Trisha Yearwood Opens Exhibit

Trisha Yearwood has opened her closets and storage spaces to the public, allowing her fans a chance to see items she’s collected and saved from her 25 year career.  The exhibit, “Trisha Yearwood: The Song Remembers When,” is on display now at the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum in Nashville.  Trisha was there for the opening, and gave us a special preview:

First of all, I’m never at a loss for words, but I’m pretty much freakin’ out right now.  My mother was the president of my fan club for the first five years of my career, plus she was my mom, so she saved everything from childhood on.  I’m excited about the things that are career-worthy that you’ll see and think that was cool.  But there’ll also pictures from before, my yearbook picture, my Silvertone guitar that I had as a kid.  Then on the other side, my wedding to Garth was a private affair, and there aren’t many photos, and the dresses are there.  In our relationship, I am not the crier in the couple, but I feel like I could cry at any moment, and if that’s so, good luck with him, cause he’ll probably be in a puddle.

Where did the items come from?  Back to my mother, my mom’s been gone for 4 years, and the house we grew up in had 40 years of memories in it.  We sold that house a couple years ago, and when we did, Beth & I went into the basement and took everything we would want to have, and it’s all sitting in a garage at my house in Goodlettsville.  So when this happened, at least all the career stuff was easy to go through.  It was easy because my mom did all the legwork.  So I’d come off tour and go through the garage and look through stuff.

One of the items in the exhibit is a test from college where you got 100.  Explain that: I was proud of the fact that I was an A student, although no one asked me when I got a record deal to see my diploma.  But when I went to Belmont, I knew I wanted to sing, but wanted to learn about the business.  I had a class taught by Skip Ewing’s manager, and we studied his contract.  For the final, I took the test, it was all essay, and I got 100, and he offered me a job as his assistant.  That job led to a job as the receptionist at MTM Records.  In that building is where things started, that was the catalyst.  That test was an important part of my history, even though I didn’t know it was going to.

How does it feel to have your things in the Hall of Fame? It’s pretty surreal.  I wanted to sing since I was 5 years old, so when I moved to Nashville, I needed to get a job.  I really wanted to work at the Hall of Fame.  That way I could be in this building with all this stuff.  It was a dream job.  I was a tour guide, we also had RCA Studio B, where Elvis recorded, and all the artifacts, and I was amazed.  The historians there would school me.  I was so happy when this building was built because would be big enough to hold it all.  So for me, going from a tour guide, it would be special for me any way, but to have that history with the Hall makes it more special.

Explain the exhibit title: The Song Remembers When just stood out.  When I’m asked which song is my favorite, that one always stands out because it’s a story song about the power of music.  So it makes sense.  My hope for fans who see the exhibit is they get to see the things they know about, but also all the little real life things that give them more insight to me as a person.

Talk about the demo that you have in the exhibit: That first recording was done in a trailer in Monticello.  There was a guy there who had a studio in a trailer and he recorded my voice.  I played piano and guitar.  My sister Beth & I went there a lot.  I think we did some Oak Ridge Boys.  The guy who owned the studio brought it to Nashville.  I was just 15 and my mom & dad wanted me to finish school and go to college.   But that was confirmation that this is what I was supposed to do.

What’s the story about the letter from Johnny Cash? I remember driving home, going to the mailbox, and seeing “House of Cash” on the return address.  What happened was I did an interview, and someone asked who I would see.  I said I’d see Johnny Cash.  Johnny saw the article and he wrote me a letter.  In it he said he liked Wrong Side of Memphis, and that was one of those things where Johnny Cash knows my name and thinks I’m cool.  I’ll never forget that.

We all embellish things in our head, but I wasn’t sure where the letter was, or what it said.  It was awesome to find it and see it said what I thought.  I am one of those who, because this is what I wanted to do, anything that’s in there is stuff I remembered.  I remember every moment.  The outfits were cool for me, because some were made by my mother.  There’s an outfit I gave to the Chamber of Commerce in Monticello that I wore on You Could Be a Star hosted by Jim Ed Brown that my mom sewed.

My mom kept a diary.  She’d listen to the Grand Ole Opry, but never knew what anyone looked like.  She came to Nashville for high school graduation in 1955, and she saw the Opry in person, and wrote about it in her diary.  Then when I became a member of the Opry, she was there with her diary, and got a lot of the members to sign it.  It was a cool moment for me seeing her become part of the Opry family as I was, so that was a wonderful memory.

I was most blown away by the things my mother saved.  There are a lot of things you won’t see, but the one thing I looked for was that Silvertone guitar.  I had a picture of it, and I knew we had it somewhere.  We looked all over.  It moved up to Goodlettsville, but it didn’t have a case.  Someone put it in one of Garth’s cases, and we found it in there.

I think this second career with cookbooks ties together with how I was raised.  The cookbooks came out of the recipes my mom had.  The cooking show is a way to keep the memories of my family alive.  It’s so much a part of my life that it makes sense.  Plus food and music is so intertwined for me, so it needed to be part of this exhibit.  One more thing, when we planned this night, I put together a list of family and friends that I wanted to be here.  I wanted them to know about it.  People I’ve known my whole life, and they’re all coming!  I’m so thrilled they’re here, because they’re part of this.

One of the items is your Barbie doll, the one that looks like you.  Explain that: I just was a part of She-roes in New York, and Barbie was part of it, and they honored some of us by making a Barbi in our likeness.  They asked what we wanted our Barbie to look like.  I said first of all I want her to be skinny.  And she’s wearing the dress I wore when I won Female Vocalist for the first time.  What’s really funny, my husband is going to kill me.  There’s a company that’s doing a Garth Brooks action figure.  They’re totally gonna date.  So far, I just pose them in inappropriate poses and take photos.  Maybe he’ll put it in his exhibit.

I’m thrilled you all are here.  This is for all of us.  This is a really special night, and I’m honored you’re here.

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Category: Photos