Reba McEntire doesn’t have much time to herself these days. Whether it’s her intense schedule as a coach on NBC’s The Voice, as star and executive producer of her new NBC comedy, Happy’s Place, or as the music mogul she is (the 15th anniversary of her hit album, Keep on Loving You, releases on vinyl for the first time this December), alone time is a rarity. And that’s why Reba is ready to come clean.
“My favorite place to just be by myself is on the toilet,” she says in complete seriousness. “I’ll get my phone, my glasses, just go lock the door and sit on the toilet because it’s the quiet place.”
I’ll be honest: bathroom talk with the woman who has 35 career number one singles and has sold more than 58 million albums worldwide was not on my bingo card. I love the relatability, but for someone as polished and professional as McEntire (I mean, even Saturday Night Live parodied the fact that she hasn’t endorsed a candidate for President for possible fear of alienating her massive fan base), it’s a refreshingly honest sentiment.
“Nobody can reach you, nobody’s going to bother you,” she continues of her love for the bathroom. “But it works every time.”
Plus, it’s not just The Voice and Happy’s Place that the 69-year-old Grammy winner has on her mind. She’s also an entrepreneur, and has a clothing line and western footwear collection called REBA by Justin, exclusively available at Dillard’s. In addition, much like her Happy’s Place character, Bobbie, she also has her own restaurant, bar, and entertainment venue called Reba’s Place, located in Atoka, Oklahoma.
Truthfully, she deserves to stay in the bathroom as long as she damn well likes.
“It’s been fast and furious to say the least over the last six months doing The Voice and the sitcom at the same time,” the New York Times bestselling author (for her book, Not That Fancy) tells me over Zoom from her dressing room. “I’m getting into a rhythm, but then a bunch of us got Covid, so it knocked our schedule back on the sitcom. We had to do two episodes last week, which was tough on everybody. But we did it. I was so proud of everybody.”
It’s no surprise, though. Ever since Reba was a young girl growing up on her parents’ cattle ranch in Oklahoma, she’s been used to hard work and no excuses. How else do you explain the fact that she’s had 60 Top 10 hits over five straight decades, landing her in the same group as George Jones, Willie Nelson, and Dolly Parton?
But in typical Reba McEntire fashion, she’s not one to take credit for that success without naming the people that helped her get there. “I came from a very strong pack of women: my grandmother, my aunts, my cousins, my sisters, my teachers,” she says. “I’m very blessed to be able to have gotten to spend time with strong women. That’s why I gravitate to people like Dolly Parton. I want to continue to learn.”
These days, though, she’s teaching us. For Glamour‘s latest edition of Icons Only, the multi-hyphenate opens up like she never has before about her financial success, giving people something to talk about (especially with her iconic red hair), and why she really doesn’t mind if you stop her in the grocery store.
Glamour: There are so many TikTok memes of you. Have you had a chance to watch? [Ed. note: This interview was done the week before McEntire was parodied on Saturday Night Live.]
Reba McEntire: Yeah, it’s fun. It’s flattering. And I love it that [all these people are rewatching Reba] and giving their version of the theme song. I knew it would be a successful song because it’s so relatable. You’re a survivor, and it’s a pep talk song.
Well, you’re an icon, hence this interview. What does that mean to you?
I don’t consider myself an icon. I feel like I’m a blessed person that has more friends than I used to. That’s the way I like it. I don’t want to be something that people look up to or idolize. I just want to be a better friend.
What goes into your daily life that we may not have any idea about, whether it’s juggling multiple business endeavors or doing your own grocery shopping?
I’m a hands-on person. I do like to do my own grocery shopping. I really do. I love to go grocery shopping, especially this time of year with all the pumpkin spice stuff out. I love that. But when I’m not working, I’m either washing clothes or my boyfriend, Rex [Linn], and I are cooking together. I keep in touch with my family, my friends back in Tennessee. Since I’m doing The Voice and Happy’s Place, I try to get a lot of rest and a lot of sleep. And I’m a normal person. I love to stay outside. I love to watch our birds. At one point we had 50 hummingbirds outside the house. I’m a normal person. Very normal.
With all that you’ve accomplished, does anything make you nervous?
The only time I do get nervous is when I’m not prepared. If I don’t know my song or my material, then that gives me anxiety. But Rex is a stickler on rehearsal, so we rehearse in the morning when he and I have our coffee. And before we go to sleep at night, we’re running lines. We’re big sticklers on being prepared. And if you’re prepared, you can play with the scene.
You owe your relationship with Rex to Young Sheldon, right? [Linn had a recurring role on the series when McEntire first was a guest star.]
Rex and I knew each other in 1991 when I was doing The Gambler movie with Kenny Rogers. We met then, and would see each other throughout the years. And then in 2020 I got a guest spot on Young Sheldon which he was on, as well as [actor] Melissa Peterman. I couldn’t get close enough to Rex when we had dinner January of 2020. We’d been friends. I’d seen him like the April before, just friends. Timing’s everything. Everything happens for a reason.
Would you say the secret to a successful relationship is becoming friends first?
It really helps I do think.
Young Sheldon was always a hit, but then it exploded when it started streaming on Netflix. Same with Reba. What has that been like?
It’s a good conversation to get to talk about two different shows. And then you’ve got Happy’s Place. I’m very grateful I’m getting to do TV. I love TV. I always have loved TV.
There’s a lot of heart in Happy’s Place. Same as with Young Sheldon and Reba. As an executive producer, what did you want to accomplish with some of these storylines, especially as Bobbie is taking her new half-sister, Isabella, under her wing?
Well, I’m very, very grateful and blessed that I have a great showrunner, Kevin Abbott, great writing team. And when they pitch me a story, if I don’t cry, they’re like, “Back to the drawing board.” Because the heart is the nucleus, the center. It is the most important thing of the whole show.
Back when I first worked Kevin on Reba, I said, “I learned so much from Andy Griffith on The Andy Griffith Show. You learned something, whether it was how to parent, how to treat someone, how not to hurt somebody’s feelings. And so I said, “I want that on every episode.” And they’ve done it.
Do your co-stars come to you for advice, and if so, what kind of advice do you share with them?
Yeah and I’ll give them an example of a way I boo-booed. Like, ‘Don’t do that with your money.’ Or ‘Get you a good financial business manager. I love they ask me questions because I’ve been in this business for close to 50 years and I’ve seen the ups and downs and the do’s and don’t do’s. So hopefully I can pass that on and help them out.
When you made your first appearance at the Grand Ole Opry, you were denied entry at first because they couldn’t find your name on the list. Then, once you got in, one of your two scheduled song performances were cut because the one-and-only Dolly Parton showed up to perform. What did you learn from that experience?
Don’t panic. Mom and daddy was up in the front seat of the car, and my older sister, Alice and I were in the back seat when we pulled up there to the gate at the Grand Ole Opry. The gentleman was like, “Nope, she’s not on the list.” Daddy said, “Well feller, what do you think we ought to do?” And he said, “I guess you ought to go home.” He said, “Well, it’s 700 miles home.” And I said, “Daddy, let’s go across the interstate to that Get-N-Go and I’ll call my booking agent, Shorty Lavender.” And they said, “You go back over there, we’ll have that taken care of.” Sure enough, that guy at the gate then said, “Mr. McEntire, you just go right on park in number 67 there.” And nobody panicked, nobody got upset.
So we walked in and the [Opry folks] came to me and said, “We’re going to take one of your songs from you if you don’t mind. Dolly just pulled up in the parking lot in her bus.” And I said, “Oh my gosh, can I meet her? She can have both my songs, I just want to look at her.” And she walked in front of me in this beautiful black chiffon pant suit with rhinestone butterflies all over. And I thought, Wow, that’s what an angel looks like. Just beautiful. I was thrilled to death to be there.
Oh my God. What a story.
Yeah, everything works out the way it’s supposed to. Just don’t panic, don’t freak out, and kind of sit back to see where it leads.
What did Dolly say when you told her this story for the first time?
I don’t think I ever told her. No, because when I’ve got time with Dolly, I want her to talk. I don’t want to talk. I’m going to learn from her. She’s done more than I’ve ever done. She’s very wise. She’s got such knowledge and I just want to pick that. I want to learn from her more and more.
Then tell me, what’s one of the most important lessons you’ve learned from her, aside from her being an angel?
Well, she is an angel. She’s a giver. And community and family means so much to her. She’s done so much for the area she grew up in. Everybody can learn from Dolly.
As you approach 70, what lessons are you unlearning now that don’t serve you anymore?
You hear people say, “One day at a time,” or “Take it minute by minute.” Never, never ever could I do that. I mean, I always had my planner with me. I was never in the moment. I remember when I said, “I really want to be in the moment. I just want to be.” And when that clicked, it was kind of like you heard a sonic boom when an airplane went by.
I ask young people when they’re getting in this business, “Are you having fun?” They’ll say, “Well, I’m just so busy.” So to that I say: write it down because you won’t remember it. You’re going so fast right now. Try to stay in the moment and relish it. Don’t just try to blow past it.
I love that advice, but I also know when you’re in it, especially early in your career, it’s hard to relax to the point that you can have fun. There’s so much pressure.
The big thing is, everybody’s so worried about what everybody else is thinking about you. You think about you. Are you happy with you? That’s all that matters. And when you walk into a party or to an event and you feel good about what you have on, that’s all that matters. Don’t worry about what everybody else thinks about you. You’re wasting time and energy. Because they’re only looking at themselves. They don’t care what you’re wearing.
It’s so true.
Get through all that BS. That’s wasteful energy. It’s wasted time and you’re not going to have as good a time as when you get there and you feel good. You feel good in your skin, now go have fun.
What do you think growing up in Oklahoma did to help you succeed in this industry?
Oh, work ethic. We grew up on an 8,000 acre cattle ranch, so everybody piled in and helped. It was a family operation. We worked together and learned together and depended on each other to make sure we got out of the hills alive because we always spread out to go find cattle and we’d all put them in the pens together. Didn’t know where we were half the time, but it was a great learning experience, responsibility, direction. Will Mackenzie, my director on Reba, said I was the most directable person he’d ever worked with.
Wow.
I said, “Tell Mark McEntire that.” That’s why, because you took direction. We didn’t even get a chance to ask questions [on the ranch]. It was go, go do it. And so you took directions, you paid attention. And then going to basketball camps, I always volunteered because I know coaches love volunteers and I loved to play basketball. So all of that I brought with me into the workplace. Pay attention, be respectable. Respected. Be respectable to your elders, to the people you’re working for and with be respectable of their time. Be considerate of other people.
One of the reasons I think you resonate so much with women is because there’s so many layers to who you are. You’re not just this glamorous country music star and entertainer. You love getting your hands dirty, you love playing sports. You’ve helped redefine what it means to be a woman before it was cool to do all these things.
A woman is a very strong individual. Women can do 15 things at a time and do them very well and still hear a baby crying two doors down. It’s amazing the fortitude and aptitude a female has. I highly respect them. And I’m very proud to be a female, a working woman in today’s society. There’s so much we can do. And I came from a very strong pack of women: my grandmother, my aunts, my cousins, my sisters, teachers. I’m very blessed to be able to have gotten to spend time with strong women. That’s why I gravitate to people like Dolly Parton. I want to continue to learn.
I have a few rapid fire questions for you. One, what is something you will never spend money on?
Money and me have a very strange relationship. I love money. I love to make it. And I don’t worry about money. I didn’t when I didn’t have it either. Money is a necessity, but it’s also very nice to have and spend it. I’m a shopaholic on Amazon, so I’d say I’ll never spend a lot of money on jewelry. I’ll buy and wear fake costume jewelry, but not real [jewelry].
What is something you’ve learned to spend money on?
Flying private is the best perk that I can give myself. I don’t mind that at all. I’ll work three or four extra jobs so I can fly private. I just get to rest. I can do more on both ends. I love it.
Do you have any hair regrets?
Yes. In the early 80s, I got a perm. I have natural curly hair. And so when my hair would be a little past my shoulders with a perm, it was just super tight because if you add a perm to natural curly hair, it looks angry. And it did.
How did you feel then when you cut it all off in the ’90s?
It was freedom. I loved it. It was in ’96 or ’97 when I cut my hair off and it was freeing. But you know what? I had to talk to my management and my stylist who did my hair, because it took almost a year for me to talk them into letting me cut my hair. They told me my hair was my image. “You got your big hair all jacked up to Jesus. You can’t cut your hair off.” And I said, “Well, it’ll give you something else to talk about.” And they said, “Oh, okay. That’s an idea.” So we did.
Is there something you haven’t done yet that you’d really like the chance to do?
Well, we were talking about earlier doing a game show. I’m petrified at that. I’m not good. I don’t think I could do that. But I would really like to be in a movie where I play one of the Marvel Comic characters. What do you think?
I mean, I would watch you grocery shop. Can you get through the supermarket without being stopped?
No. And I enjoy that. They’ll go, “What you doing in here grocery shopping?” I say, “I love it. What’d you get?” And then we’ll start talking about what they’ve got in their carts. Like, how come you got that kind of brand of peanut butter instead of…?” I’ll take pictures and it’s fun.
All right. I want to do a social media video series of us going grocery shopping now.
Yes. I love it. That’s a date! Perfect.
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