Join Fox News for access to this content
Plus, your account will give you exclusive access to select articles and other premium content for free.
By entering your email address and pressing (Continue), you agree to the Fox News Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, including notice of financial incentives.
Please enter a valid email address.
Need help? Click here.
Reba McEntire worked hard on her family’s ranch from an early age until her meteoric rise to country music stardom.
In a new interview with The Wall Street Journal, the 69-year-old “The Voice” coach recalled his rural upbringing and how his entire family helped out with the day-to-day operations of his father’s livestock operation.
“I never played cowgirl when I was a kid,” McIntyre said. “I was one of them.”
Country music star Reba Massentia confidently returns to comedy: ‘It’s not my first rodeo’
Reba McEntire became a cowgirl on her family’s ranch when she was five years old. (Reba McEntire Facebook/Getty)
She continued, “My family lived on an 8,000-acre ranch in Chockey, Oklahoma, where my father raised several thousand head of cattle a year.”
“I started working on a ranch when I was five years old,” the “Fancy” hitmaker recalled. “If Dad needed a driver to transport grain in his pickup truck, he would call whoever was there.”
“When I was little, Daddy would put a 50-pound feed bag in the driver’s seat and then sit me on top of it. I would get down on my knees and steer the truck. Daddy would drive the truck to Grandma. I put it in gear and I was jumping in and out. ”
McEntire was born in March 1955 to Clark and Jackie McEntire, who had daughters Alice and Susie and son Peik.
McIntyre and her three siblings all started working on ranches at an early age. (Reba McEntire Instagram)
She recalled that her family lived in a small gray house with one bathroom on the ranch. “With the girls, Alice, Susie, mom and me, we were all there at the same time and there was no problem,” McIntyre said of sharing a bathroom.
“We loved each other’s company,” she added.
McIntyre explained that she and her siblings were very close while growing up in a small community in the hills of southeastern Oklahoma.
“We didn’t have any kids nearby to play with, so we just played with each other,” she said.
McIntyre recalled that she and her brother worked together to run the ranch while Clark, a three-time world champion steer roper, competed in rodeos.
“I didn’t cowgirl since I was a kid. I was a cowgirl, too.”
— Reba McEntire
“Dad went to rodeos from June to September,” she recalled. “While he was away, the running of the big ranch fell into the hands of us children. We also had a hired hand, Louis Sandmann, and my grandfather, John McIntyre, a champion himself. It was a steer roper.”
The singer told WSJ that in the mornings, he and his brother help with chores on the ranch before going to school.
“When I was a teenager, Peik and I would herd horses on our 40-acre field in the fall while Dad cooked breakfast,” McIntyre recalled.
she continued. “We saddled the horses and headed back to eat. Then we jumped in the truck, loaded the horses into the trailer, and helped lead the cows to where they would be weighed and sold. Then we went to school with mom. She was a school secretary. ”
The singer said he was going to help with chores on the ranch before going to school. (Reba McEntire Instagram)
In addition to his responsibilities on the ranch and attending school, McIntyre said he participated in other activities such as basketball and track and field, and played guitar and piano. However, singing was her passion.
“I’ve always wanted to be on stage,” McIntyre said. “I was the third of four children, so I was pretty much invisible. I had to create something to get noticed, and that was singing.”
“The performance garnered mom adoration,” she added. “I wanted to hear her say, “That’s great, Reba.”
Jackie dreamed of becoming a country singer and encouraged McIntyre and his brothers’ musical aspirations.
The Grammy winner recalled forming a band with Peik and Siouxsie called the Singing McIntyres, and performing together throughout middle school and high school.
“She was our best friend, our cheerleader, and a disciplined person,” McIntyre said of her mother, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 93 after a battle with cancer.
“And she was our rock,” McIntyre added. “Country music meant a lot to her.”
McIntyre formed the band Singing McIntyre with his brother Peik and sister Susie. (Reba McEntire Instagram)
Meanwhile, McIntyre recalled that Clark was an aloof father who rarely showed affection to his children, noting that Jackie had “picked up the slack”.
“He wasn’t a big hugger, and he wasn’t very good at expressing love,” she said of Clark. “It wasn’t in his nature.”
During an interview with WSJ, McIntyre recalled the first time Clark told her he loved her.
“My dad finally said that to me in the hospital room after his triple bypass surgery in 1987. I said I had to go and he said, ‘Okay, I love you,'” Mackin said. Taia said.
Reba Massentia’s relationship comes full circle in a new sitcom that also stars boyfriend Rex Lynn
The singer told the outlet that her family was shocked by Clark’s words.
“We all looked at each other,” McIntyre said. “We thought he was still on surgical drugs.”
Clark passed away in 2014 at the age of 86 after a long battle with a stroke.
McIntyre is pictured with her father, Clark, and mother, Jackie. (Reba McEntire Instagram)
McIntyre was more than just a cowgirl on the ranch. She followed in the footsteps of her father and grandfather and began competing in rodeos as a barrel racer at the age of 11.
In a clip from the audiobook “Not That Fancy” that McIntyre shared on TikTok, he recalled being “more nervous than I’ve ever been” at his first rodeo.
Her father and grandfather, as well as Peik and Alice, who also competed in rodeos, “set a high bar for what we McIntyres could do in the arena, and I wanted them to be proud.” I felt a lot of pressure not to.” ”
Although McIntyre did not win his first rodeo, he continued to compete as a barrel racer for another 10 years, including while attending college in southeastern Oklahoma, according to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum website. .
McIntyre explained in a TikTok video that barrel racing helped prepare her for a music career. Although McIntyre would later win ribbons and championships, she said she was not a natural and had to work harder than her brothers to succeed in the sport.
“My dad once asked me, ‘Reba, why do you always want to do things you’re not good at?'” McIntyre recalled. “Of course he wanted me to focus on singing.”
she continued. “The kind of drive I learned on horseback has allowed me to build a career in music. The important thing in this industry is to just keep going and keep competing with yourself. There are many people working hard all over the world, but I believe that ultimately the most successful people are those who have unwavering belief in themselves. .”
Reba McEntire, photographed in 1976. (Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images)
“Or maybe they’re just too stubborn and don’t know when to quit,” McIntyre added with a laugh.
If you are an app user, click here to view the post
The singer told WSJ that he initially majored in music at Southeastern Oklahoma, but felt “it was way beyond my head.”
“I switched to an education major and minored in music,” she recalled. “Teaching was my backup plan.”
But McIntyre’s first big break came during her sophomore year in college in 1974, when she was hired to sing the national anthem at the National Rodeo in Oklahoma City.
Country artist Red Steagall was also in attendance to watch McIntyre’s performance. She told the Journal that a chance encounter with Steagall after a rodeo led to her move to Nashville.
“After the rodeo, we all went to the Hilton,” she said. “There were some cowboys there pulling guitars. One guy would sing and play the guitar, and then he’d hand the guitar to the next guy.”
Reba Maxentia ‘not very confident’ in two failed marriages, but plans to marry Beau Rex Lin
Reba McIntyre at the 1986 CMA Awards. (Getty Images)
McIntyre recalled that she, Peik and Susie “sang a little harmony” at the time.
“That’s where we met Red again,” she recalled.
Ms. McIntyre explained that Jackie approached Ms. Steagall about helping her children launch a career in country music.
“My mom wasn’t shy. She said, ‘Can you please Red, Peke, Reba, and Susie take me to Nashville?'” He said, “Jackie, I’m trying my best to keep my head afloat. “We’re doing our best, but let’s take Reba in to cut a demo tape and see what happens,” McIntyre said.
“The following year, in 1975, I was in a studio in Nashville. I wasn’t nervous at all. To be honest, I didn’t know if I wanted to do it anyway,” she recalled. “Doing well as a singer means leaving your family behind.”
“Glen Keener of Polygram heard the tape and brought two reels to the label’s Chicago headquarters, one of mine and one of another girl’s. It might have been her, but they didn’t want me. Choose, I’m here.”
McIntyre has won three Grammy Awards. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Roc Nation)
McIntyre then signed with Polygram/Mercury Records. She and Steagall later collaborated on the 2007 hit song “Here We Go Again.”
Like what you’re reading? Click here for more entertainment news
In an interview with WSJ, McEntire detailed how he found out he had scored his first No. 1 single on Billboard’s Hot Country chart.
“In 1983, after my tour bus broke down, I called my manager Don Williams and told him. I said that I had just become one. ” she said.
McIntyre continued, “I got off the phone and called my mom. She said, ‘You finally did it.’ I said, ‘No, ma’am, I did it.’ Even now, just remembering that phone call brings tears to my eyes. ”
She replaced Blake Shelton as coach on The Voice in 2023. (Trey Patton/NBC via Getty Images)
The singer currently has a total of 24 No. 1 hits on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. McIntyre is a three-time Grammy Award winner, four-time CMA Female Vocalist of the Year, and was recognized for her lifelong contributions to American culture with the 2018 Kennedy Center Honors.
Click here to sign up for our entertainment newsletter
She made her acting debut in 1989, co-starring Kevin Bacon in the horror comedy Tremors. McIntyre starred in the television comedy “Reba” for six seasons from 2001 to 2007, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 2004.
In 2023, McIntyre replaced Blake Shelton as a coach on the reality singing competition show “The Voice.”
The singer co-stars with boyfriend Rex Lynn in the new sitcom “Happy’s Place.” (Getty Images)
The singer also stars in the new NBC sitcom “Happy’s Place,” reuniting him with his former “Reba” co-star Melissa Peterman. The series also stars McIntyre’s boyfriend, Rex Lynn.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
In an interview with WSJ, McEntire said she and Lin split their time between their homes in Los Angeles and Nashville. The Queen also stayed close to her roots, telling the outlet that she and Lynne own a ranch/farm in the suburbs about 20 minutes outside of Nashville.
“He’s in a new sitcom, and that’s our happy place,” she said.
