John Shearer/ACMA2018/Getty Images for ACMAnd fancy was her name!
Reba McEntire is turning 64 years old today and we really can't believe it. The iconic country star is a music legend like that of Dolly Parton and we can't get enough of her and her songs. From "Fancy" and "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" to "Going Out Like That" and her latest single "Storm in a Shot Glass" fans have been treated to decades of hits and fun songs from the artist.
While we could talk about her music for days, we've decided instead to focus on her wonderful friendship with Kelly Clarkson. In 2002, the two met when Clarkson asked McEntire to sing with her during the American Idol finale and more than a decade later the two are still close.
In fact in 2013, the two became family when The Voice coach married McEntire's stepson Brandon Blackstock. Even though the redheaded singer divorced her longtime manager and husband Narvel Blackstock (Brandon's father) in 2015, McEntire and Clarkson have remained thick as thieves.
Over the years they've toured together, recorded music videos with one another and taken the stage to perform alongside each other numerous times. 17 years after they first met they remain as close as ever, consider one another family for life and are set on being friends forever.
In 2018, Clarkson honored her mother-in-law at the Kennedy Center Honors proving that they are still very close and have a lot of love for each other. Plus, they have a crazy amount of admiration for the each other's successful careers, even teaming back up for McEntire's song "Softly and Tenderly" in 2017.
To honor McEntire on her 64th birthday, we've rounded up all of the sweetest moments between these two old friends and family members to bring a smile to your face. Read on to see exactly what it's like to be a part of McEntire's family, how amazing she thinks Clarkson is as an artist and how much the two really love one another.
Happy birthday, Reba!
Cheers to more music and collaborations with Clarkson and even more artists for years to come.
Over the years Reba McEntire and Kelly Clarkson have collaborated on numerous songs including, "Because of You," and "Does He Love You" in addition to actually touring with one another on the for the 2008 2 Worlds 2 Voices Tour and it was iconic.
"I've been a fan of Reba since I was a little girl. Her voice has always felt nostalgic for me. Even as an adult, there's something about her tone and her storytelling that just feels like home," Clarkson said at the 2018 Kennedy Center Honors before performing one of McEntire's iconic songs.
"Sometimes when we meet our heroes, it doesn't always pan out how you hope. But meeting Reba—being friends with her, and eventually becoming family—has been one of the highlights of my life, truly," she continued. "So thank you so much for listening to me vent as an artist. Thank you so much for comforting me on the phone through my tears, like a friend. And thank you for being a really rad grandma for my kids. I love you so much."
"We have performed together many, many times. In 2008, we went on tour together—had a blast—toured Canada and the United States, and I'd love to do that anytime she wants to do that again, so getting back on stage with her is going to be a blast because she sings her butt off and she's cute as a button," McEntire told People ahead of her ACM Flashbacks performance with Clarkson in 2018.
"When she opens her mouth to sing, it's just like, ‘What is she gonna do next?' because she's got the range. I'm in awe every time she sings," she continued. "I think I'm her biggest fan! Maybe Brandon [Blackstock] is, but I don't know."
"She's kind of exactly what you see is what you get. That's what cool about her. Sometimes we meet our heroes an you know they kind of fail you a bit, and maybe that's our fault for putting them up where we put them, but she did not do that," Clarkson explained about her former mother-in-law on the 2018 Kennedy Center Honors red carpet. "She went above and beyond. She's just a really cool, normal sweetheart. She's always out to help others, to push others, to elevate others. She's just a really, really good human."
"I don't know what to compare it to. It is just magical…sweet. It's like, if you put all the ingredients in to bake this magical cake and it worked out everybody liked it," McEntire said of combining Clarkson and Trisha Yearwood's voices on her song "Softly and Tenderly" in 2017 to Rare Country. "I don't think that even holds a candle to the description of how much fun it is to sing with those two girls."
When it comes her longtime friend, Clarkson says nothing's off limits as proven by her Watch What Happens Live! speed round of questions in 2015. For example, according to the singer, McEntire is "amazing," when she's tipsy and usually drinks "Wild Turkey or some kind of whiskey. She's fun."
When it comes to the best thing about being family with her idol Clarkson said, "Well, she's just one of my heroes. So, it was the ultimate fan dream."
"When I was at the ACMs nine years ago, I yelled across the crowded backstage to Reba, 'I want to be you when I grow up!'" Clarkson told the crowd at the ACMs in 2015. "That day, I would become friends with this legendary woman, but in the most crazy twist of fate, she would become my family."
"So basically what I'm saying here, people, is that I have the coolest mother-in-law and you all can suck it," she added.
"I'm very proud of her," McEntire told Entertainment Tonight about her daughter-in-law in 2015. "She's a girl with a big heart. Very giving, loving, and talented. Everybody knows she's talented but sometimes they don't see that big-hearted loving person that she really is. And I'm so happy for her, I've never seen her happier than she is right now."
"I think it's going to be pretty neat. We've been buddies for years," McEntire told Katie Couric in 2013 about Clarkson becoming her daughter-in-law. "The first time a met Kelly was in 2002 when she asked me to sing with her at the finale of American Idol. Then we toured together. We've been on vacations all around the world together. So, she was just a part of the family." She continued saying, "I'm thrilled to death. To have my buddy as my daughter in law, I mean, who could ask for more."
"It's really the storyteller aspect. Even today, listening to 'Because of You,' a song I wrote when I was a kid, it's very close to me and I don't really like other people singing it. But when she does it, it totally amazes me. It's way better than I told it. And it's my story. Listening to her is amazing," Clarkson revealed about McEntire's influence on her before the two collaborated for a CMT Crossroads episode in 2007. "She's got this whole aspect of being a storyteller that I don't think a lot of singers have—and, honestly, a lot of professionalism. I'm very much a rookie. I get really nervous about talking. Singing, I'm fine, but talking, I'm not so fine. I learned a lot of that from her, too, just by watching her."
In 2007, Clarkson teamed up with McEntire for a very different project...appearing on her TV show Reba. She played Kelly, an intern at Barbra Jean's (Melissa Peterman) news station, and it was hilarious. In 2015, the "Meaning of Life" singer revealed that she still watches the show in rerun form and so do we Kelly, so do we!