Reba McEntire has been one of the biggest stars in country music for nearly 40 years.
But she still manages to find a way to drop a few surprises.
And Reba McEntire revealed one secret about her life that took fans by surprise.
Reba McEntire walks the walk of country music
Country music legend Reba McEntire is one of the hardest-working stars in show business.
She serves as a coach on the NBC reality show The Voice.
Her new sitcom Happy’s Place debuted on NBC in October, and she composed the show’s theme song.
Reba revealed in an interview that hard work is something she picked up at an early age.
She grew up in Chockie, Oklahoma, where her parents owned an 8,000-acre ranch that was home to almost 1,000 head of cattle.
“I didn’t play cowgirl growing up,” Reba said. “I was one.”
Reba helped her parents around the ranch starting when she was five years old.
“I began working on our ranch at age 5,” Reba recalled. “If Daddy needed a driver to move grain in his pickup truck, he came in and got whoever was there. I was so little that Daddy put a 50-pound feed sack on the driver’s seat before putting me on top of it. I’d be on my knees to work the steering wheel. He’d put the truck in granny gear, jump out, and off I’d go.”
Reba got her big break early in life
Reba and her siblings took on more responsibilities at the ranch as she grew up.
“Daddy was gone rodeoing between June and September,” Reba said. “Running that big ranch while he was away fell to us kids. We also had a hired hand, Louie Sandman, and Grandpap, John McEntire, who was a champion steer roper himself.”
She knew that she wanted to be a performer at an early age.
“I always wanted to be on stage,” Reba explained. “I was the third of four kids, so I was pretty much invisible. I had to carve out something for me to gain attention, and that was singing. Performing gained Mama’s adoration. I yearned to hear her say, ‘That was real good, Reba.’”
Reba got her start singing the national anthem at rodeos in Oklahoma.
Her big break came in 1974 when she sang the “Star Spangled Banner” at the National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City.
She credited her upbringing for playing a big role in her success.
“The kind of drive I learned on horseback set me up for building a career in music. In this industry, the key thing to do is just keep going and keep racing against yourself,” Reba said. “There are a lot of talented, hard-working people in the world, but I’m convinced that it’s the ones with an unshakable belief in themselves who end up succeeding most often. Or maybe it’s those who are just too stubborn to know when to quit.”
She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and found success starring on TV and in movies.
Reba McEntire’s hard work led her to get the nickname the “Queen of Country.”