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Juggling a Family
RD: So you end up racing back from tour stops for school events?McBride: Yes. For instance, for Emma’s first-grade pet show, a friend of mine volunteered to let Emma bring her goat, since our miniature schnauzer barks and bites pant legs. The pet show was on a Friday. We did our gig on Thursday, drove to Nashville, got in about 8:15 a.m.—the pet show was at 8:30—saw Emma and her goat in all their glory, then got back on the bus and drove six hours to the next show.
Most of the time, the kids come to meet us wherever we are on Fridays, then we all get back by Monday. It’s just crazy. But we all want our kids to have childhood experiences similar to ours, so I want them to have class parties, field days and school plays.
RD: Two other country musicians, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, do the same balancing act. I understand that you’re good friends.
McBride: We have a lot in common. We have daughters. They’re both from small towns and humble beginnings and are dealing with fame, trying to do the best they can. They have their priorities straight.
RD: Do you talk shop?
McBride: We talk about record companies and the industry. Faith is really private. She would never say, So what do you think of this song? We don’t ask each other’s advice on things like that, but we do as far as decorating and cooking and that stuff.
RD: You’ve been married 19 years. How do you keep the romance alive?
McBride: We really like each other and love to be together. We’re different in many ways but also really similar, with the same values. John is romantic. He writes letters to me for my birthday and anniversaries. That means more than any gift. But it comes down to being able to go with the flow and laugh at things. He lifts me up and doesn’t try to tear me down. I like to think I’m the same way, though I think he’s less selfish than I am.
RD: When you wanted to move to Nashville, was he enthusiastic?
McBride: He packed up his entire sound company. We didn’t know anybody. We got a $10,000 loan to live on. We had no job prospects whatsoever, but he’s just this positive, optimistic person, and that’s the kind of person you need with you to make this work.
RD: The album’s title comes from one of your songs about waking up laughing. Does that happen to you?
McBride: Very rarely. You’ll be dreaming and something funny happens, and you laugh so hard that you wake yourself up. It’s the best feeling, the polar opposite of waking up crying, which I’ve done as well.
RD: You finally seem comfortable in your own skin. Is that true?
McBride: Maybe part of it was turning 40. At a certain point, you just feel more confident. You don’t have to worry about every little thing.
RD: Where would you say you are now in terms of your dream of one day being a huge success?
McBride: Where I am now is an amazing place. Fifteen years later, I have a successful career that I love and a family. I’ve been able to really do both, so I’m happy.
RD: And there’s a Barbie named after you. In 2005 a Martina McBride collector’s doll was released and sold out on Amazon. What was that like?
McBride: It was so bizarre. I got this phone call from my manager saying, “Mattel wants to make a Barbie doll of you.” I said, What? I mean, Shania, Faith, I can name a lot of people who are bigger than me. What are they thinking? The funny thing was that in the end, I had a lot of input on the doll: what I wore, whether the hair was long or short, the jewelry, everything. I said, “Can the body actually look like mine? Can she be five-two?” They were like, “No, that’s one thing we cannot change. It’s a Barbie doll—come on.”
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