COUNTRY MUSIC Artist demonstrates her redneck pride

'Redneck Woman' is country's first No. 1 single by a woman in more than two years.
By DAN DELUCA
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
CAMDEN, N.J. -- On a fateful Nashville afternoon in February 2003, Gretchen Wilson and John Rich were in the midst of what was shaping up to be an unproductive songwriting session when Rich headed off for caffeinated inspiration and Wilson turned up the Country Music Television cable channel.
"I watched two or three female videos in a row," said Wilson, backstage recently at the Tweeter Center, where she had just roused a rain-soaked crowd with songs from her superb debut, "Here for the Party." The album is ranked Nos. 1 and 4, respectively, on Billboard's country and pop album charts.
"When he walked back in the room, I said to John, 'I really want to get a record deal, but I just don't know if I'm going to be able to do this. Look at her: She's so polished, she's so perfect.'"
Wilson, a 30-year-old overnight success who moved from tiny Pocahontas, Ill., in 1996, wisely declines to say whether the carefully packaged images were of Faith Hill, or Shania Twain, or Martina McBride.
"It was everyone who's like that, every single female video," says the singer, who is scheduled to perform Friday on "The Tonight Show."
"Looking at them on TV, I thought, that's not a real person. It made me look at myself and say, 'I'm not going to make it because I'm not that pretty, I'm not that polished, and I'm not that perfect. There's nothing like that about me. ... '
"And John said, 'Then what are you?' And I said, 'I don't know. I guess I'm just a redneck woman. I'm a redneck.'
"He goes, 'You are, that's exactly what you are. And that's the song we're going to write today."
"Victoria's Secret, well their stuff's real nice
Oh, but I can buy the same damn thing
On a Wal-Mart shelf half-price ...
You might think I'm trashy, a little too
hardcore
But in my neck of the woods I'm just the
girl next door
I'm a redneck woman"
Fast-rising hit
"Redneck Woman's" rise to the top of the country singles charts has been the fastest since Billy Ray Cyrus' "Achy Breaky Heart" in 1992. Sony Music's Nashville division released the song in March, when Wilson's full-length album was far from complete. The plan was to put out "Here for the Party in August, but when "Redneck" took off, August became May 11.
The album sold more than 227,000 copies in its first week.
Wilson says, "I wrote that song about me, and my mom, and my mom's friends, and people from Pocahontas. It's amazing to me that people relate to it."
Wilson's record label didn't have to make up a straight-out-of-the-"Dukes-of-Hazzard" bio: The singer grew up in trailer parks in the tiny town 36 miles east of St. Louis, and when she was 14 she started helping out at the bar where her mother worked. Within a year, Wilson says, she was singing Loretta Lynn songs at a local club called the Hickory Daiquiri Dock.
"Redneck" includes shout-outs to Hank Williams Jr. and Tanya Tucker and rhymes "Some people look down on me, but I don't give a rip" with "I'll stand barefoot in my own front yard with a baby on my hip." But Wilson figures the key to its success is "it's a pride song."
"It's not about rednecks. It's about being proud of who you are," she says. Dressed in a black tank top, jeans, and a belt with a rhinestone-studded buckle, she's drinking a Coors Light and getting ready for the 12-hour trip to Nashville, where her 3-year-old, Grace, and boyfriend Mike Henner await.
"Since 9/11, men have dominated the country charts, singing about the war and being strong and being angry," says Wilson, whose song is country's first No. 1 single by a woman in more than two years.
Except for the Dixie Chicks, who had privileged upbringings far from Wilson's reality, there haven't been "too many proud songs from women. I mean, [the terrorist attack] was devastating and we cried hard. But then people wanted songs that said, 'We're strong and we're going to move on.' So even though it doesn't have anything to do with war or peace or anything like that, it kind of taps into that."