At the Nashville listening party for her new country album, Do You Know, on Thursday night, Jessica was just a bit nervous.
“I’m a little nervous,” said Simpson to a crowd of nearly 200 record industry folks at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. “If I throw up, I’m sorry.”
Brushing her blonde hair from her face, she continued: “Thank you so much for coming and for giving me a chance. I hope you get to experience what my heart’s been going through the last few years.”
Backed by a band of three acoustic guitars, a bongo player and a barefoot fiddler, Simpson introduced each song with an emotional story of her own experiences with abusive relationships, true love and healing.
Leading into “Remember That,” Simpson urged women “in that [abusive] situation to take their hearts and run.”
She later smiled tearfully to her preacher dad Joe Simpson and mom Tina in the audience while explaining that “Pray Out Loud” is a song about faith and family.
And before the bittersweet song, “Sippin’ on History,” Simpson said, “It’s about a relationship in my life that could have been a fairy tale, but wasn’t.”
Simpson got warm applause after each song. But she seemed most proud of something else entirely.
“I didn’t throw up!” Simpson exclaimed at the end of her set.
Before leaving the stage to schmooze and mingle, Simpson reminded everyone that the album’s release date is September 9.
“That’s lucky number nine!” she said as a shout-out to her quarterback boyfriend, Tony Romo – whom Simpson called the “love of my life” in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE – who wears 9 on his Dallas Cowboys jersey.
Simpson makes her Grand Ole Opry debut Saturday night with Loretta Lynn and Patty Loveless, to be televised live on GAC at 9 p.m. EST.
Source: People.com
September 7th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
What a terrible performance on the Grand Ole Opry by Jessica Simpson last night. What`s worse is the fact that she was even invited. What once was a great musical institute of elite country artists who`ve paid their dues to perform there has been reduced to nothing more than an attraction for amateurs and bar bands thanks to poor management striving to cater to the younger fans.