Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 5, 1993 TAG: 9311050023
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Reba McEntire chuckled about it, about the brouhaha, about making the cover of The Star, with its screaming headline that Reba's mother was shocked and appalled.
"That was great," McEntire said in a recent telephone interview from her Nashville home. "That's great publicity."
McEntire, who plays the Roanoke Civic Center Sunday, loved the dress, a flashy red number that cut generously across the cleavage. She wore it to last month's Country Music Association awards program.
She said her mother loved the dress, too. She only had one criticism: "She said, Reba, you just need more rhinestones."
How The Star turned that into shocked and appalled is anybody's guess. McEntire chuckled again. She said her mother told her she ought to sue. But why bother? Nobody believes the tabloids, anyway.
Like she said, it was good publicity. Everyone who walked into a supermarket that week probably saw her. They could judge for themselves whether the dress was a shocker.
Fashion aside, McEntire took the subject of her aspiring film career much more seriously. After so-so roles in the film, "Tremors," and the TV movies, "The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw," and "The Man From Left Field," she was eager to discuss her next part - in Rob Reiner's "North."
Scheduled for a spring release, "North" chronicles the story of a boy who divorces his biological parents and travels around testing out possible replacements.
McEntire and Dan Ackroyd play one set of the possible replacement parents. She described them as your stereotypical bigger-than-life Texans. "Very flamboyant," she said.
"We kind of overpower him a little bit."
Other actors in the film include Bruce Willis, Meg Ryan, Graham Greene and Kathy Bates. Reiner is currently one of the film industry's top directors.
McEntire said she hopes working in such company will boost her Hollywood stature. She has often said one of her big career goals is to someday win an Oscar.
McEntire said she has never had any formal acting lessons. "Just on-the-job training," she said. But she does not rule them out in the future. "If someone tells me I need them."
Right now, however, she is more concerned about how her movie work is effecting her 3-year-old son, Shelby. She said he doesn't completely understand, for example, why she was dancing with Burt Reynolds in "The Man From Left Field."
"You're supposed to be dancing with my daddy," he said.
McEntire said he doesn't understand, either, just who Burt Reynolds is. "He's like Barney," she explained. "Barney's on television and so's Burt."
Meanwhile, on the musical front, McEntire continues to roll.
Her last three albums, "Rumor Has It," "For My Broken Heart" and "It's Your Call" have been the biggest-sellers of her career so far. She also has released a second collection of greatest hits.
Her current hit, "Does He Love You," a duet with the backup singer in her band, Linda Davis, has been riding the top of the country charts. It was the song she performed with Davis on the CMA awards show - in the dress.
McEntire said Davis is slated to continue touring with her into next year. After that, who knows? With the success of the duet, chances are she will be out on her own. "Everyone's just in love with her over at Arista."
So, the pair should be together in Roanoke. And Sunday's concert should be vintage Reba, complete with elaborate staging and multiple costume changes.
"It's very theatrical," she said.
Indeed, from her albums to her videos to her singing and live show, such lavish production has more and more become her signature.
Originally, though, McEntire started out on a smaller scale.
She was one of four children raised on an Oklahoma cattle ranch. Her father was a rodeo rider. Her mother was a teacher.
McEntire got her break in music early on, when Nashville songwriter Red Steagall saw her perform the national anthem at the 1974 National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City.
She started recording for Polygram Records, but had only marginal success at first. It wasn't until she jumped labels to MCA - after seven albums with Polygram - that her career really blossomed.
In 1984, she released the album, "My Kind of Country," which aligned her with the new traditionalist movement that was beginning to establish itself in Nashville. That same year, she earned the first of four consecutive CMA Female Vocalist of the Year awards.
Then in 1986, she released "Whoever's in New England," which began her shift away from purism and toward a bigger and more crossover-oriented sound.
That year, she was named CMA's Entertainer of the Year.
She has continued to roll since, with only two serious trip-ups: a divorce from her first husband and the death of her road band and longtime road manager in a plane crash.
McEntire got through both by working.
In fact, she has gone now beyond music and movies. Her Nashville management firm also operates a jet charter service and a Thoroughbred horse farm, among other interests. Three of her horses raced just last weekend at Belmont.
McEntire also has remarried.
So, what will come next? An Oscar would be nice, but otherwise, she said, she is more content now than she has ever been.
Album sales are up, concert attendance is up, Hollywood is taking notice and her businesses all are growing. What else is left?
The cover of The National Inquirer?
Shuttle buses to the Roanoke Civic Center from the Williamson Road parking garage will be running Sunday night, beginning at 6:15. Both the shuttle service and parking in the garage are free.
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