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Gretchen Wilson was born and raised in rural Pocahontas,
Ill., 36 miles due east of St. Louis, where numerous
trailer parks are clustered among cornfields and pig
farms. Her mother was 16 years old when she had Gretchen,
and her father, unfortunately, had moved on with his
life by the time she was 2. Whenever they couldn't make
rent, which was every few months, they packed up what
little belongings they owned and moved down the road
only to find yet another trailer.
With only an eighth-grade education, she was cooking
and tending bar at Big O's, a rough-and-tumble bar five
miles outside of town, alongside her mom at age 14.
A year later and living on her own, she was managing
the roughneck joint with a loaded 12-gauge double-barrel
shotgun stashed behind the bar for protection.
The father she never really knew provided her with the
musical talent to sing. "My dad just picked around
on the guitar and has a quiet voice," Gretchen
says. She made it a point to meet him for the first
time when she was 12. "His family, I'm told, had
a little traveling band. I think it was a gospel band."
In any case, from an early age she could sing. Long
before karaoke machines, she got up on stage every night
at Big O's with a microphone and sang along to various
CDs for tips. She soon found herself fronting a cover
band and for the first time she felt like maybe there
was a life for her outside Bond County. She moved to
Nashville in 1996.
Wilson became somewhat discouraged after a brief encounter
with a local musician, whom she happened to recognize
at a Nashville music shop. She asked for advice, and
he said she needed to create a buzz. It would take her
four long years to figure out what he meant. In the
meantime, she got a job slinging drinks at a bar in
Printers Alley.
A few years later, and now with a daughter, she still
had no luck in terms of getting a record deal. One Friday
night, singer-songwriters Big Kenny and John Rich (of
Big & Rich) walked into the bar and heard her sing
with the house band. She remembers, "John followed
me up to my little cubby hole bar upstairs with his
trench coat and cowboy hat and I think his exact words
were, 'Hey, how come you ain't got a record deal yet?'
I looked at him in disgust … threw him a business
card and a little homemade demo and said, 'I'm busy.
I'm working right now.'"
For months he tried getting in touch with her, and for
months she ignored his calls until someone finally said,
"Look, you should really return his call. He might
be able to help you out." He not only introduced
her to his circle of friends -- "they started to
use me singing on some demos" -- but he also taught
her how the Nashville songwriting community really works.
She also became a member of the Muzik Mafia, a loose-knit
group of singers, songwriters and musicians who get
together to jam (and party) every Tuesday in a local
Nashville nightspot. It was in front of her peers --
very honest peers -- that she honed her songwriting
style.
She later signed with Sony Music Nashville.
Wilson released her first single, "Redneck Woman,"
in early 2004. Her debut album on Sony's Epic label
is expected later in the year. |
