Off The Record
She Lived With A ‘Cruel’ Dad, Yet Became Country Star And Found True Love
Reba McEntire has been performing professionally since her early teens, but there was something unique about McEntire that catapulted her into the public eye.
She told The Washington Post, “There are a lot of people, a lot of girl singers, who are 10,000 times better than me.” “They lack motivation. Their work ethic is lacking. They don’t enjoy it as much as I do, nor do they have the desire to.”
The fiery-haired McEntire would have to make some significant compromises in her life because of her extraordinary desire.
Although McEntire seems to have it all in the public eye and is a reliable source of lighthearted comedy on the red carpet, beneath her stunning smile is a lifetime of experiences.
This is the heartbreaking account of Reba McEntire’s life.
Reba McEntire had to fight for attention
Reba McEntire was raised in Chockie, Oklahoma, as 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.
Reba found a particular exchange between a father and daughter to be very moving. She revealed to the Post that she played basketball and participated in barrel racing as a child.
“Reba, why do you always want to do something you’re not good at?” her father once questioned her.That seemed to be his way of instructing her to concentrate on her singing, which was her strong strength, but Reba thought her dad was delivering the message poorly. “I couldn’t imagine saying that to [my son] Shelby,” she replied.
Reba McEntire’s career came first, so love had to wait
Reba McEntire first made the acquaintance of Charlie Battles in 1975, just before her career really took off. The Washington Post described him as a “former world-champion steer wrestler” who was a decade older, married, and had two children.
McEntire expressed her dismay at Battles’ decision to file for divorce from his wife to Entertainment Weekly. Startled. Surprised. When McEntire was twenty-one, she wed him.
“My singing was always taken very lightly until Charlie came along,” she told the Post.
He agreed to be her manager, but as McEntire’s career truly took off in the ’80s, that dynamic evolved.
Her husband supposedly wanted her to take it easy after she won her first Grammy award in 1986, just when she was about to take the country music world by storm.
She said to E! News, “I guess I chose my career over my marriage.”
This divorcee received major backlash
Following an 11-year relationship, Reba McEntire said to People magazine, “I was in and the next day I was out of love.”
In addition to becoming a divorcee, McEntire’s 1987 decision to divorce her spouse meant that the public would condemn her, and that the court would not be kind to her.
With her bandmate, Narvel Blackstock, McEntire bounced back. When they got married in 1988 in Lake Tahoe, California, McEntire faced harsh criticism rather than tons of support and well wishes.
“I have talked so much about my private life [in the past] that when I got this divorce, I got lambasted,” she stated to 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
In 1991, Reba McEntire had just finished a concert for a group of IBM employees in San Diego, California.
The renowned singer boarded a plane bound directly for Nashville along with a few members of her entourage.
Her remaining crew members chartered a different trip the next day from San Diego to Amarillo, Texas. Unfortunately, the plane never reached its intended location.
The Associated Press reports that when the plane crashed “just north of the Mexican border,” all ten people on board—including seven members of McEntire’s band and her road manager—were dead.
Reba is obviously quite angry, according to a statement released by the singer’s representative, Jenny Bohler.
They had all known her for a very long time. They acted as though they were relatives. She has eight deceased 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 married 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.”
Following her divorce in 2015, McEntire reportedly recovered, leaving Starstruck Entertainment to run her own business, Reba’s Business Incorporated (RBI), according to Music Row.
During a 2017 trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, she also fell in love again with wildlife photographer Anthony “Skeeter” Lasuzzo, according to Country Living. The life of the country icon could serve as evidence that “life out there“ exists even after adversity.
Was Reba McEntire’s husband unfaithful?
Narvel Blackstock, Reba McEntire’s ex-husband, moved on swiftly after their divorce was finalized in December 2015.
According to a January 2016 Page Six article, he had already entered into a new romantic connection with Laura Putty Stroud.
This wasn’t just any old chick he swiped right on, either.
The article stated that McEntire and Blackstock shared a mutual friend in Stroud!The evidence was in a picture posted to McEntire’s Instagram in June 2014, back when she and Blackstock were still very much married.
The photo showed McEntire, Stroud, and Shane Tarleton, an executive at Warner Music, together at a Katy Perry performance.
Shortly after the divorce was finalized, an insider informed Page Six that Blackstock and Stroud were “very serious,” and there were rumors that they would soon be married.
The majority of individuals would be inconsolable upon hearing such terrible news, but McEntire allegedly chose to ignore the rumors. “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?
It’s not uncommon for musicians to venture into new music markets once they achieve success in one genre. In “Despacito” and “Irreemplazable,” Justin Bieber and Beyoncé, respectively, took their hand at singing in Spanish with success.
Reba McEntire ventured into the pop and blues genres, but she also tried her hand at learning a new language. Regrettably, a few of her admirers have not encouraged her.
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.”
Luckily, there was no clobbering required. After Clarkson and Blackstock got married in October 2013, McEntire and Narvel Blackstock’s divorce in 2016 completely upended the dynamics of the family.
Although McEntire’s rough divorce made their friendship more difficult than before, the country music icon didn’t want to put Clarkson, her stepchildren, or Shelby Blackstock, the son she has with Narvel, at odds with one another.
A acquaintance told Closer Weekly, “She leaned on others who weren’t family because she didn’t want to tear the family apart.”
It pains us that McEntire had to turn to others for solace during such a trying time in her life, even if she and Clarkson are resolved not to let anything “minor” sever their relationship.
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