Spring Break
Jessica Simpson, a country singer?
MCT
Issue date: 2/5/09 Section: Features
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Truth to tell, Simpson didn't exactly see Nashville as part of her star journey, either. But believe the transformation.
"I didn't set out or say to myself, 'I'm going to make a country record,' or anything like that," Simpson said in a recent phone interview. "There were just songwriters in Nashville I wanted to write music with. And what we did ended up being country. It's just more of who I am."
"I never looked at country as being too far removed from what I had been doing. But then I never really felt that, in the pop world, I owned everything I was doing. The music was a bit more scattered. I would have five or six producers on a record, which didn't help the consistency or the flow. For me to do a focused record, to really tell the story of the experiences I've been through in life, was important. Going to Nashville and writing with those writers helped me dig into a deeper side of myself."
The country version of Simpson seems to be a solid sell. Her debut country album, "Do You Know," hit No. 1 on the country charts and No. 4 on the pop charts upon its release last fall. A convincingly contemporary Nashville single called "Come on Over" has won considerable airplay.
But then Simpson, 28, is used to big numbers. The four pop albums that the native Texan has released in the past decade have all achieved gold or platinum status. The country conversion, it seems, was as much a cry for credibility as anything else. Her music has always been a hit, but it paled next to the profile that Simpson created offstage, beginning with the 2003 MTV reality series "Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica" that chronicled the early days of her marriage, which eventually failed, to pop singer Nick Lachey. Since then, her celebrity romances have gained as much attention in the tabloids as her music has on the charts.
"I don't know if you ever get used to tabloids and people making up stories about you and writing about you when you're not really attached to it, like you would be if you were giving an interview," she said. "You never get used to that. But there is a way to not allow that to be your focus. I really just have to detach myself from the world of gossip and preconceived ideas."
"They've been writing about me for a long time. And for some reason, people still want [to] read it all. Sometimes it definitely gets frustrating. But that's why I write music: so people can get to know the real me."
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