When you hear about the “dark side” of the music business, people are usually referring to stuff like this.
Tanya Tucker is obviously a legend in the genre who found success at a very young age. She was just 13 years old when she recorded and released her hit song “Delta Dawn” in 1972, which I imagine came with its own set of big hurdles and challenges. Obviously, an experience most young teenagers could, and probably should, only dream of.
In 1989, Tucker gave birth to her first child, Presley Tanita Tucker, with her partner at the time, Ben Reed. They were never married, and while she was 31 years old at the time, her father, who was her manager, and her label, called a meeting because they didn’t think it was a “good look” for her to have a child as an unmarried woman.
During an interview with Clint Black on his Talking in Circles show recently, she spoke very openly about how difficult that time was, and how angry it made her that they implied her child was “illegitimate,” and that it would damage her career.
She told Black she wanted the ideal “picket fence” fairytale, but it simply wasn’t in the cards for her then:
“I wanted the picket fence and all that stuff, but it didn’t work out for me. You know, when I got pregnant with Presley, they had a meeting for the record label, my dad and them. How are we gonna handle this, because the first thing was who’s the daddy?
And it was a big thing, and this is what I couldn’t figure out… no of course, I would’ve loved to have been married and then had the baby, but it wasn’t working out for me, so it didn’t work out with the daddy. But they don’t they teach you, do you play golf? You play tennis, whatever everything is follow through. Follow through, start something, follow through.
I just followed through. And just because I didn’t have the ring on my finger or get married and give half my stuff away, then my child’s illegitimate. That shouldn’t even be in the dictionary. Nothing is, no baby is illegitimate. My kids are all very legitimate, and they’re probably the best thing I’ve ever done in my life, best award of all.”
I applaud her for her honesty, and it’s one of those situations that, in any other industry, would clearly be none of her employer’s business, but the music industry is just a different beast… image matters a whole lot (well, at least that’s what the major labels who want to control your every move will tell you), and things like this were just so much less acceptable socially back then, especially in country music.
Tucker is clearly became a legend regardless of what was going on in her personal life, and I think it’s good that she’s talking about things like this, even if it did happen decades ago.
You can watch her talk about it here:
@countrymusic333 “I wanted the picket fence but it didn’t work out for me” – #TanyaTucker ✨ full interview with @Clint Black at link in bio #countrymusic #womenofcountry ♬ (Without You) What Do I Do With Me – Tanya Tucker
The full interview:
