Tanya Tucker Preps New Album and Tour
Tanya Tucker, who burst onto the country music scene at 13 years old in 1972 – and was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone just two years later – is getting ready to release her first new music since 2009’s My Turn. In a statement announcing the new LP, Tucker also announced that she’s also going back on tour, following a break during which she was focused on raising her children.
“I’ve taken a few years off and it is time to get back on the road. I’m really excited to perform all the hits that the fans love so much and sing a few new songs that I’ve been working on,” says Tucker, who last year unveiled a Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum exhibit detailing her extraordinary life and career.
Tucker was named CMA Female Vocalist of the Year in 1991 (news she received while lying in a hospital bed the day her second of three children, son Beau Grayson, was born). That same year, her then-Capitol Records labelmate, Garth Brooks, was CMA Entertainer of the Year. Now 56, Tucker is mindful of the challenges that older, established artists face when trying to release new music.
“We need to get this music out,” the singer told Rolling Stone Country in an exclusive interview last year. “Garth did it finally. He did what I tried to do, but I just had the wrong group of people around me. He did it the right way. But that’s all a bridge over untroubled water. It depends on what part of the river you’re on, what bridge you’re on. I’ve burned a few and I’ve built a few. Someone told me one time that I’m part of the old that can hang with the new [artists]. ‘You just might be the bridge between the two: Tanya ‘The Bridge’ Tucker’ [Laughs].”
The “Delta Dawn” singer also noted that she still has a sense of urgency about performing, recording and ultimately succeeding in the music business, but that she also enjoys her time away from the spotlight.
“I think, ‘I’m running out of time, I’m running out of time.’ But, then again, I enjoy kicking back,” she says of the balance between work and play. “But if I kick back too much, I think I’m lazy. I’m not doing what I should be doing. ‘Oh, there’s a spot right there. I need to clean that.’ I had that from the beginning, ‘Hey, I’m nine years old, let’s get to it!’ The urgency is still there but it’s there in a different way. I’m more urgent to help others and in creating a better world. I know it sounds really lame but if I can use my music to help others, then that’s what I’d like to do. It’s about making this world a better place and trying to change things that have been wrong a long time.”
Tucker’s new LP is expected to be released later this year.