As a millennial raised on country music, I may not be able to remember what I have thawing in the fridge on any given day, but I recall every lyric to every song by The Chicks, Faith Hill, Shania Twain, Sara Evans, and Jo Dee Messina. In fact, there probably hasn’t been more than a week of my life that has gone by without hearing Messina’s music, whether I’m jamming to “My Give A Damn’s Busted” in the car or humming along with “I’m Alright” over a sink full of soapy water and dishes.
On Friday, June 5, Messina is releasing Bridges, her first new album in more than 10 years. This past decade, she has dedicated herself fully to motherhood, raising her teen sons Noah and Jonah, now 17 and 14. As the album’s first three singles — “Some Bridges,” “Can Anybody,” and “Don’t Let Them Hide Your Beautiful” — rack up air time on country radio and streaming platform saves, Scary Mommy caught up with Messina from her tour bus ahead of the release of Bridges to ask about all of it.
Scary Mommy: Let’s catch up! We’ve missed you and your music, and I want to hear what life has looked like for you these past 10 years.
Jo Dee Messina: Well, I have been a single mom for most of those 10 years, so my focus was on raising my kids and touring — that was my source of income, just kind of touring off the hits. Then I started to write more, and people were encouraging me like, “Oh man, you should record this.” I was like, “Well, I don’t really have a record deal and I don’t know that I want to go back into that because you give up a lot with a record label.” Then people were like, “Well, things have changed so much in music. You can make your own record.”
I started to educate myself in that and started writing more, and then finally got enough songs together where one of my buddies that I was writing with, he’s a producer and he was like, “Man, let me help you put an album together.” His name is David Spencer; he ended up producing the record.
SM: You have two teenage sons. How does writing, touring, and recording fit into your life as a single mom? How do you juggle those roles?
JDM: There was no juggling until this coming year with the release of the new record. Because their entire lives, my touring worked around their school schedule. I drop them off every day; I pick them up every day. I’m at all the school functions. I volunteer at the school. I was talking to a new artist recently and they have three kids, and I was like, “Just remember, there is nothing worth giving up time with your kids.”
They’ve been on the road with me their entire lives. The way we scheduled it was so they wouldn’t miss a lot of school. When it hit the summer, we’d be out touring, touring, touring, going from city to city. When they were little, I remember pulling into cities and we’d see a playground close to the venue, and I’d be like, “Yes, we have a place to take them!” I think I’m still a member of the Lincoln Memorial Library in Springfield, Illinois, because my son was studying Abraham Lincoln when we played there, so we went to go see the museum.
Now that they’re older, I get to work a little bit more during the school year, but not much. It’s still very focused around their school schedules. When I’m at home and I’m songwriting, everybody knows 9:00 to 2:00, because I drop my son off and I have to pick him up. So those are my work hours, and then I go back to being a mom.
We’ve had discussions at the house where I’m like, “OK, it’s time. You’ve never seen me in this type of work cycle,” at least not since they were 4 and 7. We had to sit down as a family and say, “OK, this is what life’s going to look like, and it’s going to be a little different.”
SM: What makes you feel ready to return to music now? Is it that your boys are more independent?
JDM: There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes as far as putting a record together, which I’m able to do when they’re at school, and now I’m able to focus on that. They have their own focuses. They’re off with their friends a lot, and so I’m like, OK, well, I could be doing this or I could be doing that. I have a little bit more freedom the more independent that they get.
Scary Mommy: To me, you stood out from your fellow ‘90s country icons because your music was honest and a little irreverent. Where does that spirit come from?
JDM: It’s a wounded part, actually. It’s one of those wounds that we have about being hurt by people that are dishonest or that take advantage of you or mistreat you. I’d like to give you some noble answer, but it’s really just barking back.
It’s like “Some Bridges.” I showed up at a service for a friend of mine who’s going through cancer right now with all these people I had met 15 years ago, and those bridges are still there, that love is still there. It’s like, “Hey, if you ever need anything… Oh, I heard you were doing this… Let me help…” But there are situations where you’re broken, whether it’s abuse or addiction or job situations where it sucks the life out of you, those bridges that you can burn. You can forgive from the other side of the bridge, but if it leads to an abusive or a bad situation, you don’t have to go back.
SM: How does this new album fit into your legacy so far? What can listeners expect?
JDM: That’s a good question. I don’t know that I was conscious of that when I was creating this record. I was just writing things that I was going through or things that I had experienced. “Some bridges are meant to build, some bridges are meant to burn.” “My give a damn’s busted.” “Bye-bye.” There’s still that little feistiness, but there’s a lot of perspective too.
“Message in a Bottle,” I don’t know that I would’ve had the guts to say what that song says back in my earlier days. “Where the Cowboys Ride,” I didn’t have that perspective either. Musically, it’s got that grit and that drive, but it does have a lot more in just overall life perspective at this point.
SM: I want to play a little game — if you love this Jo Dee Messina hit, this Bridges track will be your favorite.
JDM: Oh my gosh, that’s so good.
SM: Let’s start with “Lesson in Leavin’.”
JDM: “Some Bridges” is going to be a lot of these, I bet, and I would say “Lesson in Leavin’” is probably “Some Bridges.” You’re going to say “Bye Bye” and “My Give A Damn’s Busted,” and I’m going to say “Some Bridges.”
SM: “Bring on the Rain”?
JDM: “Can Anybody.”
SM: “Stand Beside Me”?
JDM: “If He Knew Jesus.”
Bridges drops Friday, June 5, wherever you stream your music. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.