How losing a competition in Calgary propelled Terri Clark to country music stardom
Clark says Order of Canada honour would have meant so much to her late mother
Country music star Terri Clark is one of the newest inductees to the Order of Canada, an honour she knows would mean the world to her late mother, Linda Clark.
“My mom instilled in us and instilled in me a sense of our Canadian pride and to never, ever forget where I came from, who I am,” Terri told The Current’s Matt Galloway.
“That's why I said, ‘This one's for her,’ because it meant so much to her.” Linda died in 2010.
Clark grew up in Medicine Hat, Alta., but has lived and worked in Nashville for decades. She is already a member of the Grand Ole Opry and the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, but says she cried when she got the call about the Order of Canada.
“My mom back in the day would say, ‘The pinnacle for you — and for me — would be if you ever got the Order of Canada,’ … I never imagined that I would actually be appointed.”
Clark spoke to Galloway about how her mom helped her pursue her dreams in Nashville, and never let her forget about her Canadian roots. Here is part of their conversation.
These dreams start when you're young, right? You've spoken before about your mom taking you to talent shows, the guitar in the back trunk. It's like she was a hockey mom … what were you dreaming about back then?
I had big dreams, and she would take me to talent competitions around Medicine Hat. And a lot of them took place in bars, and I was underage, and I wasn't allowed to actually go through the front door. So I had to wait in the alley, come through the backstage door … and do my song, and then go wait in the alley to see if I won or not. And I wound up in a national contest, and it was in Calgary at the Jubilee. And I was the youngest contestant in that one, and my mom and I were waiting sidestage after everybody had told us — in soundcheck and all the band members and other contestants were telling me I was going to walk away with it, gonna win it. And they started to announce the winners from third place on down. And I didn't place. I didn't win, and was absolutely heartbroken. We cried in the car all the way back to Medicine Hat, and I was just like, "Man, I guess ... do I really have it or not?" And my mom said, "I'm going to take you to Nashville."
And this is an interesting story, because ten years later, I was at the [Canadian Country Music Awards] and I was nominated for a bunch of awards because I had gotten a record deal and I'd had a couple of hits. And Tom Tompkins, who was the chairman of the CCMA, came up to me at the after party and he said, "I need to share a story with you … ten years ago, you were in a national contest in Calgary. I wanted to tell you I was a judge in that room. And you did technically win that." And I said, "What do you mean?" And he said, "We had to disqualify you because of your age, it was a Budweiser-sponsored event."
And if my mom hadn't been ruffled enough and me heartbroken enough to say, “We're just going to take you to Nashville … roll the dice there. Go for the big brass ring.” If I won that thing, I don't know what would have happened. My whole trajectory could have changed.
Can I ask you about going to Nashville? I mean, the story is that you rolled across the border, your guitar in the back seat or in the truck or something, and you told the border guard that you're going to go shopping, and then you're going to go to the Grand Ole Opry?
Yeah, well…
Don't try this at home!
Don't try this at home. We had no intention of me coming back. My mom had about a week to get me settled in Nashville, with some sort of a cash-paying job. I had no idea what that was going to be, because I didn't have a green card or an immigration status at that time. And she had about a week because my little brother was five years old, she had to get back to Medicine Hat. So in a mad dash, you know, we looked for a place for me to live … we wound up in Tootsie's Orchid Lounge and there was a guy sitting on a stool singing. And so my mom and her friend coax me into getting up and starting to sing. And I took his guitar. And hours later they offered me a job playing for tips at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, because the place filled up, [and] so did his tip jar.
Lower Broadway in Nashville was a dangerous place at the time. So I was forced to take the daytime shift because it wouldn't have been safe for me to be down there, an 18-year-old girl playing Lower Broadway in 1987, in the dark. Didn't have a car, so I took a city bus down there. That was my beginning in Nashville. My mom went back home and there were some really rough, lonely, scary times back in the beginning. But I wouldn't trade that experience for anything.
But you believed in yourself. Like, you bet on yourself, right?
You have to, you know, if you don't believe in yourself, who else is going to believe in you? Like, you have to be your first and foremost number one believer and have faith that God and the universe is going to take care of you and lead you in the right direction. And even if you hit roadblocks, find a way around it. My entire career, every time I think that a door closes or some portion of my career is over, I get another opportunity to do something really cool or something like the Order of Canada happens, and I'm like, “Oh my gosh.”
Can I ask you about being Canadian? I mean, you've had this huge career in the United States, but like literally on your shoulder is the maple leaf tattooed on your arm. What does it mean right now? These are weird times, right? It's tricky between our two countries, and there's a lot of tension and more. What does it mean for you to be Canadian right now?
Well, all I can speak for is myself. Being Canadian is a huge part of my identity, always has been.
Since my career first broke, about five years after that, I was able to afford to buy a second home back in Canada. So for the last 20 years, I've had a part-time residence back home in Canada, and now it's in southern Ontario. And I drive up there from Nashville every summer and I can go back and forth and it's my favourite place to be on the planet. I love being around fellow Canadians. I love being there … it's just full circle.
Being Canadian to me is being strong and assertive and determined, yet polite, kind, humble. I was raised to be proud of who I am and where I'm from.
Audio produced by Julie Crysler. Q&A edited for length and clarity