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After years of taking care of business back home in the good ol' USA,country redhead R-EBA MCENTIRE has finally turned her attention to

Europe. Jeremy Isaac accosted her on a recent London visit to ask her why.

When you first came to Nashville you were described as'an outsider, an Oklahoma ranch wife and a greenhorn'. lsthat really how it was?I was a total sffanger. I knew absolutely nothing about the country

music business. I thought that when you had a recording contract or

a record on the radio you were rich, you were a star. I had no idea. Ireleased my first record in '76, but I didn't have a Number One

record until '81. Nowadays they'd drop you so fast...Thank goodness

Polygram/Mercury had faith in me. Maybe they forgot about me(laughs), but I'm so glad that they hung on with me until I finallyhad some success.

Ilogether with your husband, Narvel Blackstock, you headup the biggest corporate entity that country music has everseen. How do you feel when you look back your be$inningsin Oklahoma all those years ago? What's the view fromwhere you're standing today?Phewl It's almost hke it's not the same lifetime. I grew up on an

8,000 acre cattle ranch in Oklahoma. In my first marriage we livedin a $10 dol1ar a month rented house where we had to haul our own

water the ceiling fe11 in twicel I knew that I wanted more and thatI could achieve more. Narvei and I have been working together for

18 years. He was my steel guitar player, became my tour manager,

then he became my manager in'88. We were married in'89 and in'90 we had a son together. So it has been a growing relationship, a

working team - that's exactly what I needed and wanted and

absolutely cherish.

As well as enjoying success with your music, you've alsodone some film and TV work with lremors, North, LittleRascals, and ,s Ihele Life OutThere. Do you have aspirationsto be a TV or movie star?No, but I would like to blend the two together a little more. !7e had

a movie out in September on CBS Television ca\Led Foreuer Loue,

(a1so shown on Channel 5 in October) and two of the songs fromthe movie are on my If YouSeeHimllf YouSee Her CD. And we have

another one that Universal has green-lit the script on that should be

written and ready by the time we get back to the States. Ifeverything goes according to plan we'11 be filming that next year.

What are your favourite and worst $i$s?I love them all, but my worst concert? I was playing the Houston

Astrodome and we were trying to think of a real1y neat entrance for

me to come onto the stage. So Narvei and Brian Leader, my show

director, had an idea to lower me from the ceiling of the HoustonAstrodome. I said'Nah, I don't want to do it.'And they said 'We11,

Garth will probably wind up doing it.' So I put on a jogging outfit,we went up in the elevator and we got out on the catwalk. it was

really scary - I had to climb over beams and it was just filthy up

there. Then I had to change my clothes and climb over this rail and

into a basket that they lowered me down in. They were lowering me

down the side of this 50-foot American flag, the song started and

people were looking around saying '\fhere is shel' Then the

spotlight hit me and they all clapped and said'Oh, that's great.' But

i was about to throu, up I was so scared' I'm petrified of heights. I was

sick for three weeks after that because of the stress'

Life must be pretty hectic for someone in your position:record dates, live dates, TV... What do you do to relax?We go on vacations, just shut down the computers and enjoy the

family. We hang out at the house quite a bit. We love the job we do,

but you've gotta be creative. I've toured when it was the most boring

thing in the world and I hated it. Now I love it, because we do it instyle and we do it in fun.

You played a one-off concert in London several years ago'but up until now you seem to have been more concernedwith taking care of business at home rather than abroad.Why the sudden interest in Europe and the UK?

We had been taking a lot of vacations - we spent a week inSwitzerland, a week in ltaly, a week on a cruise ship, we've been up

to the Baltic sea, the Mediterranean sea - and it's not as scary as we

once thought it was. Now we want to come out and bring our music.

We're comfortable, the record 1abe1's ready - it's all in the timing'And we had such a great response from Australia. We toured there

in April, and I have a gold album out there. I didn't expect anything,

but I was certainly surprised to see the response we got, and we're

very curious to see if people in Europe will like and accept our music.

You're currently having great success both with lf You See

Him and Moments & Memories= What's up next for RebaMcEntire?After we finish the tour r'vith Brooks & Dunn we'll be back here in

January to tour the UK, Germany and lreland. lVhen we get back

from that we'l1 start working on the movie I was telling you about.

Then we gear up for the next tour and start all over again. And Ithink we go back to Australia in September or October of '99. But

I'm very curious to see what the response in the UK will be. We want

to come over, have fun, enjoy ourselves and spread the music. i

Reba McEntire's If Ytru See Him ar,dMornents E Memories are

available on MCAAJniversal Records

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