Tabatha & Southern FRY’d Heat It Up While They Hank It Up!

They're featured in the February 6 issue of Country Weekly, on newsstands January 26. England adores them. And they're performing in the upcoming Love Offerings Benefit Concert. Tabatha & Southern FRY'd are attracting world recognition and taking care of their friends and fans at home.

The Love Offerings Benefit Concert is set for 1:30 p.m., Sunday, January 25, at the Mayfield High School Gym. It's primarily to benefit the volunteers who are searching for Jacob Scott and McKenzie Stanley, the young men from Mayfield missing since their tragic January 10 duck hunting accident.

Tabatha & Southern FRY'd will join the Darren Warren Band, Jace Hill (right), Better Way and Midlife Crisis to put on a great concert in honor of the boys. Food and drinks will be for sale, and donations are encouraged at the door.

We got to talk with Tabatha by phone the other day — and her voice is just as beautiful when speaks as when she sings. Here's how our conversation went:

Tabatha, first of all, you're just darling. So cute. Tell us how you got involved with the Love Offerings Benefit Concert.
My husband works with the father of Jacob Scott, one of the young men still missing. We have a blended family with five teenagers, and my husband knows how close Jacob and his father are. When we heard about the accident, it just hit us hard. These are such good boys. Everyone has ties to them and their families in some way.

When the Darren Warren Band (left) asked if we would care to help with this, I said most definitely. Everyone is coming together for the effort. People are out on the lake around the clock, taking time off from work to search for the boys. So the benefit is to help fund the search and also to help purchase sonar equipment in case, God forbid, this ever happens again.

Tabatha, it's fantastic that you all can help in this way. I hope you have a wonderful turnout on January 25.
Me, too.

On a lighter note, what's the scoop with Country Weekly magazine? Country Weekly is country music's answer to Rolling Stone, isn't it?
Yes, it is! You know, we're not signed with a major label. But the Country Weekly editor heard our CD and he called to say that he'd like to feature our song, "Hank It Up," in the "Listen Up" section. So we'll be in the February 9 issue, which hits the newsstands on January 26.

Were you so excited to get that call?
I was in shock. For us, this is huge. It's just one more step in helping us get our music out there and helping us get attention. First our CD was on the jukebox at Kountry Kastle and now this!

Hah! I'll have to play you next time I go in for pepper poppers!
Please do!

Tabatha, word on the street is that you bought a Crystal Gayle album for 75 cents at a yard sale, and that launched your career.
Well, I guess that's probably right!

How old were you?
I was 9.

And you bought the record?
I bought the record and played it over and over and memorized all the words to her songs.

I'm the oldest of five girls, so I always had kids to play with, but that's just where I spent my time. Even as young as 2 or 3, I was always singing along to every song I heard. I used to fall asleep with my ear to the speaker and wake up with an imprint on my face.

I absolutely loved music. And that Crystal Gayle record was the only one I owned.

She had that long hair and she used to sing, "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue?"
Yes! That's the very first song I ever sang on stage. It was at the Lyon County High School Talent show. I was 13.

Did you win?
No, no. It didn't matter, though. I had the bug.

Did you sing in church?
Yes, I sang in church, learned to play the piano in church and was always making up songs in church. That definitely had more of an influence than Crystal Gayle.

And in school?
Some in school. At Lyon County, we didn't have a choral department. But my 8th grade teacher put together a little chorus and we would sing at nursing homes and stuff. That's when my peers were, like, "Hey, she likes to sing." Otherwise, I was really quite under the radar. I blended in with the concrete wall.

Well, not anymore, sister! Whew! You look HOT!
I don’t know. Something just happened.

When did you decide to pursue music as a career?
I'd been in local bands off and on, and about four years ago, my husband said, "Our kids are getting older — just do it. You miss it." And I said, "Well, I can't just kinda do it."

And then it literally just happened without much of an effort. I put the band together in May 2005.

Tell us about your band.
The guys are great! We have Philip Pence as our bass player, David Brooks (right) as our drummer and Darren Dixon on lead guitar and lead vocals. They're from Nashville and are just phenomenal.

What do you play?
I play tambourine when they don't hide it from me. I know they do, but they say they don't.

Hah! And your CD, Avoid Heat and Flame, is awesome!
I spent a year on our CD, which has been a good calling card for us and helped us get attention in Nashville. I still have my day job with Paducah Dermatology, but it hasn't been hard to get shows — and we're starting to perform outside of Western Kentucky, too.

You're huge in England!
Yes, our song "Stubborn" went to No. 6 in August and it stayed on the charts for three months. We're going to release "Next Train" there in March. People still do line dancing there, and they love our music for that. So we're excited. We'd love the opportunity to go there to perform.

Do you consider yourself a country singer?
Southern country, southern rock. I chose the name Southern FRY'd to reflect that. Southern country, southern rock is overused — I wish I had a better way to describe us. But I could be doing "All Right Now" by Free and go right into Patsy Cline.

Tabatha, you're gorgeous! And you have a gorgeous voice! And there seem to be a lot of gorgeous singers out there these days. How do you make yourself stand out?
I just do music that I feel. I'm as real as it gets. I'm a mom, a wife, a sister, a friend, a 40-hour-a-week worker. I'm your everyday average person.

Um, Tabatha, everyday average person you are not.
I write songs I believe in. I know my songs need to relate to the people who are listening to them.

I'm just me. I don't think about a gimmick. I'm always friendly and happy. I don't try to be different. Maybe I just don't have those people telling me how I'm supposed to be. With me, when you come to a show, I'm just me.

How much of your music is based on your personal experience?
Every song on the CD I've related to in some way. Or it's related to someone very close to me.

I wrote two songs on my CD, and the last one is "Empty." It's about a woman I'd met for maybe 15 minutes. She was married for 34 years, but her husband drank every single day and died. She was beautiful, but she seemed so empty and mad that he was gone. And I thought, "The bottle's finally empty and so am I."

I've never been in that situation, but I have so much sympathy for her.

And with "Hank It Up," we're all responsible mothers. But sometimes we want to let loose and "Hank It Up."

Yeah we do!
And the guys in the band and I write funny songs, too. We started writing a song yesterday about Pure Country, where we often perform. When you're up on stage, it's like watching a movie. You see people from every walk of life. You see a guy in the corner playing air guitar. You see someone doing double shots at the end of the bar. So we started singing…

Editor's note: Tabatha starts singing the Pure Country song right into the phone, which was a total treat. Not quite at hot as when Mark Bryan of Hootie and the Blowfish sang into the phone two summers ago, but a delight nonetheless. OK, back to Tabatha:

The sun's going down on a Saturday night
The parking lot's parked with four-wheel drives
Row of Fat Boys lined down the side
Southern FRY'd on the neon sign
Now that's Pure Country….

And it's true! We had 600 people in there last night. That's a lot of people to be in a bar in Paducah. We're lucky to have so many places to perform.

Well, we're lucky to have you. So Tabatha. FIVE Children? Five TEENAGERS?
Yes, Jeff and I have been married for 16 years and we have a combined family. He had Allyson, 20, and Aaron, 15, and I have Justin, 20, Kevin, 19 and Taylor, 17.

We're a working family, and it takes all of us. The kids are so over my performing, though. They're like, it's just mom.

And Jeff? I know men must be sending you drinks on stage all the time and checking you out. How does he handle it?
He is so not jealous. Nothing gets a rise out of him. I do get drinks sent to the stage. The band loves it because they get whatever I don't drink!

And the guys in the band get it, too. They're so charismatic on stage. That's our job — to connect. I have a lot of banter with the crowd. I can be singing "Hurts So Good," and then when I sing, "With a guy like you," I can point to a cute guy or a not-so-cute guy, and you'll see they get a little giddy up in their step!

So we just have fun and connect with people, and we just love it.

And you wear cute outfits on stage?
I try to. I'll wear jeans and a cute top or with a jacket and a bunch of necklaces. Sometimes I'll wear my hair straight, other times curled or pulled up. And then sometimes I just want to put on an old Hank Jr. T-shirt from 1989. It varies. In fact, I'm thinking about doing a makeover.

Noooo! Don't make over anything! You're perfect the way you are! Southern rock on, MzTabatha!

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