Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 22, 1993 TAG: 9310220047
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
But then, that shouldn't come as a surprise. She has been country music's wildest woman for more than 20 years - and proud of it.
Still, her candor during a recent telephone interview was somewhat startling, given the warm and fuzzy dribble the rest of Nashville dishes out these days.
Tucker, 35, talked over lunch: cornbread, ham, fried squash, green beans, cole slaw and potatoes. "My cook, she's great," Tucker said as she chewed.
She will play the Salem Civic Center tonight.
The good food is all part of that eating-right, exercising-right, living-right lifestyle thing that she embraced after kicking a cocaine and alcohol habit in 1988.
Not that the old urges aren't there. "Sometimes, you want to go out and really get wasted," she admitted.
At least she's honest.
More often, Tucker opts for biking or aerobics, although lately she said she has been slacking off on both. "I haven't done a lot because it has been my birthday, which lasts about a week."
Bicycling is what she really enjoys, especially when on the road. She takes bikes on her tour bus and stops between towns to ride in the country.
It's the only way, she said.
On tour, she can't bike in town because of the traffic and the attention she often draws. Going to a local gym is worse. "I can't work out without a million people staring at me."
Meanwhile, Tucker just released an exercise video, "Tanya Tucker Country Workout," which is being promoted as the first exercise tape with an all-country music soundtrack.
Tucker said she had the all-country idea about 10 years ago when Jane Fonda first got into the exercise video racket. But country wasn't cool back then, so Tucker didn't pursue the idea.
Then, when country got hot, it was Tucker who was pursued by the Maier Group, creators of the "Buns of Steel" videos. It was a low-impact match made in heaven.
"We're not saying that I'm an exercise guru," she said. However, she hopes the video does well enough at least to mandate a sequel or two.
Maybe then she can slow down her music career a notch. Tucker will perform 250 concerts this year. She would like to cut back to 150 shows next year, if possible, and eventually to 50 or 60 shows a year.
"But that'll be when I have a couple of more kids," she said.
Already, Tucker has two: Presley Tanita, 4, and Beau Grayson, 2, both by actor Ben Reed.
Tucker and Reed are not married, and there are no plans to get hitched anytime soon. "When we know, we're gonna let everybody else know," she said.
Either way, Tucker's lifestyle improvements have improved her standing in Nashville. Just when she needed it, too. Both musically and personally, Tucker had just about hit rock bottom.
This was in the mid-1980s, 10 years after she graced the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, after she became a teen-age sensation with the song "Delta Dawn," and after an embarrassing foray into rock that nearly ruined her.
It was also after high-profile involvements with Glen Campbell and Andy Gibb that both turned equally bad.
For three years, Tucker went without any record contract at all and finally ended up in the Betty Ford Center for her addictions.
Then, she made her way back - with a vengeance. Her string of hits since 1988 have been impressive: "Walkin' Shoes," "It Won't Be Me," "Down to My Last Teardrop," "Some Kind of Trouble," "If Your Heart Ain't Busy Tonight," "Two Sparrows in a Hurricane" and "It's a Little Too Late."
In 1991, her image turnaround complete, she received the ultimate Nashville compliment, winning the Female Vocalist of the Year award from the Country Music Association.
She was nominated for the same award again this year, but lost out to Mary-Chapin Carpenter. It was disappointing, she said, but she didn't expect to win.
"I never do," she said.
"It's total politics, and it's a game I don't play. Never have."
She pointed to Loretta Lynn. Why didn't she win Female Vocalist? "Hell, she sings as good as she ever has," Tucker said. "It's all a popularity contest."
Tucker was similarly candid about some of her singing peers.
On Trisha Yearwood, she said: "It seems like to me that the people with the worst attitudes sometimes make it the fastest."
On Wynonna Judd, she said: "She barely speaks to me."
The same goes with Patty Loveless. Tucker is puzzled by the cold shoulders. Maybe they're just shy, she guessed. Or intimidated.
"I'm always Miss Friendly," she said.
As far as her image goes, Tucker doesn't give it much thought. She acknowledged that hers has changed over the years, but can't pinpoint exactly how.
It will probably change again. Five years from now, who knows?
"I'll be demure," she joked.
"Things change, and so will I," she added more seriously.
Her goal is a simple one. It doesn't involve changing the world or any other such lofty ambition. It is honest, like Tucker.
"I just want to make as much money as I can."
by CNB