Reba McEntire Says She Nearly Quit Singing After Mom Jacqueline’s Death: ‘I Always Did It for Mama’

“She was really encouraging for all of us kids, whatever we wanted to do,” recalled McEntire of her mother, who died of cancer in March 2020

Grief nearly took away Reba McEntire’s passion for music — but she got it back.

In a new interview with Today with Hoda & Jenna, the Queen of Country opened up about how she nearly quit music after her mom Jacqueline’s death from cancer in March 2020.

McEntire, 68, recalled looking through her parents’ belongings with her sister Susie after Jacqueline died and thinking about her future as a singer. “I was going through pictures. I said, ‘I just don’t think I’m gonna do this anymore.’ She said, ‘What?’ I said, ‘Sing,’” she explained. “I said, ‘I always did it for Mama.’ She said, ‘Oh, you’ll get it back.’ I did.”

Reba McEntire and Jacqueline McEntire in Phoenix in April 2016.Charley Gallay/Getty

Before the “Fancy” performer’s career took off in the ’70s, she and siblings Susie, Alice and Pake learned how to sing from Jacqueline, sparking Reba’s love for the art form. “She was really encouraging for all of us kids, whatever we wanted to do,” she said. “She taught us harmony.”

Throughout the children’s years in high school, they were known as “the singing McEntires,” thanks to Jacqueline — who wan’t afraid to let them know if they missed a note.

“Anytime anybody needed an opinion of who’s off — Susie’s on my part, I’m on Susie’s part — Mama would come in with her spatula after she was frying potatoes,” said McEntire, mimicking a pointing motion her mom would make with the utensil. “She would say, ‘OK, Reba, you’re on Susie’s part. Sing it again.’ We’d sing it, and she’d say, ‘Oh, that’s perfect,’ and she’d go back in and keep frying potatoes.”

This week, the Reba star released a new lifestyle book called Not That Fancy filled with recipes and stories about her life and career. The title arrived alongside a new album of the same name, which features acoustic versions of her hits as well as a brand-new song, “Seven Minutes in Heaven.”

Written by Olivia Rudeen and Matt Wynn, the touching ballad finds McEntire musing on what would happen if she was given seven minutes to visit a deceased loved one in the afterlife. Upon listening to it for the first time, she thought about Jacqueline.

“When you find a song that really touches your heart and chokes you up, I gotta sing it. I gotta record it, and that’s what you’re always looking for, is a song that touches your heart,” said the Grammy winner. “That way, when I sing it, hopefully it’ll touch your heart too.”