Everyone has a guilty pleasure.
It’s no secret that Reba McEntire, one of the queens of country music, loves herself some tater tots. There’s not a totted potato that Reba would pass on, and her go to spot to get them is none other than your normal, run-of-the-mill Sonic Drive-In.
A person’s favorite food plays a critical role in one’s life. That’s especially true if you just so happen to meet your significant other over a mutual love for the same culinary item. Reba and her boyfriend Rex Linn had known each other for much of their lifetimes, but things only clicked when tater tots got involved, as she told Drew Barrymore on her show:
“We met in 1991 doing ‘The Gambler’ movie with Kenny Rogers. He’s from Texas, I’m from Oklahoma…
We do that movie together, and then (fast forward to) 2020, right before COVID, I’m going out to do ‘Young Sheldon.’ He’s on ‘Young Sheldon.’ Melissa Peterman is on ‘Young Sheldon.’ So we were all going to go out and have dinner.”
That ended up being the couple’s first date, and at one point in the night, Melissa Peterman (A.K.A. Barbra Jean) bowed out to allow for the sparks to fly. As Reba went on to describe, the pair were drawn to one another, and one server might be able to take credit for unintentionally shooting Cupid’s arrow:
“We had dinner, and then we went down to a wine bar. And we went back to a private room and the lady comes in and says, ‘I know you all have just eaten, but we do have some really cool appetizers.'”
As soon as the server said they had tater tots, both Reba and Rex lit up at the idea. So much so that Rex ended up giving the nickname “Tater Tot” to McEntire, and not too long after, Reba gave the nickname “Sugar Tot” to Rex.
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. and Mrs. Tot.
Reba went on to talk about how compatible they are, and how she asked Rex one time why he thought they hadn’t gotten together sooner:
“(It’s) the greatest thing ever. It was just like, ‘Why now?’ So I’ve been married twice, he’s been engaged four times but never married.
I said, ‘Rex, how come you and I have known each other this entire time but we never got together?’ He said, ‘Probably because you would have killed me.'”
Sometimes it’s about meeting the right person at the right time. It seems like that’s the case for Reba and Rex, and you can hear more about it in the interview below:
Oh, and by the way, while we are talking about Reba, Netflix dropped some major news today.
Reba, the sitcom that ran in the early 2000s, is coming to the streaming platform in May. Prepare to binge one of the greatest sitcoms of all time if you’ve never seen it, and if you have watched the show, this was probably your response to hearing it was on its way to Netflix:
