Lauren Hutton interviews Linda Davis 6/8/96 transcript

[Music] self-described country girl from Texas tonight's guest latest release is some things are meant to be with a Grammy under her belt country singer Linda Davis seems meant to be a star and she's here with us tonight Linda thanks for coming thank you you are very first country singer well I'm proud to be named in hope I'll make him proud back home I think you have been performing since she was six years old right since I was little on the Louisiana Hayride yeah what was that well a lot of folks that followed country music through the years remember Elvis Presley started out singing at the Louisiana Hayride it was it was like a family type show a band would be there and a lot of artists would be a guest and the the audience would be full of screaming fans in this radio it was radio but folks could pay a ticket and come to watch it too but it did go out over the airwaves on a radio station in Shreveport called kwk eight and they called it the cradle of the stars because the idea was if you got on the the Louisiana Hayride the next step was Nashville the Grand Ole Opry so it's it's got a legacy that I'm very proud I got to to be a part of it I'm still waiting to be accepted into the Grand Ole Opry membership but that day will come too I think it will did you ever want to do anything else besides saying never I was about third grade I remember you start to school beginning of the year the teachers trying to get to know the children and and she says okay y'all write a little paper about what you want to do when you grow up and I remember right and I want to be a country star I want to sing and that's all I've ever wanted to do and I'm very glad that I found it early because I think it gave me something to focus on and kept me out of a lot of trouble mm-hmm let's take a look at a video it's a title cut from your album some things are meant to be I got a question for you cuz you've seen yourself on film unprinted can you enjoy that or do you pick it apart so much that you're always looking for something to fix and make better you are generally looking how to make it better it's very hard to keep the professional eye that you've grown right looking but sometimes it's just lets go you say oh pretty good yeah we've got to take a break we'll be right back with country singer Linda Davis we're back with country singer Linda Davis whose new CD I was going albums or some things are meant to be I got a quote for you okay of yours you said when it's just your voice and you on piano it's a real intimate situation you learn so much that way you find out how to get inside a song what's that like what has been inside song for about seven years I played and sang at a piano bar and many nights it was at a nice hotel there Nashville called the Sheraton Music City so I was in a setting that was very comfortable and pretty so I felt good about my job and I would sit there night after night many times the tables would be empty and many times it might be full folks were talking waiting to go to dinner and have a drinks or whatever and they wouldn't listen so I found I enjoyed the quiet nights the empty nights better wasn't good for business but I enjoyed the quiet nights best because I could sit there and basically entertain myself I would do demos during the day for songwriters and learn their song put it on tape so they can then go pitch it to a big artist and hopefully get it cut so the songwriters right so the songs that I would do during the day in the studios I'd bring them to work with me at night and I'd sit there with nobody telling me what they wanted to hear I knew what I wanted to so I would do those songs and just phrase them and feel them and try to make them mine and what I had learned I would change it I would just strip all that away and and just pretty much claim it so it's like a rehearsal hall great fabulous so now let me get this straight you started off singing on the on the radio and then when did you make the big jump to Nashville well that was when I was 19 years old I graduated high school and went one year to a junior college but my heart wasn't in books I knew I wanted to sing and I knew Nashville was where all that was happening for country music anyway the opportunity came I had a friend one friend and I didn't know him very well but he had a partner they were looking for a female singer and he remembered me from when I was 15 when I went to Nashville and made a little record and he thought I had some talent so he tells his friend says I got this kid in Texas won't you give her a shot I flew to Nashville not knowing anything or anybody my parents were just as gold boys I was their size they they probably were but they knew I wanted this so bad and and we just kind of went with our instinct and and we're glad we did after I went to Nashville that time I then moved about a year later and made it my home and I haven't looked back I've made a lot of friends along the way some of the things disappointed me didn't turn out I'm sure you can relate to that a lot of things looks like this is gonna be it gonna make me go oh that oh is that a mountain yeah and it doesn't so you have to be strong in times like that fortunately I met who was now my husband Lange Scott I met him early on and we were each other's anchor and support Lange's loves the business that's what he moved to town for so he understood that passion and the drive and he was there to pick me up when my you know my boat would sink and and I hope I've been there for him too but it's it's been a a long time 13 years now since I've lived in that city trying to to make a living and it's all paying off I don't have the horror stories that a lot of people probably do but it's how early did you find Lange about two months into to live in there we pretty much weather today oh you've been protected that's good it wasn't meant to be there - yeah I read that you did jingles for Kentucky Fried Chicken yeah and Pepsi yep the chicken one made me the most money so I remember it would you sing it would you like we did love to don't make you hungry thank you I had to give up Kentucky Fried Chicken on the flavor oh my goodness well it's fight off for you but I'll have your part too after I leave okay it goes like this welcome home welcome back to Kentucky Fried Chicken a little bit of home in your heart you're never too far succumb as you are Kentucky Fried Chicken is home something funny I came to NASA know we're in New York I came to New York for the first time in my life to do that jingle I'm telling you country come to town I came here didn't even know how to catch a cab I got to the big airport and I just kind of watched people and tried to do what they did to find a cab got down to Manhattan where I did the jingle and something that I'll never forget Michael Bolton came in and did harmony on that jingle Wow he may not even remember it but I do he was a backup singer he was that day and he's going on to do some major things certainly is we got to take a break we'll be right back with country singer Linda Davis I'm back with country singer and ended how hard is it to find great songs to fill up an entire album that process never ends in fact you finished one and you're always stockpiling for the next and the songs to me is the most important thing I don't write I can't depend on my writing to supply my needs but I have many friends from the demo work I told you about doing I've made a lot of friends and publishers and writers that that look after me when it's time for me to find songs for my album I call them personally I'll go to their office and sit and listen literally hundreds and hundreds of cassette tapes I hear and listen to over and over then I call them down I get maybe 25 that I love sometimes I'll even go in and do what we call pre-production that's just with the guitar or a piano vocal and take everything kind of strip it away like I used to do in the piano bar just put my voice on it and see if it really is something that I'm crazy about one of the songs from your latest album is the glass Knights classic you remember that one well new one how you gonna say neither one of those data I say patata you know you remember the original then Gladys Knight's version me too I used to do that me and just the pen and I took tried to take away the R&B stuff that I can't do that's not my style but the song is so strong and powerful it translates into country I think beautifully and with the encouragement of some folks around me my manager and and different ones that have heard me sing that song through the years they said Linda you really ought to put it on this album so I got in the studio the musicians were gathered around me I sat down at the pen and I said okay this is how Linda does it all of those fellas remember the original and I said please don't take me there because that's not me I am country so I played them what I did with the song on the pen and they went to their instruments and it in two takes we had it that still gets hard you can't deny it's country with the steel guitar on it and it just fits me it's the mood that I I'm in when I sing that song the song writer Jim Weatherly called me about two weeks ago he left a message on my answering machine and he said he liked it and when he gave me his approval that meant the world to me you bet you bet you have toured and played with Reba McEntire who has been a big supporter and extraordinarily generous to you what has she taught you about the business what do you serve so much just watching her even when I'm in the shadows on the side of the stage or in the back or I'm not lit or I'm not the the feature I stand back there and watch her work and her audience her fans are so loyal to her but she's loyal to them she chooses songs that they can relate to that's been a real good lesson for me and just choosing my songs watching what works for her and other female artists that I love it's choosing the songs I've watched her do that I watched her on stage she gives them a hundred and fifty percent every night her vocals she's so particular about her vocals she doesn't quit when it's almost there she waits and gets it until it is there there's just so many things but she's just been a sweet friend not only as a professional friend to get to sing with her and have some fun success out of a song that we did does he love you but as a person she's just a consistent friend and we don't have many of those in our lives I I read that she gave you a song and she said here I want you to take this because I want you to have a hit and I know this is gonna be a hit she did it and she let lent her own voices - on the vocals - when your toes yeah in in our industry songs are we've talked about that this conversation they are and they're hard to find the real good ones so to have another artist offer one from their little stockpile to another artist is rare but Reba is the friend and she believed in this song and she believes in me and she said I have this on hold for my next but you need a hit and she just believes in me and she she said here if you don't like it give it back but if you like it you take it and make it special and it is on the album it's called there isn't one but the song that she's singing with me I got to sing with her on her album and now she's singing with me on mine it's caught if I could live your life it's cut number ten and I'm so proud it's on there the story is about two women better live in totally different lives one is and you could associate that with Reba and her lifestyle she wears designer clothes she travels and stays in beautiful places and sees the world and the other character in this song is a mom and she stays home and raises her children and goes to the PTA meetings so each is looking into the other life and wondering what would that be like without knowing though that they could never be that or would they want to for much more than a couple days yeah they're both very happy with what they do and supportive of each other too it's nice when you start finally realizing that that's always the way ya in it so you don't really have to think about anyone let's take a break we'll be right back with country singer Linda Davis know we're back with a beautiful country singer Linda Davis whose latest CD is some things are meant to be you work and travel with your husband yeah lang Scott that's right what's that like I have a little acquaintance of working with your bathroom with your lover yes in our case it works great because come on don't leave me now let me tell you the first time first five years of our marriage we worked opposite he worked in the day I did him a thing at night so we crossed paths and that was not fun yes every time no time we were very selfish of the time we did have on the weekends we had Hilary she was just a little thing and I'd watch her in the day or get help when I did demos Lange would come home and I'd give her to him as he came to the door and he was mr. mom at night which is good because they have a real close bond but now Lang is in Reba's band and we traveled together and he's got his bunk I have my bunk great birth control but still we are together and it works good I mean he he gives me a lot of freedom to be my creative kind of not necessarily thinking about detail first thing that I am he keeps it together he's the only reason we have anything that's good you had your daughter Hillary is the one you were just talking about how does how often do you get to be with her how do you do that with her on the you being on the road both of you the way our little tour works is mainly weekend's maybe a Thursday Friday Saturday we're back home Sunday maybe 30 phrase 30 sunny back home Monday so during the week we're there for her oh good there's a few times a year that the the routine for the country artist is to go to Canada maybe do some west coast things which take about seven to two weeks seven days to two weeks so that would be the longest stint to be gone during the summer she goes with us a lot so your children know you yes that's yes it's quality I'd get it back you can't get that time back listen she's growing up too fast and I already that's what they do miss enough just by being gone on the weekends but she's that's all she's ever known her mommy and daddy to be in the music business she's not that impressed or carried away with it and she keeps us grounded is she singing she can now get me on her we'll talk about her all day but she's got a beautiful voice in fact she brings me to tears about every time she sings with her you know children's voices are so angelic she has a good ear she started piano lessons so if she wants to do this for a living I'll encourage her but she also may decide to run the opposite way yeah there's a song in country music you know who Loretta Lynn is sure she's like what country music is she had a song called you ain't woman enough to take my man that was one of my main songs when I was six or seven and it really got him on their feet you ain't woman and I'm taking my man I didn't realize I was a novelty act I thought I was just singing good they were in thing you sing sing some of it for me oh you want me to fleece you come to tell me something you say hi oh no he don't love you anymore and I'd have to let him go you say you're gonna take him home but I don't think you can cuz you ain't woman enough to take my man imagine six years old singing that brought down the house absolutely and I thought I was just that good I thought they were liking it because I was doing it good I didn't realize what a funny oh it was so saying that was doing this thing do you do it right now that was wonderful I'm sure it was both I feel like I just sat down with you are we through is that what you're getting at you believe it it's unbelievable maybe what shows you how good you are you just like burned right through it oh thank well put her there I wish I could come go fishing with you in East Texas I'd take you see go to Lake Merv all and they got some bass to beat the band bigmouth bass and Opelousas catfish you ever heard of them oh honey I can I can canoodle I know I can catch them you know this catfish you ever big flathead so you catch him with your little finger you pretends to Warren we never did that just do it okay New Yorkers today provides yeah well here let's shake hands and I can hardly wait to watching your rise well I want you to come see a show all right be my guest all right thank you I hope you all had a good time I did and y'all come back and hear us see us you hear or hear us you see [Applause] [Music]