Trisha Yearwood initially rose to fame as a protégée of Garth Brooks but quickly staked out her own identity as an assertive yet vulnerable modern woman. Yearwood was born in the small town of Monticello, Ga., in 1964 and grew up on a farm owned by her father, who also worked as a prominent local banker. She loved Elvis Presley as a child and sang in musicals, choral groups, and talent shows while in school.
She enrolled at the University of Georgia, but in 1985 she transferred to the music business program at Belmont College in Nashville. Yearwood served an internship with MTM Records and soon moved on to become an in-demand demo singer, which resulted in an up-and-coming Brooks hiring her as a backup vocalist. Yearwood appeared on Brooks’ 1989 debut and its blockbuster follow-up, No Fences, and with the help of producer Garth Fundis, she staged a showcase performance in 1990 that landed her a record deal with MCA.
Yearwood’s self-titled debut album was released in 1991, and the lead single, “She’s in Love With the Boy,” rocketed to the top of the country charts, making her an instant star. Three more singles from the record — “Like We Never Had a Broken Heart” (co-written by Brooks), “That’s What I Like About You,” and “The Woman Before Me” — all went Top Ten, and Yearwood toured as Brooks’ opening act, gaining immense exposure. As a result, she became the first female country singer ever to sell a million copies of her debut album — and later on, two million. Her follow-up was the acclaimed Hearts in Armor, which appeared in 1992 during the aftermath of a divorce. Two of its singles, “Wrong Side of Memphis” and the Don Henley duet “Walkaway Joe,” reached the Top Five, and the record as a whole established Yearwood as an artist of creative ambition; like its predecessor, it also went platinum. The title track of 1993’s The Song Remembers When went to No. 2 and she followed it with a Christmas album, The Sweetest Gift, in 1994; that year, she also married Mavericks bassist Robert Reynolds.more on
