00:00Hey, this is Reba McIntyre, and you're watching In Studio, Hollywood Reporter.
00:07So, it's not every day that you get to sit down with a country legend, and so I'm going to
00:11soak up every minute.
00:12How are you doing?
00:13I'm great. How are you doing?
00:14Doing well. We have so much to talk about.
00:16Okay.
00:16You've got the ACMs.
00:18We've got a new album.
00:21And it's your birthday today.
00:22It's my birthday.
00:22It's your birthday.
00:23You know, we did some research, and we know you love whiskey.
00:26So, we've got whiskey here.
00:28We've got the right ice.
00:29That's a big deal for me.
00:30You can't do whiskey with normal ice.
00:32You have to do the cocktail ice.
00:34And some 7-Up.
00:35Good.
00:36You're welcome to jump in.
00:37That's nice.
00:38Well, you know, we had to take care of you.
00:40Thanks.
00:40Thanks.
00:41Of course.
00:42ACMs coming up on Sunday.
00:44Yeah.
00:45You're hosting, executive producing, performing.
00:48Yeah.
00:49My gosh.
00:50Camp dancing, driving the bus when they let me, all that kind of stuff.
00:53All right.
00:53Tell us what you've got in store.
00:54Well, I've got about six or seven outfits I'm going to be wearing.
00:57Got them all right.
00:58And we're already working on the script.
01:01Got that, my monologues all ready to go.
01:03And my song's ready to go.
01:05So, I'm prepared.
01:07I am ready to be there, ready to see everybody.
01:09It's like a family reunion when you go to an awards show.
01:12You see all your buddies and your friends.
01:14And you make new friends because there are a lot of the newcomers that I haven't met yet.
01:18So, I'm looking forward to that.
01:19Now, this show's in Vegas.
01:21Do you guys kind of get together?
01:23The thing that makes it so neat about having the awards show in Vegas, nobody can go home.
01:28Okay.
01:29You know, you're at the same hotel.
01:31Right.
01:31When we have it in Nashville or someplace like in L.A., people live in L.A., so they go
01:37home.
01:37Well, here, everybody's.
01:39It's kind of like summer camp.
01:40Okay.
01:41I love that.
01:42ACMs are in Vegas, and you've hosted the show 16 times.
01:4516.
01:46This is number 16.
01:47Yeah.
01:47Looking back, do you have kind of a favorite memory?
01:50I guess hosting with Blake Shelton, getting to sing with Kelly Clarkson.
01:54You know, the first time, I think, was with, I hosted with John Snyder and Mac Davis.
02:01Wow.
02:02Yeah.
02:02And I had real short curly hair.
02:04Do you have any outfits that you kind of regret from back in the day?
02:08No.
02:08No.
02:08Never.
02:09I've never one of those.
02:10I'm like, yeah.
02:10I was rocking it at the time.
02:12There you go.
02:12And you still own it.
02:14But I still own it.
02:15Yeah, it's going to be a fun night.
02:17It really is.
02:17I like collaborations.
02:18That way, you get two for the price for one.
02:20That's right.
02:20Well, I recently saw your Cardi B fan.
02:23Can we see a, are we going to see a Cardi B, Reba collaboration anytime soon?
02:27Okay.
02:30I'm so excited you did that.
02:32I was waiting for that.
02:34I still can't do it like she does.
02:36I guess that's the Occy version.
02:38I think you're kind of doing it.
02:40It's got that going.
02:46That was so much fun.
02:48You can pass a lot of time doing that.
02:51How did you even start doing that?
02:53Did you just see it and wanted to try it?
02:55Yeah.
02:55Somebody said, can you do that?
02:56And I said, yeah.
02:58Bring it.
02:59And so then we were waiting around going to film something.
03:01And they said, are you ready?
03:03And I said, okay.
03:04Okay.
03:06I don't know how she does that.
03:07Where did she start that?
03:08I don't know.
03:09It's pretty funny, though.
03:10She's hilarious.
03:11Yeah.
03:11I love watching her.
03:12Yeah, she's funny.
03:13You know, just a quick serious note.
03:15You know, when you announced the nominations, there was a lack of female representation in
03:20the Entertainment of the Year category.
03:21It was, wasn't it?
03:22It was such a bummer.
03:23Yeah.
03:23I think next year, or in 2019, I think it's going to be different because Casey Musgraves
03:28had a huge night at the Grammys.
03:31Right.
03:32Carrie Underwood's going back out on tour, and she's got a lot of females helping her out
03:35on that, opening the show for her.
03:37And so I think it's going to be a rockin' 2019 for the females.
03:41I'm putting that out in the universe.
03:43There you go.
03:43I got a brand new album out.
03:45I'm going to help all I can.
03:47Ashley McBride has already won New Female Vocalist of the Year for the ACMs.
03:53So the girls are already going.
03:54What would you say is the biggest change for women in country since you started your career?
03:58Oh, how much time do you have?
03:59Let's talk.
04:00Everything is a lot better since I started.
04:03My first single was out in 1976.
04:06And it was pretty much, I walked in and I sang what they told me to sing.
04:10Because I didn't know anything about it, and I wasn't complaining.
04:12And I had great teachers, great producers, managers that helped me and guided me and taught me.
04:19And then one day I said, I kind of got an idea.
04:21I'm going to spring it on them.
04:23And they said, oh, that's a great idea.
04:24So I got more confidence when I had a great idea to present it.
04:29And then started taking over a little bit more of my career.
04:33And then Jimmy Bowen complained about not liking the song selection or the musicians or the instrumentations on my album.
04:41And he said, well, go find your own songs.
04:43And I said, okay, how do I do that?
04:44So I had a lot of great teachers.
04:47So it's been a lot of fun.
04:50And so women now have more control over their careers.
04:53Oh, that's so great.
04:54It is wonderful.
04:55But you've got to be prepared.
04:57You've got to be ready for it.
04:58And if you're not ready in any area of your career, you need to continue always to have help and
05:04a good team around you.
05:05Because there will be always something that you don't know.
05:08And you have to look to your teammates to say, how do we do this?
05:11Or what's another way of doing this?
05:13And I have a great team with me.
05:14Your new album, you've called it Stone Cold Country.
05:18It is.
05:19Can you elaborate a little bit on that?
05:20It's dance songs.
05:22Because I grew up in Oklahoma.
05:24And I was playing dance halls and honky tonks and beer joints and rodeos.
05:31And you better have a dance tune.
05:32Or everybody's going to get mad at you.
05:34And so that's what's on this album.
05:36Good dance tunes, story songs, happy, sad, crying, breakup, get back together songs.
05:44It's the whole gamut.
05:45It's a roller coaster of emotion.
05:47Now, how many songs did you have to go through?
05:48Because I know you're getting sent songs all the time.
05:52So did it take like six months worth of songs being sent to you?
05:56How long did it take?
05:57A long time.
05:59When we decide that we're going to do an album, we let everybody know.
06:02The publishers, the writers, best buddies, friends, my favorite songwriters.
06:08And everybody gets the word out.
06:09The record label's looking.
06:10I'm looking.
06:11My friends are looking.
06:12My publishing company's looking.
06:13And then when everything starts filing in, they'll send me songs that my team will,
06:20that they kind of like but don't know if I like it or not.
06:23So I have to listen to everything.
06:25And Buddy Cannon and I, we produced this album together.
06:29And we had enough songs left over to do another album of songs we were really proud of.
06:35So there's great songs out there.
06:38The songwriters are hot.
06:40They're really producing some, I mean, writing some great songs.
06:44And I heard when you're getting a song sent to you, you don't like to know who the songwriter is
06:48because you really want to listen to it to see if it's you.
06:50Yeah, because if, you know, if it's Liz Hingberg's song, I'm going to, you know,
06:53I really want the song to stand on its own.
06:56And then I'll look to see who wrote it and I'll go, I thought so.
06:59That sounded like Liz or Tommy Lee or whoever.
07:03Thinking back to your career and all the songs that you have in your discography,
07:07is there a song that you never get tired of performing on stage?
07:11Fancy.
07:12I love that song.
07:13I was hoping you would say that.
07:14That is my all-time favorite.
07:15Bobby Gentry had that out in 1968.
07:17She wrote it and had a big hit on it.
07:19And I played it.
07:21Now, that's one song that I would sing at the dance halls.
07:24And they'd go, we can't dance to this one.
07:26I said, well, sit down, shut up, listen to me because I'm going to sing it.
07:29I love this song.
07:30Yeah.
07:30And it's been one of my favorite songs forever.
07:32It never gets old.
07:33It's a timeless song.
07:34It's a rags-to-riches type song that this woman rose above it all.
07:40And her mom was so smart to do what she did.
07:44I mean, a lot of people disagree with it, but look where she is now.
07:47That's right.
07:48Is there a song that you would be happy to retire from your own discography?
07:54Oh, let's see.
07:55You Lie is a real hard song to sing.
07:57It's got a lot of range to it.
07:59But, you know, it's not one that you'd open the show with.
08:02Right.
08:02But a lot of fans love it, so I put it back in my show every once in a while.
08:06Yeah.
08:07You spent six seasons on a sitcom that a lot of us loved.
08:12When are we going to see you back on TV?
08:14Oh, we're working on it.
08:15We're always looking for a new project for television because I love that genre.
08:19It's fun.
08:20I love four camera.
08:21I love one camera.
08:22I just love cameras.
08:23But it's a lot of fun.
08:25You know, to get to have fun with people that are so professional in acting and you get
08:30to play a character that's not like you or maybe not exactly like you.
08:33Reba's character was me.
08:35Totally.
08:36Because I was mischievous and I had Barbara Jean to play up against and we had just so
08:42much fun.
08:43Melissa Peterman's a genius.
08:45And then there was Brock and Cheyenne and Vance.
08:48We had so much fun doing that show.
08:50Do you still see any of your castmates?
08:51Yeah.
08:52I was with Melissa Peterman and Chris Rich this weekend.
08:54We were in the Celebrity Fight Night in Phoenix last weekend.
08:58Oh, wow.
08:58Had a great time.
08:59Yeah.
08:59Yeah, they're doing wonderful.
09:01That's awesome.
09:01That's great to hear that you guys are still a family.
09:03Yeah.
09:03Still getting together.
09:04Oh, yeah.
09:05Yeah.
09:05That's great for all the fans to know.
09:08We can't not ask you about Kelly Clarkson.
09:11She has a new talk show coming out.
09:12Uh-huh.
09:13Are you going to be a guest?
09:14She's got it.
09:14I hope so.
09:15You're on her show.
09:16I hope so.
09:16She hasn't called yet.
09:17No.
09:18No.
09:19Oh.
09:20Call her.
09:23We're looking forward to that.
09:24We got to chit chat.
09:25I'm really excited for her new show.
09:26And one more entertainment question.
09:28Okay.
09:29Okay.
09:29When I heard that you were going to be in Titanic and you had to turn down that role, let's
09:34tell everybody that story.
09:35Okay, so the deal was I went and auditioned for the part of The Unsinkable Molly Brown
09:39and I got the part.
09:40James Cameron gave it to me.
09:41I was so excited and so they said, we're going to need you for these three months.
09:46Well, I was on tour and we were promoting our own dates and our own concert tour.
09:51And so I had the next three months already booked.
09:56The arenas were booked.
09:57The band and crew, everybody.
09:58We had about 20 trucks on the road.
10:00And so then he says, oh, we're a little bit behind.
10:04We're going to not need these three months.
10:06We're going to need these three months.
10:07And it's really hard to reschedule arenas when everybody else that's in the entertainment
10:12business, they've already got their arenas booked.
10:14So the tickets were sold at this point.
10:16Get the arenas.
10:17They were sold.
10:17The arenas booked.
10:18And there was no other arenas for the next three months for us to get.
10:22And I had all my band and crew and everybody.
10:24You know, I've got to take care of my people.
10:26So I said, well, Unseekable Molly Brown will have to go on the ship by herself.
10:31Not me.
10:33Is there anything that you haven't done that you want to do?
10:36Oh, there's lots of things I haven't done.
10:38I would really like to do a historical fiction western.
10:43Oh, very specific.
10:44Yeah.
10:45Okay.
10:45Put it out there.
10:46Putting it out there.
10:47Are there any that you love in particular?
10:49You know, I played Annie Oakley on Broadway.
10:51So getting back to the westerns back in the 1800s would be a lot of fun.
10:55We can't wait to see it.
10:56I'd be a cowgirl.
10:57Oh, that's not a stretch for you.
11:00I love it.
11:01Well, no birthday is complete without a cake.
11:04Oh.
11:04So we had to do something special.
11:07It's your birthday.
11:08It's your day.
11:09So happy birthday.
11:11Oh, Riva.
11:13Yes.
11:14We had to do it.
11:16And I will share.
11:17Thank you very much.
11:19Of course.
11:19That is so sweet.
11:20Stronger Than The Truth comes out April 5th.
11:23And ACMs are on CBS this Sunday.
11:25Check it out.
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