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Part of Her Identity
“I’ve got to get ready for the big transformation,” says Martina McBride, lounging backstage before a show in Oakland, California. That means the pigtails that belie her 41 years will soon disappear. The multiplatinum country singer, mother of three girls, will trade her pink hoodie and cutoffs for a sleek black outfit to match her high-tech stage set. Transformation has been key to McBride’s success, dating from her childhood singing with her family band. In 1990 she was a wannabe without a recording contract, selling T-shirts for megastar Garth Brooks. Two years later, she was his opening act. Her huge soprano has earned her four Female Vocalist of the Year awards from the Country Music Association (tying her with Reba McEntire). And her ninth studio album, Waking Up Laughing, which marks her songwriting debut, may win her another this year.McBride, whose songs about domestic abuse (“Independence Day,” “Concrete Angel”) stand out from country’s typical radio fare, was recently named by Pollstar magazine as one of the 2007 top female touring acts. The singer sat down with Reader’s Digest to tell us why she believes such songs “were given to me for a reason. When I’m singing, I feel so powerfully that this is what I was meant to do.”
RD: It wasn’t long ago that you were making a living working as a waitress.
McBride: And if I ever have to go back to it, I’ll be fine. I’m a killer waitress because I see it as a challenge. It’s a mental exercise. You go in order. If there are four people at a table, you start: One has the steak well, the baked potato, no sour cream; two has whatever. You memorize it. I’m very understanding about waitstaff, but it bugs me if they go, Okay, who had the steak?
RD: How did you discover your singing voice?
McBride: My dad played guitar. He taught me classic country songs like “Satin Sheets” and “I Fall to Pieces,” and we’d sing gospel in church. He played weddings and VFW halls, and I started singing in his band when I was about seven. In high school, it was just part of my identity, something I could do that not everybody else could.
RD: When did it become your career?
McBride: I sang in a rock band after high school, then moved to Wichita and sang in a couple of house bands. That’s where I met my husband, John, who had a concert sound company. We moved to Nashville in 1990, where I worked on getting a record deal. That’s at least part of the story.
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