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Gretchen Wilson on Launching a Country Rallying Cry in 2004 With ‘Redneck Woman’: ‘I Knew It Was Going to Speak to So Many Women’
Gretchen Wilson discusses how her breakthrough song "Redneck Woman" became a country music game-changer in 2004 — and says she’s planning new music.
The song’s lyrics — highlighting women who prefer beer to champagne, and who leave Christmas lights hanging year-round — vividly detailed a lifestyle familiar to millions of female country music fans. “A lot of ‘em would bring up Faith Hill rolling around in satin sheets in the [2000] video ‘Breathe,’” Wilson says of the contemporary country image that was prominent at the time, which some fans found difficult to relate to. Meanwhile, a new crop of female artists began making their own country chart strides in the mid-2000s, including Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and Kellie Pickler (all of whom offered up polished, sparkly personas and pop-country sounds).
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