Reba: My Story (43 page)

When it was time for her to rehearse her song, she only mouthed her words. The conductor stopped the song and asked why she wasn’t singing. She told him that she didn’t sing during rehearsals, but that she would when it was her time on the show. And you can be sure that, later that night, her performance was outstanding, rehearsal or no rehearsal.

After the show, Mrs. Bush invited us all to the White House, where she had twenty-one spruce trees beautifully decorated in different themes. She showed Aretha to the piano that had been a gift to one of the Presidents many years ago. Aretha played and sang “Amazing Grace.” It was a very memorable moment.

S
TILL, MEETING SOME OF THESE FAMOUS FOLKS HASN
’
T IMPRESSED
me as much as meeting some of my everyday fans. So many of them have followed my career from the very beginning, and I appreciate their loyalty tremendously.

I have wonderfully devoted fans who travel for hundreds of miles behind one of my buses. They’ll follow it from the Midwest to Florida where I might be doing four days’ worth of shows.

I’ve heard that fans skip school or work to stand in line to buy concert tickets. I’ve heard that they camp out for several nights in the freezing weather and snow so they could get a good seat.

I’ve seen fans come to my concession table and say they were spending their rent money to buy a cassette. I used to sit at that table after shows, signing autographs, and whenever a fan said that to me, I’d give him or her the cassette free of charge. The guys running the concession table got on to me for that.

I have fans who come to my shows in wheelchairs or on crutches.

No one could be more loyal or loving than my fans. They have put groceries on my table for years.

I hope that in some way I have brought a little joy into their lives.

H
APPINESS TO ME IS BEING ABLE TO HAVE YOUR
family around you, and knowing that they want to be.

When I’ve had a long day of photo shoots, recording sessions, or television shows, and I walk in tired and Shelby’s little voice says, “Weba, is that you?” and then he runs down the stairs and wraps his little arms around me, that’s the greatest feeling in the world.

And when I tuck Shelby into bed, we say our prayers together and he asks for blessings upon his mama and daddy and others among our friends and family. If he isn’t sleepy, and if he doesn’t want me to leave, he’ll ask for blessings for everybody he knows, as well as for the curtains, the chairs, the pillows, and all of his stuffed animals. And afterward we say, “Thank you, Jesus, you live in our hearts.”

I thank the Lord daily for Shelby, and for putting Narvel and me together so we could have him. Family unity
is priceless. So I want Shelby with me a lot, and I often take him along on personal appearance tours. He and I might go swimming or just play during the day and then I leave him with Michelle, his nanny, while I do my show. Sometimes, he goes to my after-show visits with members of my fan club.

At my annual fan club party in June 1993, Shelby came onstage with me. He looked the crowd right in the eye, and he talked to me and he talked to them. I know it thrilled him to be in front of an audience. He already has quite a bit of show biz in him.

In October of that same year, I was playing Las Vegas and Shelby flew out with Cindy Bailey, who was then his nanny. On the second night he asked if he could go to my show with me.

“Shelby, do you want to come out on the stage tonight and bring me a towel because I sure do get sweaty?”

“Yeah, Mama,” he said. “I do that.”

So I told Graeme Lagden, my tour manager, “When I say, ‘I’ve been worried about how to introduce Shelby into the workplace, especially since this is the music business,’ send him out.”

So Shelby came out right on cue, carrying a towel. Instead of bringing me a rose or something, he was bringing me something that meant he was really working. The crowd loved it.

I played Phoenix the next night and asked Shelby if he’d like to repeat his performance.

“No, Mom,” he said. “I’m too tired of that. Let Graeme do it.”

I have a million cute stories about him, like any mother has!

One has to do with Shelby’s potty training and the honesty of a child.

Shelby learned to use the bathroom by coming to me and saying, “Pee-pee, Mama, pee-pee.” We’d run to the
bathroom, Shelby would do his business, and I’d say, “Good boy, Shelby, good boy.”

One day when we were on vacation, in 1992, Narvel, Shelby, and I were in the bathroom getting ready to go out to eat. Shelby still carries a security blanket, and was carrying it inside the bathroom with Narvel and me. When Narvel stepped over to the toilet to use it, Shelby walked over to him, took his blankey out of his mouth, and said, “Good boy, Dad, good boy.”

That was one for the baby book.

Shelby has owned two dogs. Red Steagall gave him a beautiful golden Labrador retriever, which we named Chockie after my old hometown. Chockie had a had habit of going across the road to see other dogs and also across the highway to a convenience store. So one day when Chockie went over there, Mark Garrison, one of our groundskeepers, rode over on the golf cart to pick him up. He loaded Chockie up in the cart and started back across the highway, but Chockie jumped out. He was killed by a semitrailer truck.

That was the first dog that Shelby lost, and it took me a long time to tell Red, because I felt so bad about the whole thing.

Shelby’s next dog came on his second birthday. Dixie Stephens, who handles the itinerary for Starstruck, had a litter of cocker spaniel puppies, so we bought one and named him Freckles.

About fifty people, including twelve children, were at Shelby’s birthday party when Narvel came in with Freckles. I took the dog from Narvel and handed him to Shelby, whose little face lit up when he saw him. I just bawled, it was so moving and cute. All the kids gathered around Shelby and Freckles. I thought I was gonna have to rescue the dog.

Freckles lasted until the spring of 1993 when he ran across a road by our house and a lady accidentally hit him. Mark put Freckles on the floor of his truck to take him to
the veterinarian, but by the time he came and told me and got back to his truck, Freckles was dead. Mark had to bury both of Shelby’s dogs.

One day Shelby and I were in my Explorer truck, and Brandon, Narvel’s seventeen-year-old son, was in the back with Shelby.

“Shelby,” I said, “tell Brandon where Chockie went.”

“Chockie’s gone to Jesus,” Shelby said.

“Well, where is Freckles?” I said.

“Freckles’s gone to Jesus,” Shelby said.

Knowing his answer would come from our nightly prayers, I asked, “Shelby, where does Jesus live?”

He took his blanket out of his mouth and said, “Florida?”

M
Y SON
’
S CHILDHOOD, OBVIOUSLY, WON
’
T HAVE ANYTHING IN
common with my own. People ask if I’m afraid Shelby will be spoiled, and I tell folks I know he’s already spoiled, but so am I. Not many people lived the way I grew up, and not many live the way I do now. Folks know I attribute a lot of my success to the ability to work hard, which I learned as a kid from Mama and Daddy.

So it’s always been very important to me that Shelby respect people who work for a living. My husband Narvel and I are very blessed with a lot of nice things and Shelby will always be required to treat these things nicely because we worked hard to get them. They weren’t given to us.

Sometimes he asks Rose, my housekeeper, to play with him.

“No, Shelby, Rose can’t play,” I tell him, “because Rose has to work.”

“Okay,” Shelby says, “I help Rose work.” And he does some simple job that is a big deal to him. It’s cute and it’s also a very effective lesson.

I’ve always believed that children need and want discipline.
Shelby’s nannies have always had my permission to discipline Shelby if they need to. I expect him to behave himself and to have good manners—and he does.

Narvel and I have made it a practice to teach Shelby to look grown-ups in the eye when he talks to them, and to call them “ma’am” and “sir.” He’s only four but he’s definitely old enough to say “please” and “thank you.” In the summer of 1993, Narvel and I took him to some carnival rides in Santa Monica, California. We let him hand his own ticket to the ride attendant while we watched from the side. He thanked the man for the ride in his little boy’s voice, and I was so proud I could have cried.

Some of my friends have been very complimentary of Shelby’s behavior, and I appreciate their kind words.

I play with Shelby and I try to teach him when we’re together. It’s quality time. But it’s also important for him to play alone. And when I’m absent, I make no apologies because I don’t feel any guilt. Shelby is in good hands and is totally loved at all times.

In July 1993, I went to a press conference in New York City, where the reporters began to question me about Shelby and my career. One seriously asked me which was more important to me. I said, “Shelby, of course.”

Some journalists mildly applauded, as if I might have said something else. I don’t understand that thinking. My personal philosophy for happiness is having my cake and getting to eat it too. I’ve been at that point for a few years now.

I
LOVE MY LIFE WITH NARVEL AND SHELBY. AND I
’
M BLESSED
with really liking all the folks I get to work with.

Narvel and I had a wonderful time this past Christmas. First, we took employees of the whole Starstruck organization and their spouses to Naples, Florida, for our annual year-end retreat. We had a great time playing volleyball,
golf, tennis, going deep sea fishing, shopping, and hanging out on the beach.

My bunch works very hard and they play hard too! I’m proud of every one of them.

Then Narvel, Shelby, and I took off for Aspen, Colorado, for two weeks of rest and relaxation. We met up with our friends, Ralph and Joy Emery, and their family along with Ken and Barbara Mandrell Dudney and their kids, Matt, Jaime, and Nathan. We met at the T. Lazy Seven Restaurant, as we did last year, to eat steaks, dance, and visit. We had a great time.

Ralph and his family went home after Christmas so they weren’t in Colorado to celebrate the new year with us. So Narvel and I had the Dudneys over to our house to celebrate, along with Ben and Ellen Iannuzzi, my office controller and his wife, Pam and Ken Keller, our dentist friends from Nashville, their kids Chris and Zack and their friend Pate. Rose Carter, my housekeeper from Nashville, flew in to take care of us the week after Christmas. She brought the new year in with us.

That’s happiness to me—enjoying my friends and family! And personal happiness is the most important thing of all. The money, the record sales, and all the rest just make everything go a lot easier!