Today’s cover of Billboard features Little Big Town. Kimberly Schlapman, Phillip Sweet, and Karen Fairchild and Jimi Westbrook open up about how divided they believe our country is, what it means to be a woman in country music, their hit song “Girl Crush”, and more.
Fairchild on how our country is divided:
“There’s probably not a house in America that’s not divided right now, disagreeing about things going on in the country,” she says. “If you can’t learn to look across the table and go, ‘I love you and I totally disagree with you, but hey, let’s have a glass of wine…’”
On their hit song “Girl Crush”:
“We were secretly hoping people would use their brain power a little better and listen to the whole song, as opposed to just shut it off after they hear this one thing,” says Sweet. It wasn’t even the allusion to same-sex attraction that had the group concerned ahead of the single’s release: The song is a ballad with a 6/8 time signature. “Just the sheer tempo was controversial”
Fairchild on being a woman in country music:
“Being Southern doesn’t mean you’re stupid,” says Fairchild, who was born in Gary, Ind., but like the rest of her bandmates has spent most of her life below the Mason-Dixon line. “And being a woman in country music doesn’t mean that you’re simpleminded. You can be a complex, powerful businesswoman — and there’s a lot of that in this business. We have a lot of role models.”
Full Cover Story HERE