Singer LeAnn Rimes set to release two discs, ‘have a life’
Written by Vicki L. Kroll | | news@toledofreepress.comLeAnn Rimes has amassed some eye-popping statistics since 1996:
- More than 40 singles, including “How Do I Live,” “Can’t Fight the Moonlight” and “I Need You,” on the charts;
- Sales exceeding 16.5 million discs, according to the Recording Industry Association of America; and
- Three Grammy Awards, three Academy of Country Music Awards and 12 Billboard Music Awards.
She just turned 28.
What’s next?
“My biggest goal is to have a life,” she said and laughed. “I think once I was 13 and even before that — that’s the funny thing that people don’t see — in Dallas, where I lived, I sang in a show every Saturday night from the time I was 7 until the time I got my record deal when I was 11, so it’s something that I’ve been doing my whole life.
“I’m wanting to write more as far as the music side of things and continue to just grow as an artist,” she said. “Family is really important to me. Who knows what will happen in the next few years; I’m just trying to roll with it. There’re a lot of good things that I think are coming my way.”
Rimes
It’s a work in progress. In 2009, Rimes filed for divorce from her husband after meeting actor Eddie Cibrian while filming “Northern Lights.”
“I think I’m very honest with my experience, and I think there are women out there that have been through a divorce and that can relate,” Rimes said during a call from a tour stop in Charlotte, N.C. “We all are faced with different challenges, and I think you can either sit there and wallow in your misery, or you can move forward. No one can help you other than you, and no one can make things better; you have to do it yourself.”
Rimes is moving forward with her music, working on two discs — an untitled CD featuring some of her own material and “Lady and Gentlemen,” a collection of cover songs.
“I wanted [‘Lady and Gentlemen’] to be all my favorite classic country songs originally recorded by men but now from a woman’s perspective, so a bit of a twist on it. And I called Vince Gill and asked if he would produce it, and we just had a blast working on this album,” she said. “ ‘Swingin’,’ the first single off of it, was something that I grew up listening to from basically the time I was born, and I just love the song.”
She returned to the studio to record a couple of bonus tracks, including a new song and current single, “Crazy Women,” and a new version of “Blue,” the song that catapulted her to stardom in 1996.
“I think the sound of the album kind of takes me back and my fans back to that original sound of ‘Blue,’ and I thought what a cool way as an addition to the record for my fans 15 years later to have a new version of that song with me as an adult not a 13-year-old,” she said.
Fans can hear songs from the forthcoming “Lady and Gentlemen” and some new material, including “What Have I Done,” when Rimes plays a 7:30 p.m. concert Nov. 19 at the Ritz Theatre in Tiffin. Tickets range from $40 to $90. Hunter Hayes will open.
When she gets some downtime, Rimes likes to cook.
“It’s kind of cathartic, you know, being able to cook for people that you love, to see them enjoy it, and just kind of chill and have a glass of wine,” she said. “I’m excited to be one of the chefs in the kitchen this Thanksgiving and actually be confident at it and know I won’t burn anything.”
Tags: LeAnn Rimes, Vicki L. Kroll, Vince Gill
