Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Reba My Story by Reba McEntire Reba McEntire's Tragic Real-Life Story. Since her early teens, Reba McEntire has been singing professionally alongside her siblings, but there was something special about McEntire that propelled her into the spotlight. "There's a lot of people, a lot of girl singers, who are 10,000 times better than me," she told The Washington Post . "They don't have the drive. They don't have the work ethic. They don't have the want-to, and they don't love it as much as I do." Having that unique drive meant fiery-haired McEntire would face some serious sacrifices in her life. In the public eye, she appears to have it all, and we can always count on McEntire to bring some light-hearted fun to the red carpet, but beneath that megawatt smile, this country girl has gone through it all. Here's the tragic real-life story of Reba McEntire. Reba McEntire had to fight for attention. Growing up in the town of Chockie, Okla., Reba McEntire was the "third of four kids." As a middle child, McEntire told The Washington Post she constantly had to "fight for attention." It was easy for her to get lost in the shuffle — that is, until she hit the age of 5 and realized she could sing. "Best attention I ever got," she said. McEntire said she and her siblings began singing just for fun, but that hobby turned serious when she became a sophomore in college. She was discovered while singing the national anthem at a rodeo competition in Oklahoma City, Okla., and eventually signed to Mercury Records. Unfortunately, an old problem began to resurface: lack of attention. According to the Post , McEntire's music flew under the radar for years. Her first No. 1 hit, "Can't Even Get the Blues," was reportedly released a whopping seven years after she signed her recording contract. Reba McEntire dealt with a 'cruel' father. Reba McEntire's father, Clark McEntire, was a "three-time world champion steer roper," according to The Washington Post . That meant he was a little rough around the edges and "never told his children he loved them," the Post reported. But there was something about Clark — who passed away in 2014 — that left a lasting impression on his children. Reba's sister, Alice Foran, told the newspaper that if their father had something on his mind, he would be sure to let his voice be heard. "He would tell you in a heartbeat. By our standards, they would say he was cruel," Foran said. One conversation between father and daughter really struck a chord with Reba. She told the Post that while growing up, she was involved in barrel racing and even played basketball. Her dad once asked her: "Reba, why do you always want to do something you're not good at?" That was apparently his way of telling her to focus on her strong suit, which was singing, but Reba said her dad's delivery was off. "I couldn't imagine saying that to [my son] Shelby," she said. Reba McEntire's career came first, so love had to wait. In 1975, before her career really took off, Reba McEntire met the man who would become her first husband: Charlie Battles. According to The Washington Post , he was a "former world-champion steer wrestler" who was a decade older with a wife and two kids. When Battles decided to divorce his wife, McEntire told Entertainment Weekly she was "shocked. Flabbergasted. Astonished." McEntire married him when she was 21. "My singing was always taken very lightly until Charlie came along," she told the Post . He signed on as her manager, but that dynamic changed in the '80s as McEntire's career really began to gain traction. After winning her first Grammy award in 1986, she was ready to take the country world by storm, but her husband reportedly wanted her to take it easy. "I guess I chose my career over my marriage," she told E! News . This divorcee received major backlash. After being with Charlie Battles for 11 years, Reba McEntire told People magazine, "I was in and the next day I was out of love." Kicking her husband to the curb and filing for divorce in 1987 didn't just make McEntire a divorcée — it also meant she would be judged by the court of public opinion, and that court was not kind to her. McEntire rebounded with Narvel Blackstock, a guitarist in her band. They tied the knot in 1988 in Lake Tahoe, Calif., but instead of receiving well wishes and a ton of support, McEntire was heavily criticized. "I have talked so much about my private life [in the past] that when I got this divorce, I got lambasted," she told People . "My fans didn't understand." According to People , McEntire's reputation was tarnished by those who "found the divorce incongruous behavior for a woman who built her career on a home-sweet-home image." Reba McEntire endured a tragic loss. The year was 1991, and Reba McEntire had just wrapped up a show in San Diego, Calif., performing for a group of IBM employees. The legendary singer and some members of her crew boarded a plane headed straight for Nashville. The following day, her remaining crew members chartered another flight from San Diego to Amarillo, Texas. Sadly, that plane never made it to its destination. According to the Associated Press , all ten people on board were killed, including seven members of McEntire's band and her road manager, when the plane crashed "just north of the Mexican border." The singer's spokesperson, Jenny Bohler, issued a statement: ″Needless to say Reba is very upset. They all had been with her a long time. They were like family. She's lost eight family members.″ Less than a month later, McEntire put on a brave face and headed back on the road to continue performing. "I can't stop working when something like that happens. I needed it. We all needed it, to keep going, or I would have wallowed in sorrow," she said in retrospect to The Washington Post. Blindsided by divorce. After Reba McEntire and Narvel Blackstock got hitched in 1989, their business worlds intertwined. Blackstock began managing the country superstar through his company, Starstruck Entertainment. From the outside looking in, they were a dynamic duo and a powerful couple on all levels, but after more than 25 years of marriage, Blackstock wanted out. Perhaps no one was more surprised than McEntire when he filed for divorce. "The divorce was not my idea," she said during an interview with CMT Radio Live (via the Daily Mail) . "I didn't want it in any shape, form or fashion. So it was really hard to make the adjustment." McEntire bounced back from her 2015 divorce, leaving Starstruck Entertainment and managing herself through her own company, Reba's Business Incorporated (RBI), reported Music Row . She also found new love with wildlife photographer Anthony "Skeeter" Lasuzzo during a 2017 trip to Jackson Hole, Wyo., according to Country Living . Perhaps the country icon's life is proof that there is "life out there" after tragedy. Was Reba McEntire's husband unfaithful? Reba McEntire's ex-husband, Narvel Blackstock, moved on quickly following the finalization of their divorce in December 2015. By January 2016, Page Six reported that he was already in a new relationship with a woman named Laura Putty Stroud. Now, this wasn't just some random woman he met while swiping right. According to the publication, Stroud was one of McEntire and Blackstock's mutual friends! The proof was in a photo shared on McEntire's Instagram in June 2014 – when she was still very-much married to Blackstock. The snap featured McEntire, Warner Music executive Shane Tarleton, and Stroud together at a Katy Perry concert. Yikes. An insider told Page Six shortly after the divorce was finalized that Blackstock and Stroud were "very serious," and there were rumors that they would soon tie the knot. Most people would be devastated over this kind of bad news, but McEntire reportedly kept her chin up in the face of the gossip. "Every time I have seen Reba since the split, she has been in great spirits and focused as ever on her work. Reba's a pro," a source told Page Six . is Reba McEntire trapped in the country scene? When a performer conquers one music genre, it's not unheard of to explore different music markets. Justin Bieber and Beyoncé have both successfully tried their hands at singing in Spanish, in the songs "Despacito" and "Irreemplazable," respectively. Reba McEntire tried a new language, but she has expanded her discography by venturing into the pop and blues sectors. Sadly, some of her fans have not supported her pursuits. After performing renditions of Aretha Franklin's "Respect" and Etta James' "Sunday Kind of Love," McEntire told People magazine she "got a lot of flak" for her decisions. "They said I was leaving my roots. Lord knows, I'm country! Given who I am and where I come from, no matter what I do, it will be country." McEntire thought it was ridiculous for people to think she was leaving her fan base behind, something she called "almost a slap in the face." In her view: "I don't sing country songs, I don't sing pop, I sing Reba songs." Despite the backlash, McEntire is still eager to jump outside of the box, even if her fans turn against her. "I don't want to stay the old Reba," she said. A family divided. Reba McEntire and fellow musician Kelly Clarkson have shared an unbreakable bond ever since Clarkson won American Idol in 2002. Their friendship came full circle when Clarkson announced on Twitter in 2012 (via People ) that she was engaged to McEntire's stepson, Brandon Blackstock. McEntire was thrilled, but the claws came out. "I was very protective of Kelly," the country star told Entertainment Tonight Canada . "I did not want her to get her heart broken because she wears her heart on her sleeve. . What you see is what you get with Kelly . I would have clobbered Brandon if he had hurt her in any way." Thankfully, no clobbering was needed. Clarkson and Blackstock tied the knot in October 2013, but the family dynamics were turned upside down when McEntire and Narvel Blackstock's marriage ended in 2016. McEntire's difficult divorce made her friendship with Clarkson trickier than ever, but the country superstar didn't want Clarkson, her stepchildren, nor the son she shares with Narvel, Shelby Blackstock, to have to choose sides. "She didn't want to tear the family apart, so she leaned on others who weren't family," a friend told Closer Weekly. Even though McEntire and Clarkson are determined to not let anything "petty" destroy their bond, it breaks our hearts that McEntire had to seek comfort from others during such a devastating period of her life. Reba: My Story. She's the reigning queen of country music--with a string of platinum-plus albums to her credit. But when this #1 performer set pen to paper, she wrote the heartwarming, bestselling story of her life in a candid, funny, and emotional way--just the way her fans would expect. Includes more than 140 personal photos. Simultaneous release with Reba's new album. Read More. She's the reigning queen of country music--with a string of platinum-plus albums to her credit. But when this #1 performer set pen to paper, she wrote the heartwarming, bestselling story of her life in a candid, funny, and emotional way--just the way her fans would expect. Includes more than 140 personal photos. Simultaneous release with Reba's new album. Read Less. All Copies ( 178 ) Softcover ( 51 ) Hardcover ( 120 ) Choose Edition ( 2 ) Book Details Seller Sort. 1994, Bantam Books. Victoria, TX, USA. Edition: 1994, Bantam Books Hardcover, Very Good Details: ISBN: 0553096079 ISBN-13: 9780553096071 Pages: 319 Publisher: Bantam Books Published: 1994 Language: English Alibris ID: 15797738288 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,66. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 319 p. Audience: General/trade. ► Contact This Seller. 1994, Bantam Books. College Park, MD, USA. Edition: 1994, Bantam Books Hardcover, Good Details: ISBN: 0553096079 ISBN-13: 9780553096071 Pages: 319 Edition: First Publisher: Bantam Books Published: 1994 Language: English Alibris ID: 16266046297 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,66 Trackable Expedited: €7,33. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Good. [ No Hassle 30 Day Returns ] [ Edition: First ] Publisher: Bantam Pub Date: 5/1/1994 Binding: Hardcover Pages: 319. ► Contact This Seller. 1994, Bantam Books. Edition: 1994, Bantam Books Hardcover, Good Details: ISBN: 0553096079 ISBN-13: 9780553096071 Pages: 319 Publisher: Bantam Books Published: 05/1994 Language: English Alibris ID: 15483100421 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,66. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Good. All pages and cover are intact. Possible slightly loose binding, minor highlighting and marginalia, cocked spine or torn dust jacket. Maybe an ex-library copy and not include the accompanying CDs, access codes or other supplemental materials. ► Contact This Seller. 1994, Bantam Books. Victoria, TX, USA. Edition: 1994, Bantam Books Hardcover Details: ISBN: 0553096079 ISBN-13: 9780553096071 Pages: 319 Publisher: Bantam Books Published: 1994 Language: English Alibris ID: 14394098243 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,66. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: VERY_GOOD. Appears new from the outside with minimal marking inside. ► Contact This Seller. 1994, Bantam Books. Edition: 1994, Bantam Books Hardcover, Good Details: ISBN: 0553096079 ISBN-13: 9780553096071 Pages: 319 Publisher: Bantam Books Published: 1994 Language: English Alibris ID: 16626803419 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,66 Trackable Expedited: €7,33 Two Day Air: €13,75. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Good. ► Contact This Seller. 1994, Bantam Books. Edition: 1994, Bantam Books Hardcover, Fair Available Copies: 4 Details: ISBN: 0553096079 ISBN-13: 9780553096071 Pages: 319 Publisher: Bantam Books Published: 05/1994 Language: English Alibris ID: 16544822800 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,66. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Fair. ► Contact This Seller. 1994, Bantam Books. Arlington, TX, USA. Edition: 1994, Bantam Books Hardcover, Fair Details: ISBN: 0553096079 ISBN-13: 9780553096071 Pages: 319 Publisher: Bantam Books Published: 05/1994 Language: English Alibris ID: 16682953034 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,66. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Fair. ► Contact This Seller. 1994, Bantam Books. Edition: 1994, Bantam Books Hardcover, Fair Available Copies: 4 Details: ISBN: 0553096079 ISBN-13: 9780553096071 Pages: 319 Publisher: Bantam Books Published: 05/1994 Language: English Alibris ID: 16545461975 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,66. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Fair. ► Contact This Seller. 1994, Bantam Books. Edition: 1994, Bantam Books Paperback, Fair Available Copies: 2 Details: ISBN: 0553572385 ISBN-13: 9780553572384 Pages: 319 Publisher: Bantam Books Published: 10/1995 Language: English Alibris ID: 16553443608 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,66. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Fair. ► Contact This Seller. 1994, Bantam Books. Edition: 1994, Bantam Books Paperback, Fair Details: ISBN: 0553572385 ISBN-13: 9780553572384 Pages: 319 Publisher: Bantam Books Published: 10/1995 Language: English Alibris ID: 16545216899 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,66. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Reba: My Story. Let’s get one thing settled right up front. In the unlikely event anybody ever doubted it, Reba McEntire is as country as they come. Back in southeast Oklahoma, where she got her twang, Reba’s Great-Grandpap slept with chickens, her Daddy was a three-time world champion tie- down steer roper, and her Mama was a saint. ”There is a special place in heaven,” the singer assures us, ”for people as unselfish as Mama.” Practically born on horseback, Reba was herding cattle on her Daddy’s ranch before she started school. The young Reba wolfed down ”mountain oysters” (fried bull testicles) and worked her way into show business by way of rodeo barrel racing and the Kiowa High School Cowboy Band. She believes in baptism by immersion, knows she’s going to heaven when she dies, and still has the little brown hymnbook she sang from as a child in a one-room country church back in Chockie, Okla. Now Reba says she’s written Reba: My Story with Tom Carter (Bantam) to make at least one thing clear: All that stuff they’ve printed in the Star about her taking away people’s husbands is nothing but lies, lies, lies. But she did fall in love with her first husband-a steer wrestler by trade-after he threw another cowboy who had insulted Reba clean through a plateglass window. ”I was a little shocked and embarrassed by Charlie’s actions,” she confides, ”but kind of impressed too.” As for Charlie’s leaving his wife, Reba was ”shocked. Flabbergasted. Astonished.” Why, all she had ever done was sit on his lap after a few beers at a rodeo in Lubbock, Tex., and plant a kiss on his lips. Now in the long run, Charlie turned out to be a shade too bossy for an independent woman like Reba. But then the typical steer wrestler tends to be a tad aggressive. Just as your average barrel-racing, mountain-oyster-eating Oklahoma cowgirl tends to be a little on the feisty side herself. It’s one of the things that makes country music country music-and keeps divorce rates high out in the heartland, too. And if Reba and Charlie’s own breakup in ’87 turned mean and got splashed all over, that doesn’t mean she never loved him. She surely did. As she told the fan who scolded her for serving as a poor role model: ”No one is perfect but God.” Well, fine. But if Reba doesn’t want to be a role model, and she felt it necessary to write a book at all, why didn’t she write one for grown-ups? This vapid snoozer reads like a homily for a sixth-grade Sunday school class, only with more exclamation marks. Funny thing is, Reba, who married manager Narvel Blackstock in ’89, sings about tangled adult emotions all the time-in a voice that resonates with the music of the spheres. Sure, she has recorded more stinkers than any headline artist in Nashville, and somebody should tell her that while she is cuter than a speckled pup, recent videos that try to give her an image of Hollywood glamour succeed mostly in making her look awkward. But when Reba gets it right in songs like ”Whoever’s in New England,” she can leave a person just sitting there in the pickup all teary-eyed and laughing at the same time. Her autobiography, however, is pure saccharine. SOMEHOW YOU DO. Reba is giving fans their first taste of new music in two years today with the release of the original song and brand new music video for “Somehow You Do” from the motion picture Four Good Days. We’ve waited as long as we possibly could to make a decision, but unfortunately we’re not going to be able to play our 2021 Reba: Live In Concert dates. As much as I wish we could get back out on the road, it’s just not possible yet. Reba is set to premiere her All The Women I Am concert special exclusively on YouTube this Friday, March 12, marking the first time the concert has been available digitally and in its entirety, including her signature “Fancy” encore. Top 20 Best-Selling Country Artists of All Time: No. 8 Reba McEntire. Reba McEntire has been a fiery force in country music for more than 40 years. The Oklahoma native has earned multiple No. 1 hits, No. 1 albums, Grammy Awards, and Entertainer of the Year Awards (CMA 1986, ACM 1995). Reba is No. 8 on our list of the Top 20 Best-Selling Country Artists of All Time, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Reba has sold more units than any female artist in the country genre—sans our No. 6 artist (coming in two weeks) and No. 3 artist (coming in five weeks). The RIAA tracks domestic album sales in the U.S. with its rock-solid certifications: Gold (500,000 units), Platinum (1 million units), Multi-Platinum (2 million units and more), and Diamond (10 million units). No. 20: Carrie Underwood No. 19: Johnny Cash No. 13: Kenny Chesney No. 12: Willie Nelson. No. 8: Reba McEntire. 41 Million Units Sold 9 Multi-Platinum Albums 10 Platinum Albums 8 Gold Albums 1 Platinum Singles 4 Gold Singles. The Great & Powerful Reba. Reba has an astounding nine Multi-Platinum albums and 10 Platinum albums to her name. Her 1993 album, Greatest Hits Volume Two , has been certified 5X Platinum for sales of 5 million units. Reba’s best-selling studio album is 1991’s For My Broken Heart . Buoyed by the No. 1 title track and No. 1 single “Is There Life Out There,” For My Broken Heart has been certified 4X Platinum for sales of 4 million units. Fancy Work. Reba’s best-selling single is also her signature hit, “Fancy.” The tune is Reba’s only single that has been certified Platinum for sales of 1 million units. Released in 1991, “Fancy” became a Top 10 hit for Reba. It is also the tune that Reba sings as an encore for most of her live performances. In addition, Reba can claim four Gold singles: “Does He Love You,” “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia,” “Because of You,” and “Consider Me Gone.” In Defense Of Reba. Reba McEntire’s career is an allegory of tenacity and talent. After releasing more than a dozen singles, Reba didn’t reach the top of the charts until 1983’s “Can’t Even Get the Blues.” She can now claim 24 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Reba didn’t score a No. 1 album until her 10th studio album, Whoever’s in New England , in 1986. Reba can now claim 13 No. 1 albums on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. Many artists would have packed it up after toiling away in anonymity, but not Reba McEntire.