Behind The "Reality" - page 3 - Song Choices & Strep Throat Song Choices & Strep Throat Let's talk about your performances on the show itself. Were you happy with them?       Absolutely. I feel that I did the best that I could every single night, given how I was feeling that night and dealing with all the stressful elements of every moment on that show. I felt that I dealt with all that the best way I could, so I don't have any regrets about my performances. Why did you pick each of the four songs you did?       One of the main things I wanted to do was try to reinvent myself every week and not be predictable in my choice of songs or styles. I wanted people to be taken by surprise every week.       So, let's see, starting off with the ballad, "You Don't Even Know Who I Am" - that's a song that I truly, truly love. It's got so much substance to it; it's powerful; it showed off my vocals.       Then the following week I did "I'm Alright," which was a total contrast. It's a happy song; it's a fun song; it grabs people and pulls them in. They were very different songs. And it was written by Phil Vassar, one of the celebrity judges... ...which I didn't know at the time I chose it. That was a week that I had to change my song suddenly the night before because I one I had wanted to do didn't get clearance. I just pulled "I'm Alright" off the top of my head, and when I got to rehearsal the next day (show day) someone said, "Oh, good pick, that's a Phil Vassar song!" I said, "Oh, my gosh, it is? Oh, good...I think." I was just trying to find a song that I knew well enough that I wouldn't have to put too much time and thought into pulling it off the next day.       Of course, the following week was the "Rebel Night." Originally I was going to do "Bobby MeGee" because I've done it forever and I enjoy singing it. Then Casey was having trouble picking a song. Right up until the day before she still didn't have a song. She kind of said, "But I really like 'Bobby McGee' and I do that pretty good and I wish I could be doing that song." So I said, "Oh, heck, you have that one and I can do 'God Fearin' Women.'" I had a couple up my sleeve that I could have done for the Rebel Night, so I was happy to have her do "Bobby McGee."       So, "God Fearin' Women" was another kind of last-minute, pulled-out-of-my pocket song. It's also a Martina McBride song, and that's touchy ground. I laid in bed the night before thinking "My gosh, I've somehow got to try to do this differently to make it my own." That's when I came up with the whole vocal thing at the beginning, so people would say, "Oh, what's this song?" and not really know until I came in with the melody.       For the fourth show, "Something to Talk About" was a song that I've done forever and ever and ever...and I really wanted to have the opportunity to do it at some point in the show. But once again, I was planning to do a Faith Hill song, "Stand By Me," when the producers called me after rehearsal the night before the show and said "We have too many people doing ballads. We need to restructure the show and we thought you'd be the most comfortable changing songs at this point." I said, "Well, okay. What have we already got cleared?" They rattled off a few songs and "Something to Talk About" was on the list, and that's the song I did the next day for the show. What was it like working with the Nashville Star band?       They were awesome - obviously the cream of the crop down there in Nashville. The very first day we got there and started working with these guys it was a little intimidating, but we quickly found out that they were very down-to-earth and very excited about being part of the show. They put a lot of time and effort into our songs, giving us plenty of opportunity to work through them so they'd be just how we wanted them on the night. It was cool. They were very nice people and I got along with them very well. Talk about about the "strep throat scare" that Jody mentioned. Was that a big problem for the cast?       They shipped us all up to the doctor that fourth week and, sure enough, all of us but two had strep throat. We were all dealing with it that week, but some of us got better a lot faster than others.       I don't really know what my story was because on the day that I went to the doctor I wasn't even feeling sick, but my test came back positive. Some of the others were obviously sick, with swollen glands and a fever. They'd probably already had it for days and days. Mine must have been just hitting me that day, so I didn't get the full blown effect of it until a week later.       By that Monday I was pretty sick and on Tuesday I was even sicker. That was the night of the fourth episode, when I ended up singing "Something To Talk About." They had a nurse backstage taking care of everybody. She came back and saw that my throat was red raw and I had these little pocket things all over my tongue and tonsils, plus I had a high fever. She called the producers and said "She's not going to be able to go on tonight like this." I was like, "Oh, yeah? I am going on. I don't care what I have to do."       She gave me some kind of medication; I'm not sure what. I don't know if I was on cloud nine from the medication or from my fever, but I don't remember much about being on stage that night. I just remember kind of floating through the whole thing. I just hoped I sounded okay...but it's always amazing when you get the old adrenaline going. You can achieve a lot. Next Page: The Stylists Take Control   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Back To Top