Reba McEntire became a cowgirl on family ranch at age 5 before country music stardom

Reba McEntire worked hard on her family's ranch from an early age before skyrocketing to country music stardom.

In a new interview with the Wall Street Journal, "The Voice" coach, 69, recalled her rural upbringing and how all of her family members helped with the daily operations of her father's cattle business.

"I didn’t play cowgirl growing up," McEntire said. "I was one."

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Reba McEntire became a cowgirl on her family's ranch at the age of 5. (Reba McEntire Facebook/Getty)

She continued, "My family lived on an 8,000-acre ranch in Chockie, Oklahoma, where my father ran several thousand cattle a year."

"I began working on our ranch at age 5," the "Fancy" hitmaker recalled. "If Daddy needed a driver to move grain in his pickup truck, he came in and got whoever was there. "

"I was so little that Daddy put a 50-pound feed sack on the driver’s seat before putting me on top of it. I’d be on my knees to work the steering wheel. He’d put the truck in granny gear, jump out and off I’d go."

McEntire was born in March 1955 to parents Clark and Jackie McEntire, who also shared daughters Alice and Susie as well as son Pake.

McEntire and her three siblings all started working on the ranch when they were young. (Reba McEntire Instagram)

She recalled that her family lived in a small gray house on the ranch that had one bathroom. "With the girls – Alice, Susie, Mama and myself, we’d all be in there at the same time, and there never was a problem," McEntire said of sharing the bathroom.

"We loved each other’s company," she added.

McEntire explained that she was very close to her siblings while they were growing up in the small community in the hills of southeastern Oklahoma.

"There were no kids nearby to play with, so we just had each other," she said.

McEntire recalled that she and her siblings teamed up to operate the ranch while Clark, who was a three-time world champion steer roper, competed in rodeos.

"I didn't play cowgirl growing up. I was one."

— Reba McEntire

"Daddy was gone rodeoing between June and September," she remembered. "Running that big ranch while he was away fell to us kids. We also had a hired hand, Louie Sandman, and Grandpap, John McEntire, who was a champion steer roper himself."

The singer told the WSJ that she and her siblings would help out with chores on the ranch in the morning before school.

"In my teens, in the fall, Pake and I would gather the horses in a 40-acre patch while Daddy fixed breakfast," McEntire recalled. 

She continued, "We’d get them saddled and head back to eat. After, we’d hop in the truck, load the horses into a trailer and take them to help steer the cattle into the area where they would be weighed and sold. Then we’d go to school with Mama. She was the school secretary."

The singer said that she would help out with ranch chores before school. (Reba McEntire Instagram)

In addition to her responsibilities on the ranch and attending school, McEntire said she participated in other activities, including basketball and track, and played guitar and piano. However, singing was her passion.

"I always wanted to be on stage," McEntire said. "I was the third of four kids, so I was pretty much invisible. I had to carve out something for me to gain attention, and that was singing."

"Performing gained Mama’s adoration," she added. "I yearned to hear her say, ‘That was real good, Reba.’"

Jackie had also dreamed of becoming a country singer and encouraged McEntire and her siblings in their musical aspirations.

The Grammy Award winner recalled that she formed a band with Pake and Susie called the Singing McEntires and they performed together from junior high through high school.

"She was our best friend, our cheerleader and our disciplinarian," McEntire said of her mother, who passed away at the age of 93 in 2020 after a battle with cancer.

"And she was our rock," McEntire added. "Country music meant a great deal to her."

McEntire formed the band the Singing McEntires with her brother Pake and sister Susie. (Reba McEntire Instagram)

Meanwhile, McEntire recalled that Clark was a distant father and rarely displayed affection for his children, noting that Jackie "picked up the slack." 

"He wasn’t a hugger nor was he much good at expressing his love," she said of Clark. "It wasn’t in his nature. "

While speaking with the WSJ, McEntire recalled the first time Clark told her that he loved her.

"Daddy finally said it to me in his hospital room after triple-bypass surgery in ’87. When I said I had to go, he said, 'OK, well, I love you,'" McEntire said.

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The singer told the outlet that her family was taken aback by Clark's words.

"We all looked at each other," McEntire siad. "We figured he was still on his surgery meds."

Clark died in 2014 at the age of 86 after a long illness following a stroke.

McEntire is pictured with her father Clark and mother Jackie. (Reba McEntire Instagram)

McEntire wasn't just a cowgirl on the ranch. She also followed in her father and grandfather's footsteps and began competing in rodeos as a barrel racer at the age of 11.

In a clip from her audiobook "Not That Fancy" that McEntire shared on TikTok, the singer recalled she was "nervous as I’d ever been" during her first rodeo competition. 

She noted that her father and grandfather, as well as Pake and Alice, who also competed in rodeos, had "all set a high bar for what we McEntires could do in the arena. And I felt a lot of pressure to make them proud."

While McEntire didn't win her first rodeo, she continued competing as a barrel racer for another decade, including while she was attending college at Southeastern Oklahoma State, according to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's website. 

In her TikTok video, McEntire explained that barrel racing helped prepare her for her music career. Though McEntire would later win ribbons and championships, she noted that she had to work harder than her siblings to succeed in the sport since she wasn't a natural. 

"Daddy once asked me, ‘Reba, why do you always want to do something you're not good at?'" McEntire recalled. "Of course, he wanted me to concentrate on my singing."

She continued, "The kind of drive I learned on horseback set me up for building a career in music. In this industry, the key thing to do is just keep going and keep racing against yourself. There are a lot of talented, hard-working people in the world, but I'm convinced that it's the ones with an unshakable belief in themselves who end up succeeding most often."

Reba McEntire, pictured in 1976. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

"Or maybe it's those who are just too stubborn to know when to quit," McEntire added with a laugh.  

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The singer told the WSJ that she initially majored in music at Southeastern Oklahoma State but found it was "it was way over my head." 

"I switched to an education major, and music became my minor," she recalled. "Teaching was my backup plan."

However, McEntire's first big break came during her sophomore year of college in 1974, when she was hired to sing the national anthem at the National Rodeo in Oklahoma City.

Country artist Red Steagall was in attendance and watched McEntire's performance. She told the WSJ that a chance encounter with Steagall after the rodeo led her to move to Nashville. 

"After the rodeo, we all went over to the Hilton," she said. "A bunch of cowboys were there having a guitar pull. One sang and played guitar and then handed it off to the next guy."

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Reba McEntire at the 1986 CMA Awards. (Getty Images)

McEntire remembered that she, Pake and Susie then "sang a bit of harmony."

"That’s where we saw Red again," she recalled.

McEntire explained that Jackie approached Steagall about helping her children launch careers in country music.

"Mama wasn’t shy. She said, ‘Red, can you get Pake, Reba and Susie to Nashville?’ He said, ‘Jackie, I’m doing all I can to keep my head afloat. But I’ll take Reba to cut a demo tape and we’ll see what happens.’" McEntire said.

"The following year, in 1975, I was in a Nashville studio. I wasn’t nervous at all. Honestly, I didn’t know if I wanted to do it anyway," she recalled. "Doing well as a singer would mean leaving my family behind."

"Glenn Keener at PolyGram heard the tape and brought two reels to the label’s Chicago headquarters – mine and another gal’s. It could’ve been her, but they chose me and here I am."

McEntire has won three Grammy Awards. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Roc Nation)

Afterward, McEntire signed with Polygram/Mercury Records. She and Steagall later collaborated on the 2007 hit "Here We Go Again."

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During her interview with the WSJ, McEntire detailed how she learned that she had scored her first No.  1 single on the Billboard's Hot Country Chart.

"In 1983, after my tour bus broke down, I called my manager, Don Williams, to tell him. He said that my single, ‘Can’t Even Get the Blues,’ had just gone to No. 1 on the charts," she said.

McEntire continued, "I hung up and called Mama. She said, ‘Well, you finally did it.’ I said, ‘No, ma’am. We did it.’ I still tear up just thinking about that call."

She replaced Blake Shelton as a coach on "The Voice" in 2023. (Trae Patton/NBC via Getty Images)

The singer now has a total of 24 No. 1 hits on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. McEntire has received three Grammy awards, won CMA female vocalist of the year four times and was recognized at the 2018 Kennedy Center Honors for her lifetime of contributions to American culture. 

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She made her acting debut in 1989, co-starring alongside Kevin Bacon in the horror comedy "Tremors." McEntire starred in her TV sitcom "Reba" for six seasons from 2001 to 2007, earning a Golden Globe nomination in 2004.

In 2023, McEntire replaced Blake Shelton as a coach on the reality singing competition show "The Voice."

The singer is co-starring with her boyfriend Rex Linn in the new sitcom "Happy's Place." (Getty Images)

The singer is also starring in the new NBC sitcom "Happy's Place," reuniting with her former "Reba" co-star Melissa Peterman. The series also stars McEntire's boyfriend Rex Linn.

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During her interview with the WSJ, McEntire said she and Linn divide their time between their homes in Los Angeles and Nashville. The Queen of Country has also stayed close to her roots, telling the outlet that she and Linn own a ranch/farm about 20 minutes outside of Nashville.

"He’s on the new sitcom, but out there, that’s our happy place," she said.