Terri Clark has been an active part of country music for more than 30 years. In spite of all of her successes and accomplishments, including becoming a Grand Ole Opry member, the Grammy-nominated artist admits she still battles insecurity, especially when she is touring with an artist like Cody Johnson.
Clark recently opened for Johnson for several shows, where she admits her nerves could have gotten the best of her.
“I’m a big Cody Johnson fan. I just did some dates with Cody in Canada and in the States,” Clark shares on Tracy Lawrence‘s TL’s Road House podcast. “I went out and opened for him, and I gotta say, I got in my head a little bit because I was like, ‘A lot of these people don’t know who I am.'”
Fortunately, Clark has a group of girlfriends she reaches out to for support, friends who happen to be fellow country music icons like Clark, including Reba McEntire and Trisha Yearwood, among others.
“I’m on a text thread with Reba and Trisha and Pam [Tillis] and Suzy [Bogguss] and Wynonna and Tanya [Tucker]. We have a little girl thread that we text,” Clark reveals. “It’s kind of our mentorship for each other, when one of us wants to talk about something. I got on there and said, ‘Girls, I’m in my head about this. I’m walking out in front of all of these really, really young people. Some of them know who I am, but a lot of them, they’re looking at their phones and Googling, ‘Who is this chick?’ They were so encouraging.
“They were like, ‘They’re gonna know who you are after you’re done, so just go out there and be you and do your thing,'” she adds.
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Terri Clark Battles Imposter Syndrome
Clark may be a global country music superstar. Still, she admits her nerves still sometimes get the best of her.
“It’s funny how I feel more insecure now than I did when I was 25 or 30. … It’s almost like imposter syndrome,” the 58-year-old shares. “The older I get, and given these opportunities that I well have earned and deserve to have, I get that. But still, I’ll get in my head about it, and feel like I have something to prove. We’re not supposed to feel that way anymore, but I still do sometimes. … I care very much.”
Terri Clarks’ New ‘Live From The Ryman Album
Clark just released her new Terri Clark: Live From The Ryman album, a project that was recorded during her 2024 headlining show at the Ryman Auditorium.
Refreshingly, Clark chose to not go in and fix any perceived imperfections, choosing to let the live music stand on its own.
“We basically had to piece this thing together as best we could,” Clark tells People. “A lot of people will go in after they record a live record and they’ll re-sing everything. The band will come in and replay parts because they want it to sound perfect. But I didn’t want that. This record is exactly as it went down that night. I chose passion over perfection for this.”
Yearwood joins Clark on “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me.” Yearwood encouraged Clark that leaving the album as is was the right decision.
“I talked to Trisha about it one night and told them that I was really leaning towards just keeping it really raw and authentic and just the way it was that night,” Clark recalls. “Trisha said, ‘I don’t sound perfect on it either, but it’s live. And that’s the whole purpose. And I think we’re just losing so much of that authenticity these days.’”