Reba McEntire

Losing a loved one is always difficult to navigate, and Reba arguably loved her mom more than anything else.

Her mother Jacqueline passed away in 2020 at the age of 93 after a battle with cancer, and Reba was devastated, though she later said her mom lived a very full life. Reba shared that her mom basically lived out her own country music dreams through her, which added some pressure on Reba as she was getting started in the industry.

However, if it weren’t for a push from her mom to get her to move to Nashville to pursue a career in country music, the world might have been robbed of McEntire’s legendary music catalogue (and spectacular TV show).

So shoutout to Mama McEntire, who came up in conversation when Reba stopped by the Today Show to speak about her new gig on NBC’s The Voice, as well as her new book and album Not That Fancy.

Reba talked about how she’s approaching her 50th anniversary of being in the music industry, and that it’s possible that right now is the busiest she’s ever been in her entire career.

Today host Hoda Kotb asked the country icon if she could have imagined getting started in the music industry without her mom cheering her on, and even asked Reba if Jacqueline ever told her she had what it took from the very beginning.

Reba, as she often times does, responded honestly:

“No, she never told me that. She was really encouraging for all of us kids (in) whatever we wanted to do.”

The 17-time Grammy Award winner then spoke on how her mom helped her and her sister Suzy get started as “The Singing McEntire’s” and basically acted as the brains behind Reba’s start in music.

Naturally, the loss of Reba’s supportive mother came up after that story, and Jenna Bush Hager, the other host of Today, asked about how McEntire had previously said she had to find her “why” again with music after her mom passed away.

Reba then answered:

“I told Suzy…we we’re cleaning out the house and I was going through pictures and I said ‘I just don’t think I’m gonna do this anymore.

She said ‘what?’ and I said ‘sing.’

And she said ‘why?’ and I said ‘because I always did it for mama.’

She said ‘oh, you’ll get it back,’ (and) I did.”

Reba was clearly emotional talking about it, and even admitted that seeing pictures of her mother was something that was still hard for to get through. The conversation then steered towards talking about one of the song’s from her new album that was focused on and dedicated to her mother Jacqueline.

The full interview with Reba can be seen below:

And Reba also took some time on the show to perform some live music from the historic 30 Rockefeller Center, and chose to play a number of songs from her new project Not That Fancy.

One song that she spoke highly about during the interview, the highly emotional tribute to her mother titled “Seven Minutes In Heaven,” ended up making the playlist.

And let me tell you, Reba’s still got it: