and cooking at a local roadhouse. It was there that Wilson, who grew up listening to Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and Tanya Tucker, got her first experience performing – by singing for tip money.
Before long, Wilson started singing in cover bands. In 1996, she moved to Nashville with dreams of a music career.
Wilson quickly realized that getting known in Nashville wouldn’t be easy. She took jobs at local bars to make ends meet and along the way she had a daughter, who is now 5. Occasionally she would get to sing with the house band at her place of employment.
This is how Wilson got her big break. One night country musician John Rich heard Wilson sing and invited Wilson into the “Muzik Mafia,” a loose-knit group of singers, songwriters and musicians who played jam sessions each Tuesday at a local bar. Rich (who has since gained fame as half of the duo Big & Rich) and Wilson began writing songs together.
When Wilson auditioned for Sony Nashville, she was signed immediately.
Wilson’s 2004 debut CD, “Here For The Party,” rocketed up the charts and sold more than 4 million copies. “Redneck Woman” won a Grammy for best country female vocal performance, and Wilson won the 2004 Country Music Association’s Horizon Award for best newcomer. Her follow-up CD, “All Jacked Up,” was released last fall.
