Rita Wilson on Husband Tom Hanks: ‘I’m Going to Be the One With the Grammy’
Rita Wilson is currently recording her second album, her first of original material. The actress, singer and wife of Tom Hanks confirms that she is in the process of writing and recording new songs for a follow-up release to her 2012 debut.
“I’m working on a second one,” Wilson told Rolling Stone last week at An Unforgettable Evening, a Beverly Hills charity event to benefit breast cancer research, where the actress served as Honorary Chair. “I’ve written two original songs with Kara DioGuardi and Jason Reeves that I’m really excited about. She’s such an amazing songwriter. That’s the next round, an album of original material.”
Wilson, who performed a week of shows at New York’s 42 Below last month, previously released AM/FM, a collection of classics from the Sixties and Seventies, on the Decca label. That album, which featured appearances by artists including Chris Cornell, Sheryl Crow and Jackson Browne, marked Wilson’s first foray into music. As it turns out, that was never meant to be a one-off release. The actress says music – of all styles – is an integral part of her career.
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“I feel like music is like water,” Wilson said. “I have to have music on. It can change your mood. It can make you jump up and down, it can chill you out, it can get you going. It’s the one thing I can’t live without. [I like to listen to] all different types.”
Although the disc has yet to receive a title or a release date, she does have an end goal in mind. And it’s one at which she hopes to best her husband, who was recently nominated for a Tony for Best Lead Actor for his current role in Lucky Guy on Broadway.
“I’m going to be the one with the Grammy,” Wilson said. “[Tom]’s gotta back off the Grammy. It was actually funny, because Colin [Hanks] and I both did Broadway before Tom, and there aren’t many things that you can say that you’ve done before Tom, because he gets there quickly. But I’m shutting him out of the Grammys.”