Hi, I’m Tanya Tucker, I’m 56, and You’re Still Hearin’ From My Ass
Seventeen years before future teenaged superstar Taylor Swift was even born, Tanya Tucker, another teen with a remarkably mature voice and an impossibly strong sense of self, debuted on the country chart with “Delta Dawn.” The haunting story of a 41-year-old woman who wanders the streets of Brownsville, Tennessee, “looking for a mysterious dark-haired man” was more than some adult singers could have tackled at the time. But for the mature-beyond-her years Tucker, the song, which Nashville record producer Billy Sherrill first heard Bette Midler sing on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, became a Top 10 country hit in 1972.
Remarkably, the Texas-born Tucker was just 13 at the time she recorded it. She would reach Number One on the Billboard country chart for the first time a year later with “What’s Your Mama’s Name” and follow that with “Blood Red and Goin’ Down,” and “Would You Lay With Me (in a Field of Stone).” Other smash hits included “Lizzie and the Rainman,” “San Antonio Stroll” and “Here’s Some Love.” All of that chart-scaling at such a young age led to the history-making achievement of 1974, when the feisty teen with the Elvis growl in her voice graced the cover of Rolling Stone with the prophetic headline, “Hi, I’m Tanya Tucker, I’m 15, You’re Gonna Hear From Me.” A year later, she signed a recording contract worth $1.4 million.
As her career progressed, Tucker’s hard-partying ways – and a series of ill-fated romances, including a tabloid-splashed one with fellow performer Glen Campbell – nearly overshadowed and threatened to outright extinguish the talent that had come to light at such an early age. After a stint at the Betty Ford Clinic and a dry spell at country radio, Tucker returned with another hot streak that included such Eighties and Nineties radio staples as “Strong Enough to Bend,” “Walking Shoes,” “Two Sparrows in a Hurricane” and “I Won’t Take Less Than Your Love,” which she recorded with Paul Overstreet and Paul Davis. On the night she gave birth to her second child, son Beau Grayson, Tucker was named the 1991 CMA Female Vocalist of the Year, an honor that was long overdue. The mother of older daughter Presley and younger daughter Layla, Tanya penned her autobiography, Nickel Dreams, in 1997, with music journalist Patsi Bale Cox. In 2009, she released her most recent album, My Turn. She continues to perform, as well as work on new music.
Although her early success in country music would leave her just as much to live up to as her wild-child reputation would leave her plenty to live down, Tucker is a shoo-in for future Hall of Fame induction. On Friday, November 14th, a special exhibit devoted to her life and career opened at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Rolling Stone Country was invited to preview some of the artifacts in the exhibit, which includes a denim suit with rhinestones spelling out “Delta Dawn,” various gowns she’s worn at awards shows and special events, and a custom-made pink motorcycle. There’s also her very first record player, a series of Elvis Presley concert tickets (not surprising for someone who was quickly branded the “female Elvis”) and, of course, her own personal copy of that 1974 Rolling Stone issue. Tucker, now 56, sat down with Rolling Stone to talk about the items in the exhibit and to share some of the memories they conjure up for her today.
Have you always kept and collected memorabilia from your career?
Like a pack rat! But as much as whatever I still have, what I’ve given away or lost is much greater, I’m sure. Like, where’s that TNT [album cover] outfit? I have no idea. There’s a watch that Glen Campbell gave me that he bought in Geneva, Switzerland. I can’t find that. I’ve got a beautiful ring that he gave me, and I would like to recover that. But I’ve got just a little bit of pretty much every era of my life. You know who was good at that? George Jones. He was kind of OCD. You’d see his closet; you could eat breakfast in there.
Your little record player in the exhibit is so sweet. When did you get that?
I got it when I was nine years old.
What was the first 45 that you ever had?
It was probably Elvis Presley, [singing in her best Elvis-like voice] “Don’t Cry Daddy.” That record player is what I used to play a song for George Jones. I ran into him one night on the lake with [Nashville restaurateur] Mario [Ferarri]. I pulled up my boat and hitched it up to Mario’s big boat. I said, “Man, Possum, I’ve got a song for you. It’s amazing I saw you today. But you’re gonna have to come out to my ranch to get it.” Sure enough, it wasn’t but a week later and here he was in his station wagon, with his Bermuda shorts on and one of those old wife-beaters. He came all the way out to the ranch all by himself? My mother answered the door and she said to me, [whispers], “Tanya, George Jones is at the door!” That’s her hero. I said, “Well, just get him some iced tea. I know what he came for but I’m not quite prepared. I thought, “What am I going to play [the record] on?” So I went and got that little turntable and I played him “Bartender’s Blues” by James Taylor. I said, “Now, you cut that and you’ll have you a hit.” So four months later he cut it. [The song became a Top 10 hit for Jones in 1978.]
Did you have a pretty big collection of records when you were growing up?
I did. I remember distinctively seeing Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night,” which Glen played on. Then next to it, I’d see an Elvis or a Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette.