Lauren Alaina Opens up About Her Friendship With Trisha Yearwood: 'I’m Saved in Her Phone as Junior'
Lauren Alaina grew up in Georgia as a fan of Trisha Yearwood, and now, she can officially call her [...]
Lauren Alaina grew up in Georgia as a fan of Trisha Yearwood, and now, she can officially call her a friend. "I absolutely adore her. I look up to her so much," Alaina told Fox News. "She calls me Trisha Junior – I'm in her phone as Junior and it's one of my finest accomplishments to date. So I'm very proud of that."
"She's just really funny and really outgoing and she's such a beautiful person inside and out," Alaina continued, adding that Yearwood's voice "was one of the most influential voices in [my] career by far." "I grew up listening to her sing on the radio, and she taught me how to sing," the 25-year-old said of her childhood in Rossville, Georgia. "She's one of those voices that really shaped my voice."
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Earlier this year, Alaina appeared on Yearwood's Food Network show, Trisha's Southern Kitchen, where they performed an impromptu duet of Alaina's song "Getting Good."
"We did a cooking show together and we had a blast," Alaina recalled. "And she sang 'Getting Good' to me in her kitchen and then said if I ever wanted to do a song with her to let her know." Noting that a "closed mouth doesn't get fed," Alaina didn't let the offer go to waste.
"A few weeks later, I worked up the nerve to call her and asked her if she wanted to do a version of 'Getting Good' and she said yes. And that was literally the whole story — it was very natural, the way the whole thing happened," she recalled. "I even got the idea because she sang my own song to me. And I was thinking to myself, 'I've literally sung your songs my entire life, to hear you sing mine is breathtaking.'"
Alaina also mentioned Yearwood's husband, Garth Brooks, joking that since he has removed himself from future Entertainer of the Year consideration at the CMA Awards, he should be able to nominate someone to take his place.
"Also, Miss Trisha Yearwood – that's what he calls her – she told me that Garth is going around the living room singing my song, so can he nominate people for Entertainer of the Year?" she laughed. "Because that would be really great. He likes my song; can he submit who takes his place in that?"