Trisha Yearwood took home the inaugural June Carter Cash Humanitarian Award, at the recent CMT Music Awards. Given for her philanthropy and generosity, Yearwood credits her decision to always give back to her parents, Jack and Gwendolyn Yearwood, who instilled in her from an early age the importance of kindness towards others.
“I was raised by really great parents,” Yearwood told Fox News. “My mom and dad, who are both passed on, but they’re still with me … It’s family. It’s about how you’re raised.”
“I always say, ‘I don’t always do the right thing, but I know what the right thing is because of how I was raised,'” she added. “It’s them; it’s my family.”
Ahead of the ceremony, Yearwood also credited her parents, who she had no doubt were with her as she received the honor.
“I think about my parents, who have both passed, they feel so much with me … They loved Johnny and June,” Yearwood told CMT. “So I feel like, when I’m up there, I’ll be thinking about them, and the fact that they are sitting on my shoulder saying, ‘This is so cool. We’re so proud of you.'”
By her own admission, the 59-year-old had trouble coming to terms with the fact that she was being honored for something much more important than her music.
“I was, and still am, overwhelmed,” she admitted. “I think when you’re up for an award like Female Vocalist, and everybody votes, whoever wins, that’s one thing. But to have an award like this, and this is the first time they’re giving it, the name June Carter Cash, I was lucky enough that I knew her, a little bit. To be in the same sentence as her — you never feel on something like this that you earn it, so it’s a little awkward… but at least you know it’s coming, so you have a chance to think about it. I’m just honored, and it makes it feel like more of a challenge, to be more like her than what I’ve done, so I’m honored.”
The CMT Music Awards were monumental for more than just receiving the June Carter Cash Humanitarian Award. The Grand Ole Opry member also debuted her own song, appropriately called “Put It In A Song,” which she co-wrote for an upcoming new record.
“I started writing a lot in the last couple of, about a year and a half, and I had no intention of playing it for anybody,” Yearwood revealed. “It was just something I was doing for myself, because I’m really not known for that. I’ve written some, but I’m mostly known for finding other people’s songs and recording them, and making them my own. So it was really an exercise for me. I just really loved it. And then I got encouraged by people like my husband [Garth Brooks], who were like, ‘These are good songs. You should think about releasing them.’
“I’m gonna do an album of these songs later, but I wasn’t quite ready,” she continued. “CMT came calling, and said, ‘We’d like you to perform.’ I thought this is the time to start telling the story. This song is about the power of music It’s a good place to start.”
From the beginning, Brooks encouraged his wife to release some of the songs she was writing.
“I just kind of had a big epiphany.,” Yearwood told Everything Nash. “I’ve written some over the years, but very little, and I was very self-conscious. I kind of had a big aha moment. And I just started writing. I did it for me. I wasn’t doing this to show anybody.”
“I come home and play a song for Garth, and he would cry, and he was like, ‘This is a good song. You need to keep dong this,’” she shared.. “So I just have been doing a lot of writing. I’m getting quite a collection, and I’m thinking that I might put them out.”
A title or release date for Yearwood’s new album has yet to be announced. Keep track of updates at TrishaYearwood.com.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Getty Images for CMT
