Jo Dee Messina is back, in every sense of the word. The country music icon recently released Bridges, her first record of new material in 12 years, since her Me album came out in 2014. In the years between the two projects, Messina focused on raising her two boys, while also dealing with her own personal heartaches, and a fierce battle with cancer. But now, Messina is ready to return to country music, this time as a stronger, more focused artist, with a keen sense of the music she wants to make moving forward.

“It’s been a long time since my last record,” Messina tells Everything Nash. “I’ve been a single mom raising kids. I just started co-writing with people a few years ago and they’re like, ‘Man, you gotta put this on a record. You gotta put this on a record.’ I was like, ‘I don’t have the big machine in place that I once had. I don’t even know how to put out a record these days.’”

Enter David Spencer, one of her co-writers, who offered to produce her next project, which became Bridges. The album includes deeply personal songs, like “Days You Don’t Get Back,” “Don’t Let Them Hide Your Beautiful,” and “Message In A Bottle,” the latter a song she wrote with Spencer and Ethan Hulse.

“It’s something that I said, being funny. I was like, ‘Well, you won’t find that message in a bottle,’   just being funny,” Messina remembers. “And then I was like, ‘Oh, we should write that.’ There is this spot in us that we are trying to fill. It could be with work or success or dating or drinking. There’s just this spot in all of us that is to be filled with God, the one who created us, but we’re looking for things of this world to do that. And so I wanted to write a song that was like, ‘You’ll only find the wreckage if you’re looking for that message in a bottle,’  because we’ve all been there. … When we wrote this song, we didn’t want it to be a finger-pointing song.”

Jo Dee Messina Focuses On Her Faith

 

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In the dozen years between records, Messina also focused on her faith. It’s evident in the songs on Bridges, including  “The Jesus I Know” and “If He Knew Jesus.” But it’s also evident in her live shows, where she is outspoken about her Christianity.

“It’s not what people know me for now. … I want to be the hands and feet of Jesus in this industry, and a safe place for these artists to go to when they feel like they’re getting crushed, so that I can turn them to Christ where you find peace,” Messina explains. “I mean, He is the Prince of Peace. And so, that is my goal. And only the Holy Spirit can change the desires of your heart. God can change the desires of your heart.”

At one time, Messina’s desire was to have a No.1 record, and have a successful country music career. But now, 30 years after her eponymous debut was released, Messina’s goals are much different than they were in the past.

“We only last for a moment, a blip in time, the 55-year-old says. “But He lasts forever. His name will reign. He will reign forever. And so, to let people open the door and share Him with people is really my heart’s desire. These days I go out, and we do shows and we have fun. We love the audience. I’m grateful for every opportunity that I have, because it’s not given.”